The Armour Archive

I've been reading about a chain weave called Dragonscale and I was wondering if anyone had made a full shirt from it. The weight and flexibility of it are my main concerns. If things start looking up and I get to finish other projects I'm currently working on I may try my first time with stainless on this project.

I havn't made anything that large out of it. It is purely a decorative weave.

If you want a shirt for armor this weave has no real combat value. It hangs in an opposite direction so that the weave is stretched out fully and it has very little blow absorbing.

Also any tippy or glancing sword blows would send rings flying, like wind under shingles.

It is a fascinating weave to look at and play with though.

------------------
Épreuves plus quo noús pouvons décrire

Lord Charles DeCordené
Fyrd, Mallet, Torse (Calontir)
Squire of the body, Sir Donatto El Lobo

DeCordené WireWorks and Chainmaille Discussion Board

dccharles@hotmail.com

I'm not planning it for combat just for the look of the thing. I made some last night with 14 gua 1/2 and 1/4 rings and was worried about the weight and flex. hopefully going to a smaller guage (stainles maybe)perhaps it will help.

I would think that even if you had your heart set on using 14ga for the larger rings, you could easily get away with 16ga 1/4" for the smaller rings. Keep in mind though that I haven't actually tried this weave yet, so good luck to ya.

Just out of curiosity, do any of you guys have any pics of this weave?

Well, I found a pic of it courtesy of the M.A.I.L website found at
http://www.angelfire.com/art/mailorg/
Here is a pic of it. A very nice looking pattern however is very unrealistic to be considered for anything other than small jewelry peices. A shirt made out of this would be atleast 1/3 more in weight and would also not be very manueverable. Now lets see if this pic works.

[img]http://www.angelfire.com/art/mailorg/weaves/pics/dragonscale.jpg[/img]

------------------
Kiernan Delaney
The Drunken Irishman

I've just got back from a trip into town. I went ahead and purchased a 1/4 mile of 17 gauge to try this with since the stainless was waaaayy out of my budget. I was thinking maybe 7/16 for the larger rings and 1/4 for the smaller. I've never used this gauge before. Anybody have ideas of strenght of it?