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[Girlinhat]

A pole-based weapon would be fancy-talk for "pitchfork" usually.  A wooden spear with metal tip, or a real pitchfork, would be fairly cheap.  They wouldn't be particularly well-crafted, just a pointed tip instead of a thrice-tempered masterful edge or something.  A simple point only needs a whet stone.  Shields, even better, would be wood, perhaps covered with leather, comparatively disposable.

[kisame12794]

A spear doesn't need to be tempered. A sharpened piece of barstock is all you need.

[sonerohi]

The military scythe was quite popular. Since you were likely to be facing other peasants, unarmored and such, the scythe would have been a brutal weapon. Even a hoe or a shovel would be effective. Never did understand why Europe never caught on to the pole-sword idea though. Japan gets the naginata and we get nothing  .

[ed boy]

Never did understand why Europe never caught on to the pole-sword idea though. Japan gets the naginata and we get nothing  .

We did have the glaive.

[sonerohi]

Never did understand why Europe never caught on to the pole-sword idea though. Japan gets the naginata and we get nothing  .

We did have the glaive.

It's... It's beautiful. Never actually saw a depiction of one, and the text sources I have wrote it off as a spear that had an unusually long point.

[Girlinhat]

Regardless of all that, it's currently 102 degrees outside, heat index up towards 115, and since I'm currently doing my mail outside, I opted to take a break.  I may try and do the coiling and cutting outside, and then move inside once I've got a stock of rings, but there's not a huge amount of room inside so dunno.

[CatalystParadox]

Oh neat, some DF Maillers!

I've been making maille for several years, and was totally obsessed with it for a while.  I taught myself at least 2 dozen seperate weaves, learned the math of Aspect Ratios in great detail, and made maille with all varieties of metal (titanium alloy is my favorite, but also a BITCH to work with) in all ring sizes and wire gauges.  I even invented a new weave or two.

As far as closing your rings, I recommend trying brazing - it's much less expensive or complicated than either riveting or welding and nearly as effective.  You can do it with just a propane torch, a bit of brass wire for the 'filler' metal, and some borax powder for flux.  Heat brass wire in flame, dip in flux to coat, heat ring joint and tip of brass wire together til the brass flows into the joint in the steel.

For coiling, I strongly recommend a slotted steel mandrel.  you can put the slotted end of the mandrel directly into the power drill, use your PVC pipe as a guard/guide, and slide the wire through a hole in the PVC and through the mandrel-slot to turn much tighter, more consistent rings. 

Galvanized steel is a nice material to work with - its hard, but not too hard.  Hardened steels make great maille, of course, but their springiness makes them  less than ideal for learning.  Plus, its available everywhere.  If you're interested in some more specialized metals, I recommend www.theringlord.com highly.  There's also an incredible web resource called M.A.I.L. (Maille Artisans International League) with an incredible number of very good, very helpful tutorials and related information.

Also, please, Girlinhat or anyone else, pick my brain if you want any advice or have any questions!  I'm badly in need of other interested parties to chat about maille with

[kisame12794]

Do you heat the borax?

[CatalystParadox]

Indirectly.  You heat the metal and plunge it into the borax (a bit will stick to the hot wire) and then put it back in the flame.  The flux should turn from a white powder to a white frothy viscous liquid and then translucent and glasslike - at which point it's active and the metal should flow nicely.  Remember that the focus of the heating should be the ring and not the brazing rod (brass wire).  The heat pulls the brazing metal into the joint.  If the brass itself is the hotter component, it just goes on in messy globs.

I highly recommend using some kind of device to hold the rings for you as you do this, both for safety and to make the process easier.  Something like a Third Hand is perfect

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

but a vice or anything fire-safe that grips it will do.  I don't recommend holding it in pliers or anything in your own hand, because you'll want both hands free, and its not stable.

The torch (~$10 simple propane torch + tank will do) you'll want simply upright and on.  Bring the work to it, so you don't need to lift it and deal with it that way.  Always always always have at least an extinguisher on hand, and a bucket of sand isn't a bad idea either.

[Girlinhat]

A recent experience has convinced me to stay away from fire.  Since I last posted, I've acquired 3 metal rods in 1/8" 3/16" and 1/4", I think 2 are steel and 1 is zinc, or something.  I'll take my spool of wire, which is not actually on a spool, and count out some length, usually 5-10 rounds of the stuff, and clip it off.  Then, I take that shorter length and stretch it into a mostly-straight length.  I had trouble with the loose coiled wire kinking and messing up everything, and the clipped straight length solves this.  I then bend one end by hand (leather glove) to double it up, and stick that end and the rod into the electric drill, so that the drill's clamp will close on the wire.  Then, carefully wind using the drill.  Using this, I've realized that 16g 1/8" ID glavy rings are impossible to work with, as they're too small to actually use.  20g 1/8" ID enameled copper makes fantastic micro rings, however.

Then I realized we had a dremel sitting around not doing anything, so I bought a saw attachment for it and messed with cutting rings.  1st issue, it would cut a beautiful ring, and then the ring flies off onto the patio somewhere.  One-hundred thousand delicate micro rings, lost to the void of sparse grass and dirt that covers the patio!  So I got a vice and put the whole coil in it, and cut from one side.  I think this vice is off-center, because some of the rings would fall out, although they didn't fly away so I still recovered them.  Then I picked one up...

Turns out that when you saw through galvanized steel with an electric saw, the friction alone heats it up enough to scorch off fingerprints.  I'm permanently holding an icepack now and typing with one hand, with a ring-shaped whelp on my left thumb.  Fortunately it appears that my fingerprints survived, although that would make for an interesting story to tell my nieces and nephews ('cause I'm not having kids).

I also have some trouble cutting this copper.  It wants to have horribly frayed and sticky ends that scrape across skin and clothes.

Oh also, I ordered from The Ring Lord, and am going to get a massive bag of tiny aluminum rings, as well as some slightly larger aluminum and bronze rings, and some nice pliers, clasps, and earring hooks.

[Dsarker]

"Aunty, why can't you use the fingerprint identification?"
"Well, it happened when I was trying to make some chainmail..."
*boggled eyes*
"I didn't know you were THAT old!"

[Girlinhat]

Sounds about right.  Actually that reminds of, I read of one guy who was in highschool, and liked to make mail during lunch.  Just the chaining part, not the winding and cutting.  He said his friends were amazed by this, something like "they were surprised to see this ancient and mystical armorsmithing practice being continued right in the lunchroom."  A lot of people do seem to think that chainmail is impossible to actually do, like it's some arcane art form similar to monks copying books, too intricate to be done by anyone rational.

[sonerohi]

No, too time-consuming to be done by someone who doesn't have OCD. Don't worry about your fingerprints, they'll recover most of the way, if you give them time. I got 2nd degree burns across my thumb and forefinger a year ago and now, except for a tiny patch on my thumb, I've gotten the print back.

[Girlinhat]

Yes, but it's similar to ancient Japan, particularly the katana.  A rather poor sword, as far as swords go, many people somehow believe that it's an amazing blade due to some far-east mysticism that somehow improves it.  Similarly, people tend to believe that chainmail is something so articulated and detailed that it simply must be something legendary, something of masterwork quality that the common man could never hope to dabble at.  The realization that "you're just bending some rings" is a bit of a shock to most people.

[kisame12794]

A well made Katana is made of over 600 layers of folded steel. The edge is hardened and the spine is soft with the middle or hamon being a combination of both. A poor sword a katana is not when made properly.