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Riveted Maille: how I made the tools, and how I make the maille
The reasons that maille has been used for over 2000 years as the standard warrior's defense are that the steps to producing
it are relatively simple and can be completed entirely by hand tools, the stock material from which it is produced, wire,
is much more simple to develop in large quantities than sheet metal, which is used in plate and lamellar armor, and a production
line similar to an assembly line can easily be used to make maille armor much faster than plate even if separate armourers
work on separate pieces for a harness at the same time.
Even though the tools to make maille have not continued to the modern era, the general technique is well understood and
simple hand tools can be modified to fit the job. The standard principles are thus: The coil is wound on a rod (dowel or
former), rings are cut from the coil with an overlap or squeezed to a smaller diameter to make an overlap, the overlap or
the entire ring is flattened, the overlap is pierced or punched, maille is weaved, a rivet is inserted and peened. Most maille
was made from wrought iron, which is both soft and durable, but because it is not easily obtainable currently, low-carbon
steel is accepted by most reproducers of maille to be an acceptable substitute. The kind that you will want is "dead-soft"
dark-annealed steel that is usually sold as baling wire or tying wire in loose coils or on spools. I use 16 gauge steel tie
wire from Tractor Supply Co. You can still make do with non-annealed steel wire but you must first make the mire softer and
durable by heating it over hot coals (a propane torch works fine for those not caring too much about period accuracy) until
red for about a minute, and cool it in air. If you can only find galvanized steel wire in your area in large quantities,
you must normalize the wire to make it useable but WARNING do it outside because heating galvanized steel removes the Zinc
coating and releases noxious fumes, so maybe just toss the wire into a fire pit with a fire, and come back after it is normalized
and cool. Some people have had success in removing the galvanization by using acids, but I have not tried that, so look here
for suggestions on how to do that safely.
Winding the coil
During the Dark Ages technology did not exist to produce long standard wire coils so it is likely that most wire was wound
on a handheld mandrel. It probably looked a lot like a screwdriver but had a slot or hole in the shaft so as to hold a coil
while it was being wound. I made a similar device in about ten minutes; I took an 8"; long 5/16" diameter (8mm)
bolt that had a majority of its length non-threaded and I filed a little bit of it near the threading and drilled a hole
through with a bit slightly larger than the wire I planned on winding around it. This tool works well, except that it doesn't
give much leverage, so I use it with an adjustable wrench to wind small wire lengths. I suppose a socket wrench on the head
would make it even easier to use.
It is much easier to wind long coils with my other mandrel, which is made from a 4' metal dowel with two 5" bends
in it to make a handle and is mounted in a wooden stand. I advise that you make one of each type of mandrel so that you can
use the mounted mandrel to wind coils at home, and a hand mandrel if you want to make a demo showing how you make maille or
just want to be able to fit all of your maille tools in a little tool box.
I suggest that you use gloves when winding because annealed steel has an iron oxide coating that will get on your hands,
your clothes, etc. and that winding the wire builds up potential energy in the coil and if let go the wire or the handle can
come spinning back, but that isn't too much of a problem if you use annealed wire. I also wrap my coils tightly and make
right handed coils because I am right handed, but if you do otherwise try and be consistent as it will become second nature
and give your maille a consistent quality to it.
Cutting rings from the coil
There has been much research conducted on whether rings were cut from a coil with an overlap or were later forced into
a smaller diameter to make the overlap. I don't think this distinction really matters much so I cut mine with an overlap
because they start out circular that way, and that way I can alter the size of the overlap without changing the diameter of
the ring. Now on the actual method of cutting, Steve Sheldon shows succinctly that pinching cutters were more likely used
than shearing cutters or straight cutters. Examples of pinching cutters are end-cutters, and bolt-cutters; shearing cutters
are aviation snips and tin snips, and straight cutters are jewelers' saws and cut-off wheels. I use 12" long mini bolt-cutters
that have groves in each cutting jaw that I made with a bit of difficulty as I used a dremel with sanding cylinders and grinders,
hand held files and a round file put into an electric drill. My methods weren't totally safe, but if you attempt to do something
similar make sure that you wear eye protection (safety glasses), ear protection (ear plugs or the muffler kind), and protection
for your breathing pathway (even dust masks are better than nothing) as your activities will produce sparks, heat and metal
dust that is not good to inhale. Also it is a good idea to have a bowl of water nearby if you heat up the tool too much by
modifying it, so that you can quickly cool it to preserve the temper and not ruin the tool. Supposedly it is easier to just
clamp an end-cutter with its jaws shut in a vice and drill a hole in the jaws. I suggest that the same precautions are taken
in any attempts to modify tools, and also realize that any modification that is not reversible will probably void the warranties,
if they have them. Actually for slower method that might be more period you can take a cold chisel (used to cut metal) and
cut coils by hammering them between it and a hard metal surface. This does take time to master and to make consistent, but
it does make rings with an overlap; oh and wear eye protection at least.
In retrospect, making cutters that produce an overlap seems harder than just using a cutter to cut rings and then compressing
them into a smaller diameter, so that is always an option that should not be overlooked.
Flattening the rings
This could be the hardest step in maille making, or at least the one with the greatest amount of variability. Coupled
with making a piercing tool, I found this step very discouraging. I'll first go into methods others attempt before mine as
they are much better guidelines and mine is more oriented towards making round rivets, which were not nearly as common as
wedge rivets.
Because wire is round in cross section, it must be flattened somewhat for it to be pierced or for a hole to be punched
into it. The only part that really needs to be flattened is the overlap, but many maille pieces in antiquity had the entire
ring flattened. The ideal ring needed before piercing an overlap for wedge rivets is semi flattened in cross section and
the overlap kind of sticks to itself and has a "snake's head" appearance. Many practitioners advise that it is
necessary to normalize (heat to red hot and air cool) rings before flattening, so that they are soft enough for the ring to
become this shape. Additionally, careful hammer control is essential to making the ring flatten out evenly so that the overlap
does not upset itself and spread out in different directions. I don't have the hammer control to achieve this and even when
I normalized rings, I never achieved the results of a perfect ring, or at least not without rebending the ring with pliers
about five times after five imperfect blows. To defeat poor hammer control, a variety of mailers use a piston flattening
device which consists of a wide cylinder in a shaft that is placed over a ring and pounded to achieve a consistent force on
the ring. I have never used such a tool, but it is probably a wise investment and I have heard nothing but good results from
those who use it. Others have suggested putting a large sheet of plate over the maille and hammering the plate for even flattening,
or using a large heavy bolt instead of a cylinder; I have tried using the largest bolt I could find, but did not get any more
success that with a regular hammer.
A note about hitting surfaces: Usually a chunk of ferrous (iron or steel) metal is the only striking surface necessary
to flatten maille. I use a 6lb and a 15lb cast iron anvil for flattening, which actually isn't an anvil, but looks like it
and gets the job done. Real anvils have various types of steel (forged, cast) on their surface or in the entire body which
is much more hard and causes the hammer to bounce back more and supposedly relives arm strain.
Ok so I had just about had it with trying the above flattening methods and I needed to create my own series of techniques
so I could have consistent quality rings and feel that I had added a personal touch to my maille. So I figured that the problem
was that I was trying to flatten the ring and both sides of the overlap at the same time, so instead I should break it down
into a couple of steps. First I take two needle-nose pliers and bend the ends of the ring outward away from the overlap until
I have made a C shape. Then I flatten the ring lightly on each side, so that it doesn't move much on the surface for the
next step. Then I hold my thumb or an object on one edge of the ring (being careful as I once hit my thumb directly and got
a blood blister) and take a smaller hammer with a square cross section head to flatten each side, one at a time. I could
then re-bend the ring back to the overlapped shape, but I decided to punch each side individually, just so that I don't wear
out the bit too much.
Punching or piercing the rings
Piercing a hole in the ring is probably the climax of the art of maille-making; it is where a ring is successfully pierced
and deemed ready to add to the growing garment for armor or it is scrapped and discarded after all that previous work. I
have not made a successful piercing drift or tongs, but I'll guide you through my attempts, so maybe you can learn from my
mistakes. I first tried what seemed simple, using a handheld pierce and a hammer to pierce a ring. I drilled a small hole
in my anvil and set up to pierce through, but as I never really developed perfect hammer control, the pierce usually bounced
off and hit the anvil, or sometimes it went through the ring and tore a hole that was unusable. I knew that I would need
a pair of piercing tongs if I were to continue with this hobby. I chose what some deem as an unsuitable tool to modify for
this purpose: fence pliers. Actually there were a few viable reasons I chose them over a regular set of slip joint or linesman
pliers. For one they opened and closed smoothly and the motion with a bit in perpendicular to the jaws seemed to have the
perfect swipe for a perfect pierce every time. But I heeded the warnings that they were too hard to drill holes in them for
the bit, and thought it was time to exercise my propane torch. So I set them up outside on the sidewalk and held the torch
to each side, watching as the temper worked away producing a rainbow strip of colors and alternating the flame on each side.
I let them air-cool for a while and then I took the drill to them. They still were quite hard, but I was able to have some
success in drilling a small hole in both jaws. The hole in the receptor was too large, so I glued in a small metal bushing
while I glued in a bit in the other jaw. Actually the jaws opened up real wide, so drilling was not very difficult. I guess
my major failure was in making the bit. The directions people provided were really vague, and I guess this is where the most
experimentation can happen in maille. Most suggested to modify something like a broken drill bit or even a screw driver bit,
which I did, to make something that would pierce through both sides of the overlap in a wedge shape, but not really remove
material. They advised that the bit must be normalized with a torch, and then tempered by heating the oven to a certain temperature,
and putting the bit in for sometime period. I messed up a few bits this way because I had either used too low a temperature,
and the bit was too brittle, or too high, and it was soft and became bent. I think I finally got it but when I glued the
bit into the pliers, it had some room to wobble about, so I stuck in some wire to keep it in tight. With my pliers I was
hardly ever able to pierce the ring without tearing through it. But when I did, I had trouble with the rivets, so I decided
I needed to use a more consistent, simpler method.
I got sick of doing major tool modifications and was looking for a hole punching tool that would have a bit that was small
enough to punch a hole in the overlap without tearing it. I did find a Taiwanese copy of a Roper-Whitney punch which had
a 1/8" bit, whereas I needed about a 1/16" or smaller. So I took the bit out of the tool, put it into my electric
drill and spun it while holding a small metal file to its side to remove the material. I kept a small bowl of water nearby
so that I could cool the bit when it got hot so it kept its temper. So after removing ¾ of the metal, just think about (final
radius squared/ initial radius squared) for the amount of material needed), I had a seemingly perfect punch bit. I actually
filed down the tip a bit too, because it had a little bulb on it, and I wanted a flat head. So finally I added a threaded
metal bushing to the inside of the bore to accommodate the punch bit as it had been made smaller. I punch a hole in each
side of the flat area which will be overlapped, and then re-bend the ring back together with the holes lining up.
Making rivets
Pierced rings need wedge rivets, which are flattened sections of wire that have been cut with either pinching type cutters
or a cold chisel and hammer to resemble little pizzas like this \/\/\/\/.
Again I failed at making successful wedge rivets, but I probably should have normalized the rivets as I was later advised,
so that they would deform properly.
Anyways I had now taken the path of round holes, so I would need rivets with round cross sections. I first tried using
small pieces of 18 gauge annealed wire that I moved through the hole, and wrapped a little bit around the ring before flattening.
Some Viking maille has had a similar idea, except that it has two hole in the overlap, and the wire piece goes through both
in a C shape and then is flattened on one side and peened on the other. Peening, as I understand it is forcing a section
of metal into a shape, usually a circular depression so that it locks the piece of metal like a rivet in place. So I was
ok with my method, and I knew it would hold, but it had the appearance of a cheap product, and not something in which I had
invested a lot of time and research, so I opted to instead modify carpet tacks to make rivets. I use #2 size steel carpet
tacks and I file away the flash from the mold and file the cross section of the shaft into a more circular shape. Then I
push the rivet through the hole in the ring and hold onto one side of the ring with needle-nose pliers as I peen the rivet
into a depression in my anvil with some light hammering. It does not need to be overdone. I made the depression using a
burel wheel in my dremel tool. Oh and I weave rings after punching the holes, but just before putting in a rivet.
And that's it. So if this kept your attention long enough for the end, I hope you learned something about history, and
that it inspired you to make your own tools and techniques to make your own authentic reproduction riveted maille armor!
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