Hello all. I am new to armouring and have done some research on the subject. Although eventually I intend on getting into "harder" armours I have settled on Chain to begin with.
I bought the tools necessary to try it out and went to my local Canadian Tire for a small amount of (very expensive) galvanized wire to try my hand at. Enjoying it I figured I would look for a supplier that sells in large spools in my area.
I can't find any.
All I can find is merchant wire and stainless steel. I don't want the former as it rusts too easily and the latter is fairly expensive but not too expensive.
So, after my long-winded wind-up, here's the question. What is the real difference between stainless steel and galvanized on mail-making?
Mestoph
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If you don't give in to your inner child at least once in a while then sooner or later it will come up and kick you in the shins.
Galvanized vs. Stainless?
Unless I am mistaken, Galvanized is made with nickel, and then treated in some way. I know welders who deal with it say that it is very toxic when being cut or grinded - something about the surface powder causing cancer when inhaled (like a miner's disease like black lung or something.) Stainless, I thought, was made with more carbon and some other stuff too. Not sure about that though.
http://members.home.net/ironband/material.html has a good discussion on link materials.
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Voevod Sir Rurik Levushka Ulyanov
http://members.home.net/ironband/material.html has a good discussion on link materials.
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Voevod Sir Rurik Levushka Ulyanov
Galvanized just means it's mild steel coated with zinc, to protect against corrosion. It is nasty when burned, but not when cut.
Try looking for galvanized fencing wire. You can get in 14 ga. (which works very nicely with a 3/8" inner diameter) in 1/4 mile spools for dirt cheap.
Seek, and ye shall find!
Jim
Try looking for galvanized fencing wire. You can get in 14 ga. (which works very nicely with a 3/8" inner diameter) in 1/4 mile spools for dirt cheap.
Seek, and ye shall find!
Jim
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Wulfgar Ullicsson
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Well, you live in Ontario... Mad Matt will probably hook you up with a supplier. Galvanized is good.... especially while you're working with it, no rust from your sweaty, greasy hands. S.S.... drawback: F%$king expensive.
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<I><B>"Wulfgar spake, the Wendles' chieftain,
whose might of mind to many was known..."</I></B>
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<I><B>"Wulfgar spake, the Wendles' chieftain,
whose might of mind to many was known..."</I></B>
Whew!
Just found someone in town who can supply galvanized in 50lb coils, and for a good price even! [img]http://www.armourarchive.com/ubb/wink.gif[/img]
My question still remains, though. Galvanized has the zinc coating to prevent rusting, but what about stainless? Does it resist rust better? There has to be a reason why it costs so much more than galvanized...
Rurik: Very nice link. Unfortunately it had no info on stainless yet [img]http://www.armourarchive.com/ubb/frown.gif[/img]
JGraham: I probably should have been asking for that. Everywhere I called asked what it was for (to help direct me to someone who stocked it) but all I could say was "Typically I have no clue"
Wulfgar: Why is SS so much more expensive, though?
Thanks for the responses, all. It's greatly appreciated
Mestoph
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If you don't give in to your inner child at least once in a while then sooner or later it will come up and kick you in the shins.
Just found someone in town who can supply galvanized in 50lb coils, and for a good price even! [img]http://www.armourarchive.com/ubb/wink.gif[/img]
My question still remains, though. Galvanized has the zinc coating to prevent rusting, but what about stainless? Does it resist rust better? There has to be a reason why it costs so much more than galvanized...
Rurik: Very nice link. Unfortunately it had no info on stainless yet [img]http://www.armourarchive.com/ubb/frown.gif[/img]
JGraham: I probably should have been asking for that. Everywhere I called asked what it was for (to help direct me to someone who stocked it) but all I could say was "Typically I have no clue"
Wulfgar: Why is SS so much more expensive, though?
Thanks for the responses, all. It's greatly appreciated
Mestoph
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If you don't give in to your inner child at least once in a while then sooner or later it will come up and kick you in the shins.
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Brandr hinn Rusli
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- Joined: Thu Aug 10, 2000 1:01 am
- Location: Ontario, Canada
Here is the major difference.
Galvanized is a mild steel wire. (Mild steel has no alloys in it to help with rust resistance). Which is then coated with zinc, by electroplating or dipping it into molten zinc.
Stainless Steel is steel that while it is being smelted (In a liquidish state) has chromium and other metals added to it to create an alloy of steel, which has rust resistance. It also behaves differently in that is usually has a higher tensile strength (more force to snap it) and more resistance to deformation (harder to bend).
As for sources. Check out your local feed mill or co-op store. Ask for Electric Fence wire. It is usually galvanized or they also stock stainless.
As for the $$$ of stainless. Its due to the expense of the alloys that are added to it and that its more difficult to make and the rust resistance is throughout the metal not just a coating on the mild steel.
Galvanized is a mild steel wire. (Mild steel has no alloys in it to help with rust resistance). Which is then coated with zinc, by electroplating or dipping it into molten zinc.
Stainless Steel is steel that while it is being smelted (In a liquidish state) has chromium and other metals added to it to create an alloy of steel, which has rust resistance. It also behaves differently in that is usually has a higher tensile strength (more force to snap it) and more resistance to deformation (harder to bend).
As for sources. Check out your local feed mill or co-op store. Ask for Electric Fence wire. It is usually galvanized or they also stock stainless.
As for the $$$ of stainless. Its due to the expense of the alloys that are added to it and that its more difficult to make and the rust resistance is throughout the metal not just a coating on the mild steel.
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Steve S.
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http://www.parawire.com
Check out this link for the health hazzards associated with metal vapors:
http://www.arador.com/articles/galv.html
Zinc coating works in two ways. First it is a barrier coating. This means it stops oxidation (rust) of the base metal by preventing oxygen from reaching it. Secondly, it is a sacrificial annode. This means that even when some of the zinc gets worn away, exposing the steel underneath, the zinc will corrode before the steel does. However, once the zinc is gone, you are left with plain old mild steel wire, which will rust.
Short story: galvanzied wire will not be rust-resistant forever. Stainless wire will.
Steve
Check out this link for the health hazzards associated with metal vapors:
http://www.arador.com/articles/galv.html
Zinc coating works in two ways. First it is a barrier coating. This means it stops oxidation (rust) of the base metal by preventing oxygen from reaching it. Secondly, it is a sacrificial annode. This means that even when some of the zinc gets worn away, exposing the steel underneath, the zinc will corrode before the steel does. However, once the zinc is gone, you are left with plain old mild steel wire, which will rust.
Short story: galvanzied wire will not be rust-resistant forever. Stainless wire will.
Steve
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woodwose
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- Joined: Fri Oct 13, 2000 1:01 am
- Location: Lucerne-in-Maine, Barony of Endeweard
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a few other things...
I've heard a lot of complaints about the smell of galvanized maille after its been worn and sweated in for a while. I know of one person who said she liked the smell of galv but I think she was only using it for jewelry stuff..
can't color galv wire with heat (well, maybe ya can but it's a bad idea) or chemical blueing.
I've heard that SOME stainles alloys will rust. never seen it though.
most of the stuff I use is stainless welding wire (alloys 308 to 316). sometimes it leaves black marks on stuff if it has not been washed for a while.
stainless can be colored a sort of bronze color by cleaning it with something like acetone then heating it with a propane torch.
other colors are possible but its harder to do.
I've heard of a couple ways to color galv maille but the only color I heard of was black. one way was with india ink.
if you get stainless from a welding supply place its proly best to get it on spools. they also sell it in short lengths but those turn into tiny coils.
as Brandr said, stainless is thougher than galv... but depending on the manufacturer and alloys of the metals, there might not be too much of a differance.. but yeah, stainless does tend to be a harder metal.
its harder to work with than galv and harder on cutting tools too. but that also means that it'll prolly take more to rip it apart or make holes in it.
stainless is really shiny and the rings tend to polish each other while it's being worn.
galv starts out almost as shiny but after a while it'll darken to a dull grey (not really a bad thing)
its good to make friends with someone who works at a place where they do a lot of welding. sometimes they throw away whole pallets of welding cause the packages were damaged or something like that. Bath Iron Works did that once and I got at least a hundred pounds of wire.. lots of 0.35 and 0.45 diameter stainless, lots of 0.45 mild (rusts like hell but blueing will slow the rust down), some really tough 1/16 alum/bronze alloy stuff, some other 1/16 diameter stuff that I thought was stainless and recently found out its some acid restistant super alloy or something like that, some 1/16 aluminum, some really nice 5556 alloy .045 aluminum (springy stuff)... and more...
that was about three years ago and I haven't had to buy wire since [img]http://www.armourarchive.com/ubb/smile.gif[/img]
only thing that I like about galvanized is that it darkens with age. I've used darkened galv to put patterns in stainless jewelry.. same could be done for trim on armor... like a galv shirt with sort of a celtic knot sort of trim, done in stainless, brass, and copper...
thats all I can think of for know and I think I've blabbered on long enough anyways..
I've heard a lot of complaints about the smell of galvanized maille after its been worn and sweated in for a while. I know of one person who said she liked the smell of galv but I think she was only using it for jewelry stuff..
can't color galv wire with heat (well, maybe ya can but it's a bad idea) or chemical blueing.
I've heard that SOME stainles alloys will rust. never seen it though.
most of the stuff I use is stainless welding wire (alloys 308 to 316). sometimes it leaves black marks on stuff if it has not been washed for a while.
stainless can be colored a sort of bronze color by cleaning it with something like acetone then heating it with a propane torch.
other colors are possible but its harder to do.
I've heard of a couple ways to color galv maille but the only color I heard of was black. one way was with india ink.
if you get stainless from a welding supply place its proly best to get it on spools. they also sell it in short lengths but those turn into tiny coils.
as Brandr said, stainless is thougher than galv... but depending on the manufacturer and alloys of the metals, there might not be too much of a differance.. but yeah, stainless does tend to be a harder metal.
its harder to work with than galv and harder on cutting tools too. but that also means that it'll prolly take more to rip it apart or make holes in it.
stainless is really shiny and the rings tend to polish each other while it's being worn.
galv starts out almost as shiny but after a while it'll darken to a dull grey (not really a bad thing)
its good to make friends with someone who works at a place where they do a lot of welding. sometimes they throw away whole pallets of welding cause the packages were damaged or something like that. Bath Iron Works did that once and I got at least a hundred pounds of wire.. lots of 0.35 and 0.45 diameter stainless, lots of 0.45 mild (rusts like hell but blueing will slow the rust down), some really tough 1/16 alum/bronze alloy stuff, some other 1/16 diameter stuff that I thought was stainless and recently found out its some acid restistant super alloy or something like that, some 1/16 aluminum, some really nice 5556 alloy .045 aluminum (springy stuff)... and more...
that was about three years ago and I haven't had to buy wire since [img]http://www.armourarchive.com/ubb/smile.gif[/img]
only thing that I like about galvanized is that it darkens with age. I've used darkened galv to put patterns in stainless jewelry.. same could be done for trim on armor... like a galv shirt with sort of a celtic knot sort of trim, done in stainless, brass, and copper...
thats all I can think of for know and I think I've blabbered on long enough anyways..
Aha! Many excellent responses.
Thank you very much. I now know why to choose one over the other.
I think I will stick with galvanized for now but juuuuuuust might switch to stainless for the second set.
Thanks again, everyone =)
Mestoph
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If you don't give in to your inner child at least once in a while then sooner or later it will come up and kick you in the shins.
Thank you very much. I now know why to choose one over the other.
I think I will stick with galvanized for now but juuuuuuust might switch to stainless for the second set.
Thanks again, everyone =)
Mestoph
------------------
If you don't give in to your inner child at least once in a while then sooner or later it will come up and kick you in the shins.