In medieval times, armorers who made chainmail would draw out their own wire by hand to whatever thickness they desired. They probably didn’t have standard gauges like we do today. Nowadays you can just go to a hardware store and buy wire in large spools, and it will all be a uniform thickness.
But what gauge of wire is the best for making chainmail armor? The gauge of wire that you choose depends on 3 main factors: The diameter of your rings, the type of metal that you choose, and what your chainmail will be used for. Generally speaking, 16 gauge wire, or roughly 1.6 millimeters, is a good thickness to use for many chainmail projects, including shirts and coifs. If you’re making butted chainmail then 16 gauge wire will give the rings enough strength so that they don’t open up too easily. It also works well for riveted mail because it’s wide enough for a hole to be pierced through for rivets.
Of course this doesn’t mean that 16 gauge wire is the best choice for every type of chainmail project. In historical examples we see many examples of finer wire being used even for chainmail shirts. In this article I’ll explain how and why different thicknesses of wire were used for different applications in chainmail, and hopefully give you some insight so that you can decide which will work best for your chainmail project.
The Diameter of The Rings
One of the first things you should consider before you start your chainmail project is the diameter of the rings. Most people who make chainmail as a hobby probably make butted mail, where the ends of the rings are simply pressed against each other. Because there is nothing keeping the rings from coming apart, we have to rely on the strength of the rings themselves to resist opening. In general, a smaller diameter ring will resist opening more than a larger diameter ring of the same thickness.
However, there are advantages to using larger rings. The main advantage is that it takes much less time to make a project with larger rings, because it will take fewer rings to complete than the same project made out of small rings. Larger rings will also make a more prominent pattern that will show up better in pictures. For people who make chainmail for costume purposes, that can sometimes be a concern.
If you want to make butted chainmail with larger diameter rings, for example three-quarters of an inch or greater, then it would probably help to use a thicker wire to give the rings a bit more strength. The last thing you want is for your chainmail to start losing rings because they start to deform and come apart.
The Weight of Your Project
The size and weight of your chainmail project will also affect the thickness of wire that you should use. If you want to make something like a chainmail shirt, which can weigh over 25 pounds if you use steel rings, then the rings have to be able to support the weight of that shirt without deforming. However, if you’re making something smaller and lighter, like a coif or collar, then the rings don’t need to be quite as strong.
Even for something as heavy as a chainmail shirt, 16 gauge steel wire is strong enough as long as your ring diameters are not too large. Rings with an internal diameter of less than half an inch should be perfectly fine. Any larger than that and you might start running into some trouble with the rings coming apart. Again, this is only a problem if you are making butted chainmail. Riveted mail can afford to have larger rings with thinner wire because the riveted construction keeps the rings from coming apart.
The Type of Metal
The material that you choose to make your chainmail project with will also affect your decision of how thick to make the rings. Some of the most common types of wire to make chainmail out of are mild steel, aluminum, galvanized steel, and stainless steel. Occasionally titanium rings are also used. The picture above shows some bright aluminum chainmail that I’ve been working on.
If you use a lighter metal like aluminum or titanium, then you can afford to use thinner gauge wire for larger projects, because they won’t weigh as much. For instance, if you’re making a butted chainmail shirt, then you can potentially use thinner wire and larger ring diameters then if you made the same shirt out of steel wire. Aluminum does have its limits though. Because it’s a softer metal, it deforms fairly easily, so it can still fall apart if your rings are too wide or if the gauge is too thin. If you want to be sure that your aluminum chainmail won’t fall apart then 16 gauge is a good thickness to use.
Steel on the other hand is much heavier, but it’s also stronger than aluminum. Even mild steel wire, which is relatively soft for steel, has a tensile strength higher than that of aluminum. It can also be hardened to resist deforming even more. So even though it will be significantly heavier than an aluminum shirt, the trade-off of strength is something to consider.
As a side note, I don’t recommend galvanized steel wire for chainmail. If you want corrosion resistance then stainless steel is a better option in my opinion. Even normal steel will resist rust if you take care of it properly. If you’re considering using galvanized steel then you might want to check out another article that I wrote on why not to use galvanized steel for chainmail.
Different Uses for Chainmail
The gauge of wire that you choose also depends on what you intend to use your chainmail for. If it’s intended to be used only for costume purposes then the wire doesn’t need to be especially thick or strong. The wire could be super thin and it wouldn’t really matter because it doesn’t need to protect you from anything.
If you intend to use your chainmail in any kind of combat then I recommend that you don’t use any wire under 16 gauge. Even though there are some historical examples of chainmail shirts with very small and fine rings, I don’t think that you should risk injury by using thinner wire. Chainmail is not impenetrable or unbreakable. In my opinion, the thicker the wire that you use, the less likely that any of the rings will fail during combat.
Another reason to use at least a 16 gauge wire for combat is that it’s much easier to rivet. Wire that’s less than 16 gauge doesn’t give you much surface area to work with, even after you flatten it out. This makes it very difficult to pierce or drill a hole for a rivet. 16 gauge wire will give you a nice wide tab of metal to work with after you flatten it. In the picture above you can see a close up of the riveted section of some stainless steel chainmail that I made. If you’d like to see how I made it, check out this article.
Riveted mail is much stronger than butted mail and therefore much safer to use for combat. In fact I don’t recommend that you attempt any kind of combat with butted mail at all. The possibility that the rings will separate is much higher with butted chainmail. So if you want to use your chainmail for fighting, then I recommend that you make riveted chainmail, and use at least 16 gauge steel wire.
Summary
All in all, 16 gauge wire is a good choice for a lot of chainmail projects. That’s not to say that you can’t use thinner or thicker wire if you want to, but 16 gauge is kind of a happy medium. Thinner wire is good for very small rings, and thicker wire is usually good for larger rings.