ANST - CHAIN MAIL LINKS

[Mark.S Harris]

j'lynn yeates wrote:
> 
> On 8 Jun 98, at 17:08, SCOTT A WAGGONER wrote:
> 
> > It is cheap and easy to make a chainmail winding jug and wind your own
> > coils. When buying rings you are mostly paying for the labor to wind and
> > cut the links.  Paedric of Kilkenny wrote a chainmail article including
> > plans for a jig in the A&S issue of the Blackstar a few years ago. I am
> > sure someone has a copy.
> 
<snip>
> 
> having wound and cut way to many links in my time, i would much rather buy them
> from someone else who has contracted to buy mass quantities from a machine shop
> (making them more affordable).  would much rather spend my time doing the weaving
> and building than the link construction (something to definitely sub out ..)
> 
> 'wolf

If the machine shop has a spring-winding machine, it is apparently fairly easy
to have them make links. The spring-winder can be set to wind the springs so they
either wind tightly against each other or with some space in between windings.
They can also be set to cut the "springs" so the length is one rotation of the
spring thus creating cut links for mail. I believe the main drawback is the
setup charge for the machine. But if several people were to go into together,
the price gets reasonable. I can't remember the quantities talked about but
10,000 sticks in my mind. 

For more details on this and other useful info about chainmail and making
various bits of armor out of it, see this file in the COMBAT section of my
Florilegium files:

chainmail-msg    (104K)  4/ 1/96    Making chainmail. Mail armor.

This file may have some addresses for folks selling individual cut links but
I can't remember.

My files can be found at:
http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/rialto/rialto.html

Stefan li Rous
Barony of Bryn Gwlad
stefan at texas.net
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