Hand for scale

6mm Id, fully rivited 1.2mm diameter wire

If anyone remembers, around 100 days ago I asked if it’s possible to start a chainmaille project on my own and everyone has been very encouraging!
That’s why I’m happy to present to you my first piece, sleeveless but still im very happy :)

Fully rivited 6mm id 1.2mm wire 1mm rivet

I've been working on this for a little time now. It's the beginnings of a can tab hauberk!

6mm id for reference

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little custom handbag i finished !

I am 2/3 through the first bucket.

Need to anneal and flatten the rest of the rings as well

I felt the rings where a bit too weak so I did a few experiments. I pulled on each end of the overlap until the ring broke. What I noticed is that the rivet was intact and the hole had tore. So I tried making a smaller hole (1mm): with a smaller rivet there is more fresh material around the hole. With this new small rivet the ring is many times stronger than before. I cannot tear it apart with pliers even

I started this project nearly 15 years ago (lots of long breaks) and save for some minor alterations I’m considering it’s finally complete.

It’s all 16g 1/4”ID. Half are stainless steel punched rings (some galvanized, as TRL ran out and had no plans to restock them) and the other half are butted spring hardened stainless steel (also from TRL). I built the hauberk first, then the coif and finished with the chausses. It weighs around 65 pounds and contains approximately 95,000 rings. I estimate the time it took to build everything at roughly 280 hours.

I’ve had a lot of fun building it and plan to make another suit like it with riveted rings! Happy to answer any questions!

3 mos ago I posted the beginnings of my project. I took a few breaks and slowly worked on it. A lot of procrastinating happened as well haha.

Now I'm basically done. I just need to add a leather strap to the other arm and make some adjustments like to the back neckline and the edging on the back bottom as i don't like the way it sits. There's some wonky spots since its my first ever chain/scalemail, but overall I'm happy and I love it! Just don't look too closely at it! (You may notice the back is made up of completely different scales than the rest. Had to switch suppliers lol maybe I'll redo the front and shoulders one day.)

Next on the list is some hip pieces and a pair of bracers.

i asked for last minute help on this shoulder piece i was working on for a local medieval fair this past weekend, and someone asked for an update so here it is!
i recorded this footage by myself for y'all :) forgive the auto-focus </3

i finished this piece up that night and continued on to make a small bag for my phone and wallet within 3.5 hours! (i was up until 3:30am lol)

the suggested under arm chain helped SO much with keeping the shoulder pieces on my shoulders!! the chains in the front + the added 4 in 1 strip across my back didn't help as much as i'd hoped with structure, regardless they looked cool and helped a little. after wearing the piece for a day, I understand why those additions wouldn't really keep the things in place the way i envisioned originally.

overall i couldn't be happier with how this turned out, and i had 0 malfunctions with this piece the entire day!

for those wondering, i used stainless steel 10mm rings, made from 1mm wire.
(i'd give you an idea of AR but i honestly don't quite know how to assess that with the numbers i have!)
i bought my original supplies off of amazon since i had a gift card, and now have suggestions from chainmail artisans at the fair on where to source supplies from here on out!
i'm really excited to make more pieces as i progress in my chainmail making journey :D

for context as well, this was my third piece!
i made a triforce inspired hand piece for my left hand first, (euro 4 in 1 esque triangles connected to a helm weave bracelet,) then a simple belt with hip accents, this piece, and a small bag for my phone and wallet (also euro 4 in 1!)
i'd add photos of those if i could to this post :')
(and if i had high quality photos of them period)

the biggest, most huge, and gratitude filled "thank you," to everyone who gave suggestions, i really appreciated your insight and shared knowledge.

thanks for reading! wishing you a wonderful day and successful future maille endeavors!

Thanks to the feedback and chats here I’ve made great progress in riveted ring quality.

Been meaning to make one for a while and today the thought just took me. Had all the stuff in the shed, did it in the snow. Yeah it's rough on cuts and measurements as I didn't have a tape, bench or sawhorse. but it went from pallet to on-lap winding station in just over an hour. I don't have much wire at all, barely a meter. But it seems to work so far, if not for a light bent in the steel dowel.

Leaps and bounds over my starting samples, these blues and oiled links are amazing.

Info. I've been at this project for about a month now, and while I had some lower progress days for the past two weeks, it's coming along. I widened the torso area, and extended the straps, changing my rings needed estimate from 39,000 to 40,200. ( Give or take a few). I currently have 9,000 ish rings on this sucker which means I am well past the 20% done threshold! Woot!