Author's Note
I wanted to contribute my tutorials to Chainmaillers.com to help ensure that the entire chainmaille community has access to them. The tutorials are presented here with the same images and text from my old site CGMaille. I hope they continue to help inspire you to learn and create many amazing pieces!
-Phong
Weave Background
European 4-1 is probably the most common weave used in maille-dom, due to its simplicity and ease of construction. It's most famous for being the weave used in European knights' armor. European 4-1 can be made using several techniques, such as one-ring-at-a-time (ORAAT), one-open-one-closed (OOOC) and others. This tutorial describes the OOOC style.
Aspect Ratio & Ring Sizes
European 4-1 can be made with ARs down to around 3. The smaller the AR, the tighter the weave will be. AR's above ~5 can be tricky to use for beginners, as the rings can flip around so they're backwards of how they're supposed to be. It's usually not a problem to flip them back around though.
Metric sizes - approximately 0.5mm wire with 2mm inner diameter; 0.6mm wire with 3mm inner diameter; 0.8mm wire with 3.5mm inner diameter; 1mm wire with 4mm inner diameter, 1.5mm wire with 6.5mm inner diameter, and so on.
Tutorial Color Scheme
New rings are brass, old rings are steel.
Step 1: Close 4 rings and put them on an open ring. Close the open ring, and lay the 'fivelet' out as shown.
Step 2: Close 2 rings and put them on an open ring. Pass the open ring down through the bottom right ring and up through the upper right ring from the fivelet.
Step 3: Close 2 more rings and put them on an open ring. Pass the open ring through the 2 closed rings from the previous step.
Step 4: Repeat Step 3 until the chain is the desired length.
Step 5: Close 2 rings and put them on an open ring. Pass the open ring through the 2 bottom rings from the initial fivelet.
Step 6: Close a ring and put it on an open ring. Pass the open ring through the bottom right ring from the previous step, and the next 2 rings from the chain.
Step 7: Repeat Step 6 until the chain is the desired length.
I wanted to contribute my tutorials to Chainmaillers.com to help ensure that the entire chainmaille community has access to them. The tutorials are presented here with the same images and text from my old site CGMaille. I hope they continue to help inspire you to learn and create many amazing pieces!
-Phong
Weave Background
European 4-1 is probably the most common weave used in maille-dom, due to its simplicity and ease of construction. It's most famous for being the weave used in European knights' armor. European 4-1 can be made using several techniques, such as one-ring-at-a-time (ORAAT), one-open-one-closed (OOOC) and others. This tutorial describes the OOOC style.
Aspect Ratio & Ring Sizes
European 4-1 can be made with ARs down to around 3. The smaller the AR, the tighter the weave will be. AR's above ~5 can be tricky to use for beginners, as the rings can flip around so they're backwards of how they're supposed to be. It's usually not a problem to flip them back around though.
Metric sizes - approximately 0.5mm wire with 2mm inner diameter; 0.6mm wire with 3mm inner diameter; 0.8mm wire with 3.5mm inner diameter; 1mm wire with 4mm inner diameter, 1.5mm wire with 6.5mm inner diameter, and so on.
Tutorial Color Scheme
New rings are brass, old rings are steel.
Step 1: Close 4 rings and put them on an open ring. Close the open ring, and lay the 'fivelet' out as shown.
Step 2: Close 2 rings and put them on an open ring. Pass the open ring down through the bottom right ring and up through the upper right ring from the fivelet.
Step 3: Close 2 more rings and put them on an open ring. Pass the open ring through the 2 closed rings from the previous step.
Step 4: Repeat Step 3 until the chain is the desired length.
Step 5: Close 2 rings and put them on an open ring. Pass the open ring through the 2 bottom rings from the initial fivelet.
Step 6: Close a ring and put it on an open ring. Pass the open ring through the bottom right ring from the previous step, and the next 2 rings from the chain.
Step 7: Repeat Step 6 until the chain is the desired length.
