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![[image loading]](http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/8668/pgcibanner.jpg)
Hello and welcome to Pholon’s Guide to: Chainmail Inlays. Follow this guide and you too will soon be able to make chainmail inlays like the examples below. The guide will run through a threesome of parts: The Rings, The Weave and The Inlay. These part can individually be read and practised. However, it is pivotal that you do so in this very order. The Rings will tell you how to make your own rings, The Weave will provide an overview of the classic Euro 4-1 weave and The Inlay will get you started on your own inlay. But let’s have a little introduction first shall we
In the middle ages warriors used to don themselves in vests (or entire “hauberks”) made of interlinked metal rings. Due to the way in which these rings were linked, the material was able to cushion incoming blows and became the next evolution of armour: clothing with the purpose of protecting oneself. Chainmail lost most of its usefulness in combat after the introduction of the longbow but is now still applied by butchers and sharkdivers.
This is how awesome chainmail is:
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Taken from Deadliest Warrier Ep. 2: Samurai vs Viking![[image loading]](http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/6613/chainmailawesome.gif)
An “inlay” is a pattern within a sheet of mail. Using differently coloured metals, making figures using coloured rings is much like making a picture using pixels. The inlay we will be working towards in this guide will be based on TL’s beloved icon for the Zerg race:
![[image loading]](http://www.teamliquid.net/tlpd/images/Zicon_small.gif)
. In the spoiler are some other examples of chainmail inlays. + Show Spoiler [Examples] +
Disclaimer
I guarantee in no way that chainmail will offer protection from zergling and/or zealot attacks
My first inlay: the MBC Heroes logo.
![[image loading]](http://94.100.114.123/516850001-516900000/516852501-516852600/516852528_5_ScaM.jpeg)
An inlay I did of the Fire Glyph emblem from Soul Reaver
![[image loading]](http://img189.imageshack.us/img189/1015/dsc1960.jpg)
And this one is pretty extreme o_o
![[image loading]](http://www.mailleartisans.org/gallery/pics/14988crdbunny.jpg)
An inlay I did of the Fire Glyph emblem from Soul Reaver
And this one is pretty extreme o_o
Disclaimer
I guarantee in no way that chainmail will offer protection from zergling and/or zealot attacks
The Rings
You need a number of things for making rings. They are, in the order of purchase/use:
- Metal wire
Metal wire can be bought at most DIY stores and/or welding companies. Inlays require two or more colours. Therefore, a short overview of differently coloured metal wire types:
> Galvanised Iron (Galvy)
Colour: Grey. Galvanised Iron, or Galvy for short, can be found pretty much in any DYI and in the most diverse sizes. It is cheap, easily obtained and legal in most countries.
> Brass
Colour: Yellow. Brass is more expensive than galvy but still sold at many DIY stores. It’s usually very thin (1.0 – 0.8mm) and not very suitable for bigger sheets
> Copper
Colour: Orange. Copper is fairly expensive nowadays but it is very stong and abundant in a lot of different sizes. You can get some for free if you raid the electric cables in squater’s homes.
> Aluminium (or Aluminum for the yanks)
Colour:Silvery white. Aluminium is sold at the better welding companies but is usually not available any thinner than 1.6mm. It is also brittle and will break if bent too far. - A rod or a mandrel.
From the wire we will be making coils from which individual rings can be cut.
At most DIY stores you can buy metal rods of varying sizes. I’d advise getting a 6 or 8mm rod, but alternatively you can buy a large nail or nick your mum’s knitting pins for a smaller rod diameter. However, for practise, stick with bigger rings: 8 or 10mm. Around our newly obtained long round object we will be coiling our earlier obtained wire using an: - Electric drill
That’s right. I can’t be fucked with Medieval puritans when I get the opportunity to work with POWER TOOLS. The method of coiling I use is very base: just bend the end of the wire at a 90° angle and insert it, with the rod, into the drill. Start the drill (slowly!) and pull the wire so it will neatly coil around the rod. This will require some practise but don’t be afraid to screw a few rings up. When you’re working with thousands of rings you just throw the less pretty ones out. In the spoiler is a short vid on how to coil using this method: - Pincers
Pincers are the kind of pliers you can use to cut the rings off of the coil you made. Make sure you cut the wire the same angle at which you cut the previous one so that the ends will meet.
Now that you made a nice batch of rings (for our little project you’d need about 250 iron, 250 copper) you’re set for the next part :D
The Weave
There are many patterns in which one can link rings. These patterns are called weaves (A great overview can be found at Mail Artisans). Historically, two patterns occur: Japanese and European. The Japanese used only small patches to protect the neck and the impact absorbing potency of the weave was far inferior to that of the European weaves (interesting detail: In the TV series Heroes the replica Samurai outfit Hiro finds in the museum has a European weave. However, as he travels back in time, the actual armour worn by Adam has a sheet of Japanese weave.).
The weave this guide will focus on is European 4 in 1, or Euro 4-1 for short. It is the most famous chainmail weave, with an authentic historical background and used frequently in populair media like the LotR films.
Step 1 - Units - The name derives from every ring going through 4 other rings. Because of this, we can sart by closing 4 rings and opening one. Looping the open ring through the other four and consequently closing it makes us the first building block of our weave: a Euro 4-1 “unit”.
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![[image loading]](http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/5884/66178477.jpg)
Step 2 - Rows - After we make a bunch of these units we can interlink them using more open rings. These strings we will call “rows”. The pattern that forms is 2-1-2-1-2-1-2-1-and so on. When making a patch, the rows you make should be a bit longer than the length you want the patch to be.
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![[image loading]](http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/6439/47285004.jpg)
Step 3 - Connecting rows - After you’ve made several rows comes the difficult part: interlinking them. Don’t worry if you fail the first time, practise it a couple of times and I promise you will get the hang of it. Lay out two rows and make sure the 2s and the 1s of the first row are facing the same way (or making the same angle with the surface on which you’re working) as the 2s and the 1s of the second row. The next part is hard to explain without a picture, so here goes:
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![[image loading]](http://img8.imageshack.us/img8/8031/98813784.jpg)
Take a good look at it. The orange ring goes through the bottom 2 rings of the upper row and the upper two rings of the bottom row at the same angle the 1s. Don’t start at the very end but rather somewhere in the middle which makes it much easier to do.
Step 4 - Making the ends meet - Personaly I like to work from left-to-right (I’m left-handed though) so after the first ring I like to put in the rings at the very end
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![[image loading]](http://img8.imageshack.us/img8/5061/78948589.jpg)
Step 5 - Rinse 'n repeat - After that just keep adding rings to completely connect the two rows and keep adding rows to make your patch larger. Once you get the hang of it it’s very easy and you can watch movies or VODs while working on your patch.
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![[image loading]](http://img8.imageshack.us/img8/7714/38619252.jpg)
The Inlay
When you get the hang of the Euro 4-1 weave you’re ready to start designing an inlay. Of course you can try something freehand but it’s very difficult so let’s look at how you can make a design beforehand. First, you need a clean design, much like the one below.
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(click to enlarge)
![[image loading]](http://img31.imageshack.us/img31/1365/inlaygridblanco.th.png)
![[image loading]](http://img31.imageshack.us/i/inlaygridblanco.png/)
In this guide I’ll make an inlay of the zerg logo:
. Let’s have a closer look at this logo first![[image loading]](http://img190.imageshack.us/img190/4930/hydra1.png)
As you can see, the logo has multiple shades of red (and indeed, most images have multiple colours!) whereas we only have a limitd amount of colours when if comes to metal. The actual inlay will be copper/iron (orange/grey) so I first reduced the amount of colours to three: full red, full grey and a halfway red. You can use anything from MS Paint to checkered paper for this. The result is a much more comprehensible image:
![[image loading]](http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/9415/hydra2.png)
Because the rings are in a kind of slanted pattern, you need several rings to make a single pixel. A neat way to do this is have 4 rings per pixel (what I used for the MBC Hero logo):
![[image loading]](http://img31.imageshack.us/img31/5875/pixel.png){kind=tracking}
For the Zerg logo I used 2 rings per pixel. It makes the design look a bit streched out, but in the final design you can stretch the parth out, making it look much better. Therefore: 2 rings for a grey pixel, 2 rings for a red pixel. For the half-red pixels I coloured one of the two rings in that pixel. The final design then comes down to:
![[image loading]](http://img31.imageshack.us/img31/6609/hydrainlayfull.png)
Remember the rows we worked with? The next step will be figuring out what the rows in our design are. This is a bit of a puzzle, but making in stead of making the pattern on ring at a time will be so much quicker. I highlighted a single row in the picture below. From the rows you can deduce the separate units.
![[image loading]](http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/4353/image7qec.png)
I first made the separate rows and joined the ends to keep an overview. The product will look like this:
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Warning! This pic is really shit!+ Show Spoiler +![[image loading]](http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/3905/1003424.jpg)
After you’re done with the rows start interlinking them. Remember to pay attention to what colour rings to use! I’ll admit it will take some figuring out (and perhaps some cursing and raging) but remember: practise makes perfect! The final product will look like this:
(click to enlarge)
![[image loading]](http://img199.imageshack.us/img199/4430/dsc1952.jpg)
Altough I don’t expect anyone to use this guide (or even read it) I hope that, for those who will, it is a comprehensive tool worthy of the name guide. If you have any question feel free to post in the topic or PM me
Bonus Poll
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Bonus Image
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<3
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