Riveted Mail

[Czear12]

Does anyone know how to eaither make riveted mail rings or where I can buy them

[MagnusStultus]

About purchasing rings for riveted mail you can't do it authentically (Dan Howard is an authority on it and the sizes just aren't authentic; you could ask him he is always glad to offer help and knows more than me) so you would have to build them yourself.

You would be well advised to purchase the rivets regardless because it is even more menial labor then the making of the rings.

About the rings you have to select the size you want and a dowel that will result in that size dowel; you have to then get that size dowel attached to a drill and purchase the iron which you will make into rings by wrapping it around said dowel and turning the drill on.

Once you have the rings you use your wire cutters to then cut them into ring form.

At that point (once the rings are all made that is) you will then have to decide on what to do with them.

If you have made an authentic (i.e. museum piece) set of rings then you will have to reconsider do you want to make it riveted or welded, or a combination?

If you have not made it authentic museum piece size just but them together; it won't be able to resist much or have much durability with the rings anyway.

If you have then you will need an anvil (ideal) but from experience and thanks to advice I got here a mere railroad scrap piece to stand in for an anvil will do.

You will want a blacksmith hammer.

And above all patience

You will then need to (for each link) hammer the link to the point where it is whole and where you could create the hole the rivet will go through.

Then you make the hole (on each link)

Finally once that is done you will begin riveting it together.

Now you could if you are making a museum piece quality try and research the size of drawplate and link punch Romans used in order to just punch your unriveted pieces.

That will give you the same advantage the original builders had which is you could avoid half the riveting.

It is from experience monumentally challenging and don't feel bad if you need to give up on the riveted aspect and your first coat is just dowel, drill, butted mail; you don't even have to finish your first (I am still not finished on my attempt at authentic mail so if I am unhelpful I apologize).

[agrimensor]

If you want to buy
this is a source
http://www.battlemerchant.com/Chain-Mail...anguage=en
they also have the tools