Hello!

[GemPJD]

:~: Just joined the forum so thought I would say Hello!

I started making jewelery to relieve the boredom after having both hips replaced and now I am hooked! I am currently learning chain maille and have mastered the Byzantine weave, the box weave, the 2 in 2 and the mobius weave. They are so pretty. The only problem I have is really understanding the ID and AR especially when tying to use different sized wire gauges. For example one weave says use 14g 6.5mm and 18g 3.5mm but I want to make it slightly differently and want to use 18g 5/32" with an ID of 4mm. Anyone know if that will work?

Anyway looking forward to being a member on the forum.

Ciao for now

A

[davidbaggaley]

Hi

I have no idea about the chainmail never made any myself

but welcome to the forum :-)

www.davidbaggaley.com

[mizgeorge]

:~: Just joined the forum so thought I would say Hello!

For example one weave says use 14g 6.5mm and 18g 3.5mm but I want to make it slightly differently and want to use 18g 5/32" with an ID of 4mm. Anyone know if that will work?



In simple terms, no it probably won't. AR is the 'magic number' that represents the relationship between wire gauge and inner diameter, and is the key to just about any weave. As long as you know the AR required, you can establish the exact ID of the rings you need.

That said, some weaves are more AR sensitive than others - in fact there are some that really care very little what size rings they're woven in, but will still look better within a certain range of sizes.

To establish the AR of any ring, divide the ID by the wire gauge (obviously, it's much easier to do this if you have both measurements in mm). Equally, to get the right size ring for any weave, multiply the wire gauge by the AR to establish the correct ID.

As a simple example, Byzantine has an ideal AR of 3.5.

So the ID's for different wire gauges go something like this:

0.8mm wire (x3.5) = 2.8mm ID
1mm wire (x 3.5) = 3.5mm ID
1.3mm wire (x 3.5) = 4.55mm ID
1.5mm wire (x 3.5) = 5.25mm ID

ID sizes can usually be rounded up or down as appropriate to the mandrel sizes you have, though it can take a bit of trial and error to establish whether you prefer the weave to be looser or tighter.

Hope that makes some sense, and welcome to the forum!

[MeadMoon]

Welcome to the forum!

As George says, it's much easier to calculate the AR if both measurements are in millimetres. Wire gauges can be very confusing. Some suppliers use AWG (American Wire Gauge) and others use SWG (Standard Wire Gauge) and there are a couple of other systems as well. Quite often, they don't say which they are using, although most, but not all, in the US would be using AWG. The Ring Lord is a notable exception who use SWG but also quote the nearest AWG equivalent.

[GemPJD]

Thank you mizgeorge, that is so much clearer! I actually understand it now. Thank you soooo much!

One very happy lady

A xx:dance:


In simple terms, no it probably won't. AR is the 'magic number' that represents the relationship between wire gauge and inner diameter, and is the key to just about any weave. As long as you know the AR required, you can establish the exact ID of the rings you need.

That said, some weaves are more AR sensitive than others - in fact there are some that really care very little what size rings they're woven in, but will still look better within a certain range of sizes.

To establish the AR of any ring, divide the ID by the wire gauge (obviously, it's much easier to do this if you have both measurements in mm). Equally, to get the right size ring for any weave, multiply the wire gauge by the AR to establish the correct ID.

As a simple example, Byzantine has an ideal AR of 3.5.

So the ID's for different wire gauges go something like this:

0.8mm wire (x3.5) = 2.8mm ID
1mm wire (x 3.5) = 3.5mm ID
1.3mm wire (x 3.5) = 4.55mm ID
1.5mm wire (x 3.5) = 5.25mm ID

ID sizes can usually be rounded up or down as appropriate to the mandrel sizes you have, though it can take a bit of trial and error to establish whether you prefer the weave to be looser or tighter.

Hope that makes some sense, and welcome to the forum!

[Babette InProgress]

Welcome to the forum :)

[sonia]

Hi

Welcome from me too

Sonia
x

[Pauline]

Welcome to the forum :welcome:

[lilacmonkey]

Hello and welcome to the forum from me too.im sure you will find it very useful and full of information. stu