Making a Chainmaille Coif

From start to Finish

With Pictures

By

Mailleman888

06 – 01 - 2010

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Well, here we go.

After a few weeks of hard slog and grind, sore back and stiff fingers, the open faced coif I have made is finally finished!

It was commissioned by my brother who saw a picture of one similar worn by his favourite wrestling champion, Scott Seiner.

Here it is.

(Steiner’s coif, not mine! That’s further on.)

Scroll down if you want to see pictures of it, but, keep reading, and let the adventure unfold, if you will.

So, me being the smartass I am, when he asked me if I could make him one, I immediately said, Yes! What a trip. There being almost no proper tutorials on the net to pave the way, I went into it one-eyed. I trolled Youtube,

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Howto, multiple searches on the ‘net, and finally, one dead-end after another, I had to nut it out myself.

The ‘tutorials’ all tell you how to start the darn thing. Not one of them tells you how to make the neck and shoulders in any sort of detail that made sense to me. I do apologise to anyone who has posted a description on the ‘net, but my mind works in mysterious and wonderful ways. Please forgive me.

So, as I was making this thing, I made the decision to document the process as best I could. And, if this little missive can help anyone, then my work is done. Let me know how you got on, as feedback is always welcome!

I started this project on the 26th, (I think), of December, 2009. My brother had come down from Auckland with his partner and child to spend Christmas with myself and my partner. It was great to see them, as living in the Bay of Plenty, it’s a bit far to go if we want to see each other on a regular basis.

This is by no means the end product. I will probably go over it in the future updating and editing as I go along. Please bear with me.

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Right, then. To begin.

I started, of course, by buying about four rolls of 16 gauge fencing tie wire, 30 meters per roll from our local Mitre 10 store. I then put them through my 10mm mandrel and made a few coils. Which I then cut down into jump rings. Lots and lots of jump rings.

I cut them using a 8 inch mini bolt cutter. Invaluable tool to have. Beats the side cutters I was going to use.

My brothers’ partner seemed quite fascinated with watching me do that. Even her hyper child didn’t faze her. Then, when I’d finished doing that, I sat down and started to make the top of the coif. That’s always the easy part. Being a relative newcomer to the Art of Chainmaille, the beginning is the most exciting part, I believe, as you are creating something that will, if looked after, will outlive you by generations.

Isn’t that absolutely astounding? When your body is just mouldy bones in a hole in the ground, your maille will still be wearable and usable. I cannot really put into words how humble that thought makes me feel.

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This coif is not the first thing I’ve made. My first project was a weightlifter’s singlet made in chainmaille. Here’s a pic of my brother modeling it:

Not the kind of guy you want to mess with, but, in the words of the song: “He aint heavy, he’s my brotherrrrrr!”

(That’s his missus in the background having a sneaky giggle!)

I wanted to fix up the sag on the sides of the singlet, but he was so in love with the thing, he wouldn’t hear of it. Ah, well, he got a good deal on it, so he’s happy.

It is made of 16 gauge fencing tie wire, and the shoulder straps are 14 gauge, to help carry the weight of the main body.

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So, here’s a pic of the start of the coif.

Starting with the first jump ring, I added 10 smaller rings, (10 in 1), about 7mm, 16 gauge, as the ones to attach the larger 10 mm jump rings to. I kept adding rings on the outside rows until the gaps became too large between them.

Then I added ‘floaters’ in between them at the 4th row. This gave me more room to work with. Most ‘maillers have their own way of doing it, some go 1 floater per two rings, some go more. As you go along you’ll find your own way of doing it. As I continually kept checking the fit and spacings on a regular basis, I worked out what helped, and what didn’t.

Also, as you can see, the tools I used throughout are flat-nosed pliers, which kept the burring of the rings to an absolute minimum. These, and a pair of snips the same size as them, became my only tools I used.

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As you will notice, the 2-on-1 outside rings do not mean anything at this stage. I wanted to find out if the coif would fit, or if it needed more rings. As it happened, it did.

And, I always kept an extra ring as a marker to remind me where my start/finish point was. I was continually losing my place, getting up to go to the……(no, you don’t really need to know that), getting a coffee, having or making dinner, yahdee, yahdee. So when I returned to my work, I’d pick it up, carry on my merry way, and then have to undo all that work, because it went up the spout.

So, as I added rows, the marker ring would be placed on the new row to be done. Take my advice. Do it as well. It may just save you some work down the track.

Right, here’s some shots of some added rows.

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You’ll notice here that there seems to be a lot of extra rings in this shot. That was because I thought the coif needed them, as the spaces between them was getting a bit big. But, after thinking about it, I removed them, and continued on as normal, and found that was the correct way to do it.

If you are a new starter to chainmaille, you WILL make a lot of mistakes. You will have to do and undo a lot of jump rings before you stop yourself and pay attention to what you are doing.

Big word of advice, here. Check, check, and recheck your work. Do a row, stop, study your rings, one by one, if necessary. Otherwise, you are just wasting your very valuable time if you make a mistake and have to go back and redo it.

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I kept adding rows until I got to the 15th row. Then, I added some 7mm, 16 gauge jump rings as a headband. Why? Because I looked at the pics of other coifs on the ‘net, and they all, without exception, ride up the forehead. I thought that looked sloppy, and didn’t have the ‘look’ I wanted. Hence, the ‘headband’.

Here’s a couple of shots, first one is at the 13th row, the next at the 14th.

Notice how it’s starting to fit?

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Here’s a shot looking at it from the top.

Here’s a shot of the headband taking shape.

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One more bit of advice. (I’m probably going to keep adding these, so get used to it). Get yourself a baseboard to work on. I almost got screamed at for doing my maille on my partners’ antique dinner table. I forgot. So what? (Yes, my love, I did, and do, apologise).

When you’ve slipped and gouged the table a few times, you’ll know what I mean. In the next pic, I made a double row of 7mm rings. This helps keep the headband straight, and looks good. I would have loved to do it in brass, but finding brass wire in New Zealand is like trying to find hen’s teeth.

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Here’s a closeup.

Here’s a shot of it on my head.

Next pic is how I made the 7mm jump rings.

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I drilled a hole into the handle of the screwdriver to anchor the wire, and then proceeded to spin the wire along the shaft.

Et Viola!

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This shot is a bit out of focus, but you get the idea.

As an aside, here’s a shot of a copper bracelet I made for my beautiful woman.

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After the headband was completed, I started on the avaintail, or neck guard for the piece. Here’s a few shots.

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The shot above shows a multitude of rings added, which I ended up taking out. By this stage I had added enough rings to reach my shoulder line. I was working out how to add rings to make the neck piece flow around the shoulder, rather than just hang straight down. I worked that out by making and adding two ‘dags’.

But I’m getting ahead of myself here. I counted fifteen rings back from the front. That cleared the shoulders. Then I added rings row by row 10 deep. I made 4 dags, in a 1-2-3-4-5, etc, triangular pattern, and fixed them at the 15th

ring.

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The thing to remember at this stage is do not add more rings to weave the dags onto the neck. Use the rings already there in the dag. These dags help to spread the avaintail to fit in a spread pattern.

Continue adding rings to fill up the patch.

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I didn’t get a shot of the finished patch, so this will have to do. The collar is fitting in quite nicely. Repeat the same pattern, but this time count 17 back, and then add the two remaining dags.

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Here is one side done. Notice how the dags help spread the collar over the shoulder?

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And here is the other side finished. I’m happy because the darn thing is finally finished!

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So, that’s it for the time being. Got any questions? Want something made? Email me at mailleman888@gmail.com, and I’ll get back to you, promise.

Ciao bella. May the One bless and keep you.

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