Rob MacLennan

I keep it pretty simple. Large freezer bags for each type of metal, with smaller bags to sub-divide by gauge, size, and colour. The lot go in a plastic storage tub. For larger numbers of rings, as in the ones I use for armour, they go into large coffee cans that are labelled for size, gauge, and material.

Nope

And you only have to break one strand.

It's been a long time since I did any materials science stuff but my gut tells me that a welded 1/4", 18 gauge stainless shirt would be more stab resistant than a butted 1/4", 16 gauge stainless shirt. not by much though. The 18 gauge piece would be infinitely more wearable, too.

I would say that rather than being more aggressive, with a jeweler's saw blade, you need to go more slowly. It all depends on what you're using the jeweler's blade with. If you're using something like a Dremel Tool, that's high RPM, then you're going to burn through saw blades incredibly quickly. You want something that's high torque and low rpm, with a slow coil feed rate to take off a tiny bit at a time. You also want a lubrication system. Even then stainless is going to be far tougher on blades than the other metals that you've mentioned. Sometimes it's simply not cost effective to saw cut your own stainless. While I use a home made rig to cut aluminum, brass, and bronze, I buy my saw cut stainless rings.

Sorry, misread the sizes.

Got it! Thanks

So top connected to bottom, slots to the left closed off straight, and right side connected to the arm slot in the torso?

I got lucky. I managed most of that just by giving up diet soda and going back to the real thing. Not sure that I believe all of that "starvation mode" crap, but that worked for me.

Thought this might be of interest to some, or at least to some visitors here. A gaming pub in Guelph, Ontario, Canada (about an hour from Downtown Toronto) is hosting occasional introductory chainmail sessions, which they announce on their Facebook site. Tonight's is Helm Chain. If interested, here's their Facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/theroundtabletavern/ ... and their website... http://roundtabletavern.com/

Nice

One of the things that I have coming up is a rebuild of a scale shirt I made using aluminum rings, that I plan on replacing with carbon or stainless. It needs a reprofiling (I'm both better now and have lost 40 pounds), so I'd be really interested in seeing that shoulder design when you've got time.

Depends upon the permissible sizes and gauges for a given weave, how stiff or loose you want the weave to be, overall finished size, and the look you're going for.

And yes, you could alternatively use something like 5 triangular sections, with 45 degree joins, to make the bottom of the bag. I frequently use this method to make the top of coifs.