...Here's most of the Ring Types I Use...
And what I most commonly use them for
Inner Diameters listed here are the size of the mandril the wire was
wound on. Inner diameters of the links shown here may be larger than
what is listed here, but only bt a very small fraction of an inch...
like 1/100 or something. This is because some of the springier metals
like stainless steel and bronze tend to unwind or spring back just a
little when winding is done. Its nothing to worry about but I just
thought it might be worth mentioning.
A. 3/8"ID, 16 gauge Stainless Steel. This is left over from the second
shirt I made, during a short time when I used a Dremel Tool to cut up
my springs. I stopped cutting with a Dremel because it was hard to get
a nice clean cut with no burrs, but the rings that came out good had
almost seamless closures...the super thin cutting discs were also kinda
expensive and tended to shatter and fly into my face.
B. This is a 'twisted' ring. Its made by twisting together two pieces
of 18ga Mild Steel wire. Every time I've tried this with stainless the
wire breaks. Next time I'll try it with a strand of brass wire and a
strand of mild steel, both will be 18 gauge. The inner diameter of this
ring is about 3/8 of an inch.
C. This one is a 3/8"ID, 14 gauge Galvanized Steel ring. I use these
for making maile glove palms for live steel practice and for making
chainmaile "rocks"...
D. 16ga, 5/16"ID Stainless Steel. This is now one of my favorite things
to make armor out of.
E. 16 gauge Bronze, Inner Diameter is just a hair larger than 1/4 inch.
This is what I made my Lorica Hamata out of. Hellish stuff to work with
but I need to get more of it. It also smells for a while but that seems
to go away after a while.
F. 1/4"ID, 16 gauge Brass. I use this stuff alot for trim on my maile
shirts. I also used this type of ring to make a mantle with dags for
a friends leather jacket.
G. WELDED 1/4"ID, 16ga Stainless Steel ring. This is the only welded
ring I've ever made but I like it so I put it here :^) I can't remember
what I welded it with. It was either a very tiny MIG welder when I was
taking a welding class in high school or Gregory Finche's gas welder.
H. 1/4"ID, 16ga Aluminum. This is some really good stuff. I used it on
my full suit of maile in places that I did not want a lot of wieght,
like on my arms, lower legs and feet. I like working with this stuff
because I get tired and need to sleep before needing to take a break
to rest tired muscles.
I. 1/4"ID, 18ga Mild Steel. This is one of my favorite rings for boxchains.
J. This rings inner diameter is about 1/8 of an inch, its made from
18 gauge Stainless Steel. I use these for really tight weave euro4-1,
thats the stuff alot of my jewelry is made out of. I aslo use these
as the vertical rings in some of my oriental weaves and use larger
rings as the horizontal ones. Also used as the smallest ring in my fades.
K. 20 gauge Stainless Steel, 1/8 inch inner diameter. I use this type
of ring for some of my jewelry stuff and whatever else I might need
some really small rings for. One thing I've been working on with these
is a glove...
L. This is the penny on the far left. the 'L' is kinda hard to see
because its in the middle of the penny. Its just here to have
something to look at instead of a buncha boring chainmaile rings.
Its also here as a size comparison to all the other rings pictured.
M. 18 gauge Stainless Steel, need to find out the size...
I use this in stuff thats fade from small to large rings. By
itsself it makes a pleasing european 4 in 1.
N. 18 gauge Stainless Steel, Also need to find out this ones ID.
I use this in fades, it also makes a nice european 4 in 1 and boxchain.
O. 18 gauge Stainless Steel, 1/4 inch inner diameter. I use this
in fades, boxchains, and sometimes for a very loose european four in one.
P. 18gauge Stainless Steel, 5/16 inch inner diameter. The only thing
I use this size for is the largest rings in a fade of ring sizes.
This is a picture of the smallest rings I've ever used... I'm not sure
exactly what inner diameter or gauge they are so I put them in a 1/4"
ID 16 gauge ring and stuck a penny next to it.. I really don't think I'll
ever make anything with rings this small.
I did a little more work on the microsquirrelmaile and
scanned in a picture of it stuck to Abe's head (on a five dollar bill)
cause it was the only way I could think of to do it that did not look
like it could be a fake... think Abe would look good in a coif?
I did a