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Making Butted Roman Lorica Hamata (chainmail):

The Basics of constructing Lorica Hamata, and tricks to speed up production

By Robert Wear

Why Should You Read This Page?

As usual for me, this is a guide for making something. I won’t bother much with the explanations of how we know what it looked like and such. There are sites already that do a much better job of that than I can do and I’m not going to try to compete. I will tell you however that we are pretty sure most, if not ALL Roman Lorica Hamata was made in an alternating solid ring (stamped) and riveted ring pattern. However, all the Roman reenactment groups I know of still allow butted maille with a small enough ring size. This page discusses butted mail for Roman reenactors who are new with chainmail (and tools in general) and want a pattern to go off.

What Size Wire and Rings….. And Why?

My best suits, the type I’m going to discuss are Ľ inch inner diameter rings made from 17 gauge wire. Why seventeen gauge? For one thing, it’s about the perfect strength vs. weight ratio for Ľ” rings. Another reason (the more important) is that it is the second most widely available wire size in half mile spools. Half mile spools are by far the cheapest way to buy wire for someone making a full suit of chainmail. My last half mile spool cost me about 22 dollars. One half mile spool was just enough for me to finish one suit and have a little extra. If you are bigger than me, you may need a little more, but I doubt it. One quarter and half mile spools are available at every tractor supply, co-op, or feed store I know of. It’s really galvanized steel electric fence wire. The galvanization is a layer of zinc that protects the steel from corrosion. After finishing the hamata, it’s most authentic to take the zinc off with vinegar, but we’ll get to that later. So just run in the Co-op like you own the place and say “I need some electric fence wire.”

As well, I’ve made 5 suits of chainmail and two of this type. I’ve found a few SIMPLE ways that will take big chunks out of your production time.

Making Your Own Coils

I make my coils with a steel dowel, electric drill, and a self designed poorly constructed mandrel. Once you get the setup built, you can coil a half mile of wire in under 2 hours. I never timed myself when I was making mine, but James Howard did all his in roughly 90 minutes on his first night trying it.

1. Get a Dowel

Now that you have your wire, you need to make coils to cut the rings from. First, you need to get a Ľ” diameter steel dowel to wrap your coil with. Three foot long dowels like the ones found at the Lowes or tractor supply do nicely, although they are ridiculously priced since you are buying such a small amount. They can be anywhere from 3 to 5 dollars a piece. If you have access to a good drill press and someone who can use it, drill a tiny hole just slightly bigger than the wire about three inches from either side. It can be done without the hole, but it’s a little bit more efficient with it.

2. Find a Drill

Any drill with a chuck and key will do. Borrowing works just as well as buying. The BEST drill to use is a variable speed drill with a plug in cord. If you use a battery drill you’ll go through several recharges before finishing. Battery drills are also less powerful and turn slower. The variable speed allows you to start out slow and then “gun it” once you’ve got it well started. Single speeds work too, but you get more mistakes to sort out. Yet again, I’ve used them all; variable speed plug-in version is the best.

3. Building the Mandrel

Start out by finding a piece of plywood or shelving board several inches wider than your spool. Mine is about 16”x16”, but I’d say 16”x10" is probably just as good or better. You’ll also need a section of 2x4, 3 foot or longer. Everything in my mandrel is made from materials I literally saved from the trash. I’ve made three different mandrels. My first two I lent to people who never gave them back. With every one I've made, they’ve gotten progressively simpler because it doesn’t need to be pretty and you’ll only need it about 2 hours per suit. Below you can see my mandrel. Its looking a little beat up, but it's coiled enough wire for 5 suits. It's lived way longer than I expected.

First, cut the uprights. You’ll need four total. The front two only need to be 6" tall, and the back two should be tall enough that you can put a dowel through to hold your spool. Alternatively, if your base board is thick enough, you can avoid cutting the back two by simply put a dowel straight into the base board as seen below. With this design, the spool/spindle just sits on its side. This may actually be better than my current mandrel because the weight of the wire will keep tension while you are coiling.

The front two posts are what you feed your metal dowel through and is where the wrapping of wire actually happens. The one towards the inside of the board needs to have a Ľ inch hole cut in it. At the same spot on the other one (the one on the edge of the base) you need to cut a 3/8 hole. The holes can be bigger, (and will grow bigger from wear and tear) but those sizes are ideal.

The first part of assembly is to attach the front uprights. A couple well placed screws from underneath will hold it, but make sure you pre-drill the holes with a smaller size bit first or else, you’ll split your 2x4’s. They need to be positioned so that the steel dowel will go through both easily and that the one with the bigger hole is toward the edge of the base.

WEAVING 4 in 1

Rather than writing another section about how to weave four in one chainmail, I've found someone who does things exactly like I do. This site uses the method I started using after timing myself using various methods. It is by far the most efficient way I've found.