The Man of Many Links

You see, Eric makes chain mail armor. And thousands of links go into every piece. Every link is made by hand. His links are so well made they are found in the U.S., in Mexico, the far east, the near east, in England, and many other places around the world.

Who in the world would want chain mail? Let's start at the top of the list,, people in plays, people in movies, people who like to dress up and play knight or lady of the middle ages, people who like to be different, people who just flat out know good art when they see it.

Making chain mail is an art. The art of making chain mail is dying; there hasn't been much call for it lately, especially since the advent of the longbow and gunpowder which pretty much made all armor obsolete. Back in the good old days, broadhead arrows would hit chain mail and glance off.

Knights loved the stuff. They even put chain mail on their horses. But when triangular and quadrangular arrowheads came along, chain mail lost its effectiveness. Those arrows would penetrate, not every time, but often enough that the situation got kind of sticky. That's why people went to plate armor. It was more repulsive.

"Not many people even take the time to learn this art any more," Eric says. "I'm lucky to have done a lot of work for plays. I also work for the SCA (Society for Creative Anachronisms)"

"The market is dying out, which is why I have adapted it into other areas, such as motor cycle shoulder sashes, or adornments would be the better word for it, I guess."

The links in the chain mail medicine bag are so tiny Eric uses a magnifying glass just to see them. A touch finds the metal cool, and silky smooth. "Chain Mail is cool," Eric insists. "It breathes."

Eric takes only the highest quality of metal to make his chain links. "Stainless steel is the one I use most, and right after that is aluminum."

Most of the metal he uses is in the form of welding wire. It is much more expensive but the quality is higher. Welding wire comes on big spools which makes it easier to measure off as much as you need and coil it onto a rod.

"It is this coiling which gives me the same size of link every time," Eric declares. "I use a jeweler's saw and I cut each and every link individually. This produces a very smooth link when you close it so that there are no rough edges to get caught on your clothing or hair."

There are only Six known patterns for making chain links. Eric has found a few more and uses all Ten patterns to create his armor and jewelry. His favorite patterns are four-in one, and serpentine. But he also uses a six-in-one pattern, double mail, and a triple mail. "Triple makes a very very thick suit of armor."

It is being requested. In less than two months since his home page "Chaine Maile By Eric" on the net was linked from Sarah's Chain Mail Page there have been over a hundred requests for catalogs. He also contacts local colleges and bulletin boards to tell them that he creates armor.

When he is finished, Eric will have the shirt, the leggings, the gauntlets, the boot covers, a coif (or head protection) and also a full suit of armor for a horse.

Eric hopes to have his personal suit of armor completed sometime in 1998. His goal is simple. "It is going to be perfect when I am done."

Eric dresses the part of an armor maker. He has long dark hair. A medicine bag made of chain mail nestles about his neck. He wears a renaissance shirt, which are for sale in the Off Spring Studio of his parents in Eureka Springs Arkansas.

The form of chain mail you might be most familiar with is a butcher's glove or gauntlet. Butchers use them to turn a knife blade and they fit either hand. The big difference is, a butcher's glove is welded with a heat flash. After soaking the metal in a solution it is then flash heated it so that the links fuse together in a weld.

In stark contrast, each and every link created by Eric is butted by hand, even when he is creating links as small as 1.5mm across. Otherwise he couldn't even see the links to butt them.  To do these links he uses one of those magnifying glasses that you wear on your head leaving both hands free. 

The butting must be exactly in line or the product will pinch. If you've never been pinched by a butt, count yourself lucky!

Next, he places the link into the piece he is making, where it belongs -- which is where the brains part of this art comes in handy. Then he adjusts the ends until they are butted together perfectly. Looks, EASY.

90% of what Eric does is custom work. Creating armor just doesn't seem to work very well for Small, Medium or Large so he usually fits people in person. "One man I did a full suit of armor for has worn it for the past five years to every SCA event he goes to, and never had a moment of less than exultation. Now that makes me feel good."

The only thing that makes him feel better is having people who see his work place an order. Eric has even had other chain mail artists to place orders with him. No wonder his work has gone out all over the world!

How does he get the curves in there right though? "Well, I take a seamstress tape and I have a formula that I use to make it to flat, using the formula to get the curves right, then I put it together. All I need is a starting and ending measurement."

Male, or female, how does Eric know when he has the crotch right? "The only way is to ask male or female to try my armor on for the crotch fit. So far there hasn't been any problem."

Have you ever worried about those poor actors riding a horse in their chain mail armor?

"I also make chap style armor panting for those going to be on a horse, for you could get really chaffed wearing armor for a sit-down."

Chain mail is durable, Eric points out. "There are still pieces of chain mail armor that have survived for centuries now, all over the world. It is a very long lasting garment."

Chain mail was designed to take a blow and spread it out so that even though you might get a terrible bruise or even hear a bone break, at least you would still have your limb. Make no mistake about it, chain mail protected your great, great grandparents and helped them survive, even to win great victories. Without it you might not be here.

Even after people stopped wearing full chain armor they still used it to protect areas where plate armor didn't cover. In its heyday, chain mail was functional, and used to show rank too. In fact... A lot of the armor in medieval times was for show only, especially for like a king or a duke or something. The more money you had the better your armor was.

"The Chinese had very ornate armor. Chinese and Japanese scientists concentrated on making better weapons and weapon skills while European inventors concentrated on making better armor and protection. Consequently, a Samurai with no armor could take a knight in full armor completely apart simply because of working on their weapons skill." With the Orientals it is very difficult to find out what their classes wore,, though Eric has found some of their original patterns and reproduced them.

Eric has been making chain mail armor and jewelry for about ten years now, and getting better all the time. Everything else in the Off Spring Studio is made locally too, by hand, not imported. Off Spring Studio, there is a story behind that name....

"My parents are the ones who own the shop, and all of their off spring work here, plus we are just off of Spring Street."

Somehow, it makes sense.

Besides armor, Eric also makes earrings and jewelry from chain links. Earrings in an inch long diamond shape go for $35 The price might seem high until you figure in the time, the work, and the extremely rare skill involved. After all, these pieces of jewelry are made with links a mere 3mm across, which is to say, minute, and maybe even mini-minute. A piece of jewelry about 7 inches square took nearly two weeks to create.

The jewelry is rare, but aficionados clamor for it from around the world. Eric's work has gone to Japan as jewelry, to a friend in Australia. Several pieces are in Canada, and you'll find some in Mexico. Egypt is even on the list.

But that's how it is when you are almost a master at an art which should have died out centuries ago: The links just keep on coming.

Click HERE for more information on chain mail.  About the author:  Lin Stone maintains a National Directory of the best health insurance companies on the web and a National Directory of the best car insurance companies on the web. Hundreds of his other articles are available for free reading on the Internet. Just Click HERE to see an index to his works.

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