[nerd]Selling chainmail online?[/nerd]

Nerdtendo

Back in highschool, I had a short lived hobby of making chainmail. While I haven't done it for seven years or so, I still know how. I've seen sites that sell chainmail hauberks and such for a decent amount, and I've thought about picking up the hobby again to see if I could earn a few extra bucks.

The materials are very cheap, and the only other thing I'll end up losing is time I'd spend blowing shit up online. I could probably also go to LARP sessions and stuff and show off anything I make.

Now, of course, this is all speculation right now, and my lack of motivation might prevent me from going anywhere with it. But do you think there's enough of a market for this kind of thing? I mean, a full hooded hauberk can go for anywhere between 1,000-1500, but could take hours to make. If it takes me a few months just to sell one, it might not be worth the time and effort.

StudioAudience

Dunno much about chainmail, but I did a search for chainmail hauberk on ebay and came across a couple for around 200 shipped. I've no idea if this would be of similar quality of what you would be making though, so it would be worth checking out. Which sites had them for 1000-1500?

http://cgi.ebay.com/CHAINMAIL-SHIRT-CHAIN-MAIL-HAUBERK-with-COIF-SCA-ARMOR_W0QQitemZ190158323130QQihZ009QQcategoryZ19255QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Improvolone

There IS a market. Work out simple designs, as well as custom patterns. The simple ones will work for the people who just need something, and the custom work is a good thing to show off for people with more money to spend on their costume.
Going to LARPs is a great idea, remember small and large groups. Both have players with money. There are two ways to do this, contact the company and say, "Hey, I want to seel my wares" or become a player, and when people say "wow thats awesome!" you can say, "I'd love to sell you some."
Also consider recreation groups, tho they may demand higher specificicaitions.
Also renne faires. You will need a booth for this.
Don't forget to also make women's clothing, ie bikinis, thongs, shit like that. Headpieces, jewlrey, anything.
Draw some plans. Consider doing more complicated patterns than just the basic 4 in 1.

Nerdtendo

$1250

I'm not sure what the quality is like on theirs. It looks pretty great from the picture, though. Looks like they welded each ring closed, that's probably a good portion of the price. If I wanted to really go all out, I could see about a small welding torch too. I have no experience in welding, so I might end up burning off a finger.

I might have to look elsewhere if I wanted to earn a few extra bucks. Making an entire shirt would take a long time. It was just something that popped into my head today. I do have the extra time though, I might see about getting the supplies needed when I have a few extra bucks, see what people think.

Improvolone

Honestly, chances are they soldered them. To weld that many small pieces... it retarded.
Soldersodlersolder

To cut down on costs and time, definitly reconsider closing the loops like that.

Xaquin

Welding each ring on a Hauberk would take forever

I thought about doing this too until I realized that cutting each ring and assembling etc. would take far more time then just getting a job.

Are you thinking about just getting spools of wire or pre cut rings?

DrFrylock

There is a market for this sort of thing, especially with quality workmanship. From what I understand, however, making chainmail is a time-consuming and labor intensive process (whether you just pinch the rings or solder them or whatever) and so you have to just do a simple bit of math to find out how much your time is worth. If you spend 20 hours and sell your creation for $1000, then you've made $50 an hour, which is equivalent to a salary of $100,000 a year. That's pretty good. However, it's more likely that you'll spend 200 hours to sell a thing for $1000, and so then you're only making McWages.

Improvolone

Drill a small hole through the end of a dowel.
Instert the dowel into a drill.
Instert one end of wire into the hole, and have someone slowly start the drill.
Walk the wire down the dowel as it wraps around.
Remove dowel from the drill.
Take a rotary tool with a cut off disk, and run it down the dowel, cutting off all of the rings into individual circles.


To "weave", set up two posts sticking up with a string connection the top. Put X number of rings on the string and this is your top row. For the second row, link each ring through the two above it. Continue this, and you will get a sheet of chain mail. This is the quickest and best way that I am familiar with doing this.

Oh, and for the love of GOD, get two good pliers with flat squared ends, better to pinch and bend the ring with.

Dyrwen66

My girlfriend makes chainmail jewelery and has for the past few years. When she did it more "full-time" and wasn't in school learning how to make better stuff as she is now, she could manage a halfway decent income. It takes a lot of commissions at local shops or heavy advertising in the area. I'd say to hit up local jewelery shops and see if they have consignments and the like.

As far as materials, I know of "the ring lord" as a locale online that sells them cheap, or so I'm told. If you've got more practical questions that you'd want to ask of someone who is in the business, lemme know and I'll see if my gf could just reply or something.

edit: she hasn't updated 'er site in a bit, but as such, you can see what market of product exists for maille: link. iirc earrings and necklaces are decent money on a long term basis, which would help pay bills and the like if you were working on a major "armor" like product in the meantime.

Xaquin

I made what looks like a spit out of 2x4s and a steel rod going through it bent into a handle. I then clamped the end of the wire to one side and turned the rod. Worked like a charm. I'd have coils of brass about 18" long to cut. I tried to find a way to cut them using a Dremel, but every way I tried ended up with rings flying every which way so I went back to wire clippers (ugh).

I'll have to post some pics tonight if I remember.

edit: I remember buying wire from the ringlord hehe .... It's been a long while

edit the second: I used catalogues from this site to order most anything I needed that I couldn't find localy. They have a ton of stuff.

http://www.metalliferous.com/

LiveWire

Enchant it with +10 Skill with Axes and sell it for 350 Rupees.

Improvolone

Xaquin wrote: »

I made what looks like a spit out of 2x4s and a steel rod going through it bent into a handle. I then clamped the end of the wire to one side and turned the rod. Worked like a charm. I'd have coils of brass about 18" long to cut. I tried to find a way to cut them using a Dremel, but every way I tried ended up with rings flying every which way so I went back to wire clippers (ugh).

I'll have to post some pics tonight if I remember.

edit: I remember buying wire from the ringlord hehe .... It's been a long while

edit the second: I used catalogues from this site to order most anything I needed that I couldn't find localy. They have a ton of stuff.

http://www.metalliferous.com/

Wire clippers will produce a worse product as it pinches the ends, not cuts it.
You need to cut it to make a good seam when you bend the ring back into shape. Practice with ways to use the rotary, unless there is some other option that I don't know about. You could also use a jewlers saw. It's basicly a small hacksaw with a very fine metal cutting blade.
I also suggest aluminum wire, as you can get it coloured and it's signifigantly lighter.

Xaquin

Improvolone wrote: »

Xaquin wrote: »

I made what looks like a spit out of 2x4s and a steel rod going through it bent into a handle. I then clamped the end of the wire to one side and turned the rod. Worked like a charm. I'd have coils of brass about 18" long to cut. I tried to find a way to cut them using a Dremel, but every way I tried ended up with rings flying every which way so I went back to wire clippers (ugh).

I'll have to post some pics tonight if I remember.

edit: I remember buying wire from the ringlord hehe .... It's been a long while

edit the second: I used catalogues from this site to order most anything I needed that I couldn't find localy. They have a ton of stuff.

http://www.metalliferous.com/

Wire clippers will produce a worse product as it pinches the ends, not cuts it.
You need to cut it to make a good seam when you bend the ring back into shape. Practice with ways to use the rotary, unless there is some other option that I don't know about.
I also suggest aluminum wire, as you can get it coloured and it's signifigantly lighter.

Oh I know .... I never made it for other people and I never minded the pinched rings hehe

Aluminum is easier to cut and is less expensive definatly, but I always used brass. To each his own I'm in no way an expert at this stuff, but I always had fun doing it.

Nerdtendo

Xaquin wrote: »

Welding each ring on a Hauberk would take forever

I thought about doing this too until I realized that cutting each ring and assembling etc. would take far more time then just getting a job.

Are you thinking about just getting spools of wire or pre cut rings?

Spools of wire. It will allow me more freedom with the size of rings, and it's really easy to make the rings anyways.

Both my sister and my fiance design clothes (sister works for macy's designing purses), so I'll have some decent input from reliable sources.

I used steel in the past with wire cutters. A small hacksaw would work great though. I'll look into that.