Some Things We've Learned

That are important for maillers. More to come as we learn more.

• 1/16" = 1.5875 mm (mm = INCHES x 25.4, inches = mm/25.4)
• Coke or Pepsi can clean the tarnish from brass and copper, given a little time.
• Coke or Pepsi syrup can clean engine parts. Nasty stuff.
• Most toothpastes can clean the tarnish from silver.
• There's nothing cooler than sharing the joy of a finished project with another mailler.
• Riveted maille is devilishly hard to do, long live butted maille.
• Gauges are not what they seem. Get a caliper and measure your wire and ID, who knows what they really are.
• Using shower curtain rings is a good way to demonstrate chainmaille construction.
• Coat hangers can be used as wire for maille if you're stretched for cash.
• Shaving a single second off the time it takes to close a ring will save you 1.4 hours of mailleing time over the course of 5000 links. This is a VERY important point. Many experienced chainmaillers don't even blink at a 20,000 or 40,000 ring project. You'd save 11.1 hours over the course of 40,000 rings.
      It's easy to save time during link closure. Practice, practice, practice. Try not to switch your basic methods too much, but tweak those methods to your heart's delight. Think of how the time savings would add up if you removed 3 seconds from your closure time. Or 5 seconds. 5 seconds savings over 40,000 links is almost two and a half DAYS of mailleing time saved. That's about a month or more worth of mailleing you saved yourself from.