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[Frumple]

So yeah. My vote: Take your woodchopping tool and axe that mail a number of pointed questions.

[Shinziril]

Note that the easy-to-make chainmail consists of "butted" rings.  Basically, the rings are simply bent closed until the ends touch, with nothing holding them shut other than the stiffness of the wire itself.  This is fine for decorative use, but under actual abuse makes them much more vulnerable to ring-opening failure (after all, you know the rings can be bent by hand- you're done it once already).  In serious old-style chainmail that would be used in combat, a ring would be closed by overlapping the ends of the ring, flattening them, punching a hole through the flattened ends, and riveting the ends together.  This way the ring is effectively bolted shut, rendering it much more durable.  For even better strength, half of the rings would be solid rings formed by punching them out from metal sheet, and linked with rivet-closed rings. 

In modern days, there's at least one outfit (Ringmesh) that makes chainmail with each ring spot-welded shut, which is almost as effective as a theoretical suit made entirely of solid links.  This is historically inaccurate, but quite durable. 

[Duntada Man]

I am indeed favorable to bringing dwarven SCIENCE and mentality into the real world. Unfortunately the ballistics gel I had bought a long while back isn't good anymore, or I'd ship it out so you had something to put under the chainmail to test it effectiveness.

Also as a 130 pound female human I expect you still hit with the force of an elven axe master, should such an absurdity even exist.

[BranRhi]

Also want to see you hack at chainmail.

[Aklyon]

elven axe master

I'd go open DF to see how that would work in Arena mode right now, but I've been waiting for the new version to redownload DF.

[Girlinhat]

Well, I'm 130lb and 6' so my weight ratio is more in favor of a "90 pound regular girl" or so.  Either way, I'm wiry and I've hauled whole tree limbs to the street, mainly by understanding my body and understanding some physics.  I'm rather good at putting all my weight into a movement, and I'm quite agile so I can do pretty good to understand what of my muscles work best and how to coordinate them.  Basically despite my small size, I've done things that grown men usually try to break into something easier, simply because I'm too stubborn to take the time to break it into something easier.  Amazingly, this behavior was evident before I got in DF.

Butted chainmail isn't as strong as riveted or welded, but it'll do for slashing attacks.  Butted rings can pop open, when a spear or cone is shoved into butted chainmail it forces the rings to spread, and butted rings will just open.  But an axe strike doesn't do any spreading, it's purely the metal's thickness and the way it overlaps.  The rings will be cut in half more likely than they will be forced open.  So, I can't imagine butted rings being weaker than riveted for these purposes, and everyone can agree that chainmail is made to deflect slashes.  It's not made to stop a thrust at all, but rather to resist sword swings.

No pigs.  Or ponies.  And I'm pretty sure that farmers are selling their cattle for butcher and don't want me butchering them already.  Although that mental image is hilarious, I congratulate you.  In any case, the chainmail will be nailed by two corners to a tree, left hanging over it, and then strike sideways.  A secondary test may be flat on a log and a downward, overhead swing.

[jester]

Ill say you will break the mail if you get behind the swing, the heads on woodcutting axes are generally good gear.  Ive managed to cut chains that were alot thicker than your mail with one

[Girlinhat]

Well, this isn't exactly a top-quality axe...  I had to stop using it because the head was coming loose.  Turns out there's a few nails driven into the wood at the head, to help separate the wood and give it a better grip on the blade.  This is extremely southern engineering, and shoddy as hell.  My grandfather was a frugal man.  This is a steel axe, but it's older, and it wasn't a top-shelf axe when it was new.  Comparing it to dark-ages metals and common-grade weapons might be fairly accurate.  I wouldn't call it a "modern" axe, at all.

I've got a grinding wheel, also from my grandfather's garage, but that was new from my uncle to my grandfather, so it works well.  At the very least, I can have a sharp axe, and I'd suspect old soldiers would have sharp blades, even if the metal quality was poor.  Sharpening is relatively easy, after all.

[Reudh]

Definitely the easiest way to test on a human like shape would be either on a pig or a ballistics gel mould. THANK YOU MYTHBUSTERS.

[MarcAFK]

Prediction, you'll just drive some of the links into the tree, a few will pop open and a few of those will also be driven into the tree, if you wanted authenticity you would need to use some padding/ weld them together as already mentioned.
Probably easiest/kinda realistic would be to just throw some rags over a piece of plywood bolted to the tree then put your mail over that.
I'm interested in seeing what difference various weaves make, but you would need some way of measuring the results, a more structured testing system etc.

[Girlinhat]

I've got a few old shirts and jeans that don't fit / damage / bad style, I can apply those to the tree, apply chainmail, and strike.  Traditional padding would probably be some type of wool or leather, as these are easy to produce, I figure denim will suffice.  I can throw a T-shirt over the whole thing as well, as you often see crusaders wearing a robe over their armor, mostly to keep the armor out of the sun and keep it from heating in the light, but it'll still add a bit.  There's also a few bits of old wood, the neighbors tore up and rebuilt their deck last year and I grabbed a few of the best-looking pieces of wood.  All of it was pretty bad, but this is the best >.>

So, I could easily take a 2x4, layer some jeans over it, toss chainmail on that, and then a loose T-shirt over the whole thing, prop it against a tree, and strike.  I will NOT be doing any fancy machine though, namely because 1: I'm too lazy to build, and 2: It'd take some effort to get the machine to produce enough force.  A dead-drop, that's easy, but swinging an axe hard enough to damage steel would take some engineering.

Current plan is to make a sheet of 16g 1/4" Euro 4-1, as this is a solid size, if a bit "thin" for armor.  At machine-cut prices (let's be honest, flush saw cuts would be useless here) a square foot would cost $30.  But $42.25 will buy 7 bags of rings and ship them, all costs accounted for.  7.5 bags would make a square foot, so that's just under a foot.  $24.80 will foot 3 packs, giving 40% of a square foot.

I wonder if Kickstarter would let me do such a drive for such a small scale experiment...

[Montague]

Well, I haven't read through the entire thread, but chainmail is designed to work a bit like kevlar. It gives way and spreads out the impact without being peirced. So you'd need to test it with a relatively squishy backdrop. Laying it down on a stump or something and hacking it to peices with an axe probably won't be too realistic of a test.

Also, maybe consider making some boiled leather armor to go along with it. Boiled leather was often used as a backing for chainmail and would probably help dissipate an edged impact even further.

[Trapezohedron]

I want to see how you're going to chop up chainmail armor, if you're going to do this.

[kisame12794]

Hmmmmm. Too bad I don't have the funds for titanium either, as for the spears, and such I can make those. I may make some galvy sheet and spear that for !!SCIENCE!! Hmmmm, yessssss science~~~~

[Virex]

So, as many of you may or may not be aware, I've been working on chainmail, mostly jewelry.  That is, mainly aluminum.  But, I've got access to stainless steel and even titanium from my supplier (theringlord.org).  So, while jewelry is fun and all, there's nothing quite like armor.  Sadly armor is expensive, a lot of materials and a lot of time, but I can still make sheets of chainmail, smaller than full armor but the same idea.

My grandfather died recently, which is not as sad as it sounds because he's been a 'grumpy old man' since he was like 30.  But we were rummaging through the garage and found some tools that he hadn't used in years.  Among them was a felling axe.  That is, a bit double-bitted lumberjack's axe, way bigger than a combat axe.  And I also already have a small hand-hatchet.  I'm not sure I could find a spear, but there's a few hunting stores around here that might have like, a harpoon or something, I'd have to check...

Either way, the idea is, I make some chainmail using tough materials, and then give it a good strike.  Granted that I'm a little 130 lb girl and I don't claim to be as strong as, y'know, good medieval warlord or anything, but I can get a good swing with the axe and I've been working to trim down some trees in the back yard.  The issue is, I don't quite have the funds for such a thing, although over time I might as I try to sell some jewelry.

Thus, The Question:
Would anyone be interested in seeing some chainmail put under the axe?  It'd probably be some sturdy weave, Euro 4-1 using some obscene 12g or 14g stainless steel.  If left to my own devices, I'd likely end up doing this on my own when some things sold, but if anyone is particularly interested in seeing some Axe + Chainmail...

Thoughts?

Hacking away at the chainmail is fine for entertainment purpose, but why not add some !!Science!!? If you take the blade of the ax and let it drop from a predetermined height, you're able to determine the energy required for an ax head to split the chainmail. Just get some girders to make the ax fall straight down so it always falls the same way.