Chain mail

Among his many talents, my husband can make chain mail. He taught himself this skill in his youth, and from time to time, he still likes to do a project. He has made five shirts, but these days, his projects are much more modest!
This morning after breakfast, we dug out his tools and materials from the storage area in the basement, and he introduced Owen to some chain mail making. Owen was really thrilled with all the wonderful stuff explore while Daddy started some Christmas gifts.
First he selects a wire and a rod. Here he is rolling a spring from 14 gauge stainless steel around an 11/32" rod. He has a variety of rods for different wire gauges. The springs roll up pretty quickly, so he can do several in a few minutes, but he is careful to keep the wire fed smoothly and evenly so the rings are uniform.






























After he has a roll of rings - a spring - he breaks each ring off using ferriers' nippers. This evening he watched several episodes of Stargate while clipping rings. Even a small project often takes hundreds of rings.
Once he has enough rings to begin work, he will open the rings slightly, slip them together, and close them grasping each end of a ring with a pair of pliers - hundreds of times.
Here are some past projects. The key ring is hexaprismail - Abram's term for a 6-sided tube mail pattern. The change purse is one I made after Abram's pattern. He once taught me the secrets of chain mail making, and I succeeded in making a grand total of 2 small purses!
I think the recipients of the items he has planned will be just as pleased with their Christmas gifts as I have been with my change purse which has lasted for many years and always gets compliments when I pull it out!