The Armour Archive

Well, I haven't gotten much in way of a good response on the chainmaille board, so I'll post here too:

Does the term "right-handed coils" come from the fact that they are sometimes wound on a rod from the right to the left? Or does the name come from the fact that sometimes you wind them from the left side of the dowel to the right? That's what I'm asking Thanks.

I know some are a pain to work with - I don't care.
I know that left and right handed links can be a pain - I don't care.
I know that some people who are ambidexterous can wind wire and pick their nose at the same time - I don't care.

I don't use the term myself, but I believe a "right-handed" coil is the coil you will end up with if you do things the way I do them - I have the drill facing *left* (So that I control throttle in my right hand) and the drill in "forward". End result, the top of the bar spins *away* from me, pulling wire with it, and making a coil.

A left-handed coil would result if you either put the drill to the left (facing right) or put it in reverse while winding.

Someone once asked me why it was that I controlled the speed with my right hand and used my left to guide the wire. It doesn't make sense - Use the more dextrous hand to simply hold down a button?

I've found that a) holding the end of the drill up gets tiring after the 20th 3' coil you're making, and 2) if the wire is to slip, I'd rather fuck up my left hand rather than my right.

I need a way to coil my links faster, or find a cheap, used spring-making machine. A big old American-made one

------------------
~AG
Utopia Armoury - Your one stop shoppe for all your maille needs!
Champion of Arland the Bastard
Weilder of the Rusty Spork of Doom!

<I>I know some are a pain to work with - I don't care.
I know that left and right handed links can be a pain - I don't care.
I know that some people who are ambidexterous can wind wire and pick their nose at the same time - I don't care.</I>

Durn you PoD! I wanted to foment another religious war, and you stopped me at the pass. I'll get you for this!

Sadly, I have no coherent useful response to the question you pose. I'll just go back to the shop and brood now



------------------
Steve Belden
The Hammered Wombat
armourer@hammeredwombat.com

i think it's because right handed people (who wind their springs by hand) tend to do it the opposite direction of lefties.. I do it the lefty way and i'm right handed.. i don't know..

--Dru

Dru,

Can you explain? Which way is your drill facing, and is it in forward or reverse?

------------------
~AG
Utopia Armoury - Your one stop shoppe for all your maille needs!
Champion of Arland the Bastard
Weilder of the Rusty Spork of Doom!

[This message has been edited by Armour Guy (edited 02-02-2001).]

AG,
It also matters which way the coil progresses. With the drill in any position and turning in any direction, the coil will turn out left or right depending on which way along the mandrel you go from your starting point. Ie: what POD asked. So both of you have half and answer/question.

As to the left/right handedness of a coil, I would GUESS it is similar to a screw thread. If a threaded fastener tightens in a clockwise direction when you look at the end you are turning, it is right handed. So for a coil, could you screw a standard (right-hand) bolt into it? If so, I would call that right-handed.

Blaeney
Royal Engineer to His Highness Gui von Oberhausen, Prince of Lochac.

(hehehe "Trust me, I'm a ROYAL engineer" ROFL )

Left and right handed coils refer to the rotation of the wire down the coil. Look at a coil from the end. It either goes around and down to the right. Or around and down to the left. Get it? It only matters when you cut your rings. And how you weave. Some people coil their rings left handed and open them all the way across to a right handed ring. Hmmm. Maybe this will work. Looking down at the cut ring:
<HR>
One way:

===>.....
....<====

The other

.....<====
====>.....

Hope that works. Sorry for the periods. Ignore them.

[This message has been edited by Frederick The Heavy (edited 02-03-2001).]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>
I've found that a) holding the end of the drill up gets tiring after the 20th 3' coil you're making, and 2) if the wire is to slip, I'd rather fuck up my left hand rather than my right.

I need a way to coil my links faster, or find a cheap, used spring-making machine. A big old American-made one

[/B]<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Pictures are on the way to PoD
via us mail.

He's gonna post them for us.

Easy,

I had rings wound by a lefty once and they were opposite from the way I do mine.

I wind with a drill screwing on the left side (no puns intended) holding the wire with my right hand.

=====>

This is a pic of what I consider a left handed ring [img]http://www.chainmaille.prohosting.com/codewar/images/newring.gif[/img]

A right handed ring has it's left tip lower than it's right one. They're easier to assemble when manipulated with the right hand and require no torsion of the wrist.


------------------
Computerize
Materialize

Computer eyes
Material lies

I find that AG's way of winding coils is the easiest way for me to assemble the maille but that might just be the fact that he spun almost all the rings I've ever worked with.

[This message has been edited by Galen (edited 02-03-2001).]

odd... I use AG's method to get rings like that shown above. I consider that right handed, like a screw. Either way you call it, pick one and get used to it. I use these. Tens of thousands of rings can't be wrong.

Armour Guy

I took some scrap wood (actually, my wife's best cutting board after I left it in the oven) and drilled a hole slightly larger than the bar-stock I am winding on. Presto - Mandril! Helps prevent left-hand fatigue - just run the bar through the hole, rest board on bench, wind away! No huhu. Just don't tell your wife I said you could drill her cutting board...

------------------
De gustibus non disputandam est

I think SteelWeaver's explanation is best. Right hand coils produce rings which are easier to weave with your right hand, while left handed coils are easier to weave with the left. His photo is of a ring cut from a "left-handed coil."

Looking at a coil from the end can tell the difference, as has already been noted.

Historically, mail is made and overlapped with a right hand coil. This is not surprising since about 85% of the population is right handed.

[This message has been edited by Ernst (edited 02-04-2001).]

Right-handed or left-handed simply means what direction the coil was wound around the mandrel. Think of screw threads - some are right handed, but others, like gas, are left handed.

Most authentic maille rings are wound right-handed, which makes sense for hand-wound rings since most people are as well.

Steve

------------------
Forth Armoury
The Riveted Maille Website!

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Steve -SoFC-:
<B>Right-handed or left-handed simply means what direction the coil was wound around the mandrel. Think of screw threads - some are right handed, but others, like gas, are left handed.

Most authentic maille rings are wound right-handed, which makes sense for hand-wound rings since most people are as well.

Steve

</B><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

You're probably right, with a hand crank they would've been instinctively been wound what I call "leftie". But as "rightie" rings are easier to manipulate, maybe they would've spun their right handed cranks backwards to yield these rings. Period illuminations could help us with that.


Anyway we seem to stick to the type of ring we first use. For those of you who use "leftie" rings how fast can you weave?

With "rightie" rings I weave at least 600 finished assembled rings/hour. Those of you who pre-close rings, you should count that time too in the assembling time. With leftie rings.. I shudder just to think about it.

I also find "rightie" rings easier to cut with right handed sinps (non-green ones).

A couple of hundred thousands (more than 20 haubergeons and as many coifs) of rings can't be wrong.



------------------
Computerize
Materialize

Computer eyes
Material lies