project advice

[PupPryde]

I've had an idea for a project, a small/medium sized backpack/bag made largely of chainmail and leather (somewhat similar in appearance to those scalemail dice bags but on a larger scale), with the chainmaille being the weight bearing part of the bag, as such i'd need it to hold a few pounds of weight at least. any advice on whether this is feasible and any steps i can take to maximise strength?

[Kittensoft_Chainmail]

For keeping weight down, you would want to go with a heavy gauge small I.D aluminum. Something like 16 gauge 1/4" or 3/8" i.d. If you could solder, rivet or weld the ring together for even more strength.

 

Using steel would weigh too much, unless it's part of a weight training regime.😃

 

Titanium would be lighter, and stronger, than steel, but would be much more expensive.

 

Hope this helps.

Katrina Wolffe

Owner Artisan

Kittensoft Chainmail

[Konstantin the Red]

Solder wouldn't do it, but solid/punched, weld, or riveting (much less capital investment than welding gear) would work for that maximization.  For steel wire.

That said,  for a few pounds' burden, such extras won't be needed; you'd be giving the packstraps some breadth anyway.  The stiffness of your wire will handle the job.  If therefore you want to maximize that wire stiffness, select stainless wire and butted links for the job.  Only thing harder is high tensile wire out of cables and guy wires, and those latter are thickly galvanized.  Your main matter is selection of wire -- soft easy wire isn't what you want, nor black annealed tie-wire/rebar wire, which is also very soft.

You know you're dealing with really hard and stiff wire if you find you need small boltcutters to cut the rings from the coil.