where has this strange French version 'maille' come from? Why not
use our own language?
Ian, I’ve wondered this myself - personally, I find “maille” a little
pretentious, but I honestly think that “maille”-makers have adopted
this term to avoid confusion with “chain mail” - that is, chain
letters. If you Google" chain mail," you’ll get as many hits for
annoying chain letters and e-mails as you will actual chain-making or
chain-selling sites. I like “chainmail” myself, or “ring-mail,”
which, alas, is rarely used.
As for riveted links, they are stronger than simple butted joints,
but they can still be popped open with enough force. I’ve seen mail
in museum displays with riveted rings that have been forced open
through various types of stress, especially along the edges of the
mail garments. (Maybe they got sat on and squashed?) It’s quite
possible soldered links would also open up under the same abuse.
Any way you join 'em, though, I doubt that any ring-mail would be of
much use against the “bodkin” arrowheads that were developed to
counter this defense; these were slender, stiletto-like warheads
that were about 4"to 5" long. When fired from a stout bow or
crossbow, these would go right through just about any mail, and at
close range, most plate armor as well.
But, if all you have to fear are friends weilding forks, why not
give riveted mail a try? You can get pre-flattened, pre-punched
rings, complete with rivets, at
[No affiliation, but I’ve plugged 'em before and I’ll probably plug
'em again. Be sure to check out the amazing things they’ve done with
scales and see if it doesn’t give you a jewelry idea or two!]
Thanks to everyone for the encouragement, and I apologize for the
outburst. My little enterprise is shaping up to be more of an
expensive hobby than a business, and I’m a bit hypersensitive to
discouragement.
The only trouble I’ve really had with snags or durability issues
seems to be with the one or two pieces I made using 22ga rings,
which just don’t seem to have the necessary strength at that ring
size. As the 22ga rings leave me aesthetically cold in any case,
that shouldn’t be an issue. In the spring I hope to build a small
tumbler so that my work can be properly burnished and work hardened
rather than given a shake in a jar of BB’s and soapy water. I’m
hoping that will resolve any residual snag issues. -If- I ever get
so far as working with gold and platinum, I’ll be certain to put in
the extra effort of soldering once I can command a fair price
without turning off customers.
In the spring I hope to build a small tumbler so that my work can
be properly burnished and work hardened rather than given a shake
in a jar of BB's and soapy water.
Building your own equipment can be fun & instructive. However
sometimes the cost of a home-brew tool exceeds the cost of a
commercially available unit.
When it comes to tumblers for chain, one of the least expensive
places to get a vibratory tumbler is a shooting sports store. The
folks who reload their own ammo use them for polishing the brass
before reloading.
I am wondering what the convention is for chain mail used in items
of jewellery - wether it should be soldered or if its okay to just
close the jump rings tightly and leave it at that.
If closed properly the rings tension holds them in place no need for
solder
I am wondering what the convention is for chain mail used in items
of jewellery - whether it should be soldered or if its okay to
just close the jump rings tightly and leave it at that.
Generally, items made in a ‘chain maille (4 in 1) pattern’ don’t
need to be soldered. This is especially true if the piece is about
4 rows wide or wider… Any force exerted on the piece is spread out
over all the links & it’s effect on any one link is reduced. A
lot also depends on the gauge & temper of the wire the links are
made from. If the wire is of a half or full hard temper & 24 gauge
or heavier, soldering is probably not needed; assuming all the links
are closed flush & tight. However if you want a really ‘quality’
piece go for soldered links.
I’m still rather new here. I just finished my first barrel link Chainmaille bracelet out of 18 ga copper wire and out of curiosity searched “to solder or not to solder”. Although this post is old, I just wanted to say how much I love your guarantee! As much as the OCD in me would love to solder every single link of every chain, it would be extremely time consuming especially for a beginner like myself without special soldering tools such as a jewelry welder. I think your suggestion to offer not soldered at a lower price and soldered at a much higher price is a great way to go. Some people will be happy to pay the lower price.
Anyway, I realize you were answering someone else but you also answered my same question so thank you very much for sharing your thoughts on the subject.
FWIW, if you are not going to solder the links you should make them from something less likely to deform or open than copper. No matter how much you try to work harden it copper remains pretty soft, so unsoldered copper links will readily deform.
You can buy polished, spring-tempered bronze wire from McMaster-Carr for only a bit more than copper. BTW, 18ga is 0.40"
You can get copper to about 3/4 hard using a toaster oven @ 500 F for about half an hour. (I got this from an old Rio catalogue) This also works with silver. I coated my stuff with an alcohol - boric acid barrier; unless I was looking for oxide colouring. Age hardening is a standard industrial technique and you can find the appropriate times and temperatures for most metals with a bit of research.
Umm… no, I don’t think so. Pure copper, as well as pure sìlver, pure gold, etc., do not age harden. Age hardening requires a second metal, such as the copper in sterling, to migrate to, and recrystallize at, the crystal boundaries instead of being mixed with the silver. This drastically reduces the amount of deformation, such as stretching, that those boundaries can do, accounting for the increased hardness. In pure metals, there is no second metal to separate out of solution and migrate to and reçrystallize at the crystal boundaries. Now, there may be industrial copper alloys that have such additional metals, making age hardening possible. But they would normally be sold with some indication of that alloy.
Now, pure metals CAN be heat treated to get some hardening, be heatìng hot enough to get the primary metal to stàrt to recrystallize with crystals growing in size. This requires a hotter temperature than normal annealing, which only is hot enough to get the strains from work hardening to recrystallize into smaller crystals. This is quite above the temperature a toaster oven can reach, at least with silver. And generally, the increase in hardness is slight. And if the metal started out with work hardening, that would be lost at the temps needed to grow crystal size, so the end result would be metal only slightly harder than fully annealed, and with the loss in strength that the larger grain size would cause…
Peter…Thanks for always adding the why to the how. If you can recommend a metallurgy for metalsmiths reference that I can read and try to understand it would be appreciated…Rob
I was at a show this weekend and there was an artist there with copper chainmaille bracelets. I asked her if they were soldered and she said heavens no, they would be very difficult to do and, as a result, very expensive. Made me wonder if anyone solders them with a pulse arc welder…Rob
