The Armour Archive

i'm still working on my coif and have a question,
how many feet worth of wire did you use making your coif?

i am using 14ga 5/16 rings and have gone though about 150 feet. nad still am only half done

That sounds about right.

I think my 1/4" coif used 6,000 rings (bad memory, so don't quote this).

At 5/16" diameter, each ring will use about 1" of wire (a bit more than this). So 150' of wire would mean about 1800 rings. I'd expect about one-third or one-half finished for that number at that size ring.


-- jt --

ok, great. I was starting to think i was doing something wrong.

I used about 600' @ 7/16' id if I remeber right, but the flare on mine comes all the way out to the edge of my shoulder.

Logan

If you've reached the base of the neck, you're half way there. The mantle out to the shoulders is half the rings and weight.

Don't figure feet of wire, figure pounds of it. Butted mailshirts typically run between 25 and 35 pounds, riveted shirts on the order of 15 -- you can see why I've started to rivet. I won't have too many clues about what a riveted camail from 16-ga. black tie wire will weigh until I get mine nearly assembled; I'm still banging out links, literally -- I'm using a hammer to flatten.

Buying wire by the pound at fencing or lumberyard places is usually the best bargain for new wire. You may pick up salvaged guy wire or galvy cable ends at scrapyards or operations that use guy wire in quantity. This is extremely hard, high-tensile wire. Stick with the stuff that's made of small-gauge wire strands -- about 16 gauge wires would be ideal, and even then you are probably going to need forceful measures to coil such wire, and bolt cutters will be necessary to cut it. I've made this stuff with 12-ga. unlaid from a piece of cable, and had to crank it around a fixed mandrel with a hardwood lever, wearing safety gogs because it's all good constructive fun until somebody gets a wire end in the eye.

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"The Minstrel Boy to the war is gone..."