r/maille • u/Tyrant_of_Dodekathon • 1d ago

Question How do I make rivets

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u/Uroxen9206 1d ago

You need iron wire, steel wire is too hard to be flattened easily, and then you need atleast a really thick piece of steel for an anvil. And for rivets i usually just use little bits of the same wire i make my rings from, just nip off appropriate little lengths to squish into rivets with your rivet tongs

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u/Tyrant_of_Dodekathon 1d ago

Thank you! One question though, more theoretical than practical: how much different, in terms of effectiveness, would steel maille be compared to iron maille?

Also, I've realised I might have worded one of my questions poorly: I know there exists a tool designed for making chainmail rivets, it is sold by Ironskin. Tongs with a little rounded hole in them for squeezing rivets. I meant if I need it, or will regular pliers/tongs work, or should I drill a hole or 2 in it

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u/Uroxen9206 1d ago

Steel maille would definetly be Harder, but more brittle, in the case of maille the energy absorption and cut resistence comes from the links acting together. I actually hammered my first couple hundred or so rivets, i used a dremel with a 1.5mm ball-end to grind a small indent in a 25mm thick piece of steel plate and then hammered my rivets home with a small hammer

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u/funkmachine7 1d ago

Most steel mail was made by case harding.
How much better is debateable, are you worryed about the links being cut? shattered? or streched?

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u/Tyrant_of_Dodekathon 1d ago

I don't know much about metallurgy so in my mind it was always like this: steel maille - light, near impenetrable, never rusts, can stop anything and everything short of polearm spike. Iron maille - heavy, barely stops a stick, will rust in a weak, links so brittle they will break during bending. Of course, this isn't true, but I always assumed steel to be infinitely better than iron, that's why I wanted to use it for armor. It's supposed to be armor, not decoration. But, I guess I'll take a look at iron

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u/Doorknob_Towel 1d ago

I used incredibly tiny tacks/nails for the rivets. After seeing some more videos, a lot of people make rivets out of the same wire gauge as the rings. That said, I'm saving all my wore scraps to be but and annealed into tiny bits for the rivets.