Gyrogami Blog - Precious Metals, Jewelry, Artwork

Chainmail Buyer's Guide, Part 5

Summary Thus Far

Blog Index

Categories: Instruction and information; Messages and statements; Jewelry

FACT: The biggest causes of poorly closed rings are laziness and junk rings (anything that's not saw-cut). Only a fool with cognitive defects would say or think otherwise since the math and science of a properly closed ring are indisputable.

SUMMARY OF PRICE POINTS AND EXPECTED QUALITY

Category - These are listed in the third blog entry.
Example - When available, a brief description of the item in the picture. It might include the weave name, type of rings, cut method, construction, etc.
Skill (1-10) - 1 is low, 10 is high. The proficiency required to make something for the given category. Exceptional maille is about a three. Making the leap to jewelry is a much bigger jump.
Price Point - What to expect to pay for a 7" bracelet. Price should dictate quality with expensive goods. Any chainmail weave in unsoldered sterling silver should be 10%-20% the price of a soldered one.
Ring Incidents - The percent of rings suffering from a ring incident. It all comes down to numbers.
Chainmaille - In the marketplace, the percentage of maille at the described level. The math doesn't lie but it will change with relaxed standards.
Maillers - The overall percentage of maillers that diligently work at the described level.
Suitable Materials - What metal(s) are expected in a piece of this level. Precious metals and other exotic metals will quickly add to cost. Since there are $8,000 pieces made from 14k gold at the UNMENTIONABLE category, this will reflect what should be at the given level.
Ring Type - Pinch-cut rings are made with nippers or pliers. Marginally better are the machine or shear-cut rings. The only ones acceptable for human consumption - animal lovers would want no less for their pets, either - are saw-cut rings.
Construction - Refers to open or closed construction. Butted rings are twisted into position and left with the ends touching each other and aligned. They rely totally on the strength of the metal to hold their shape. Closed methods include soldering, brazing, welding, and riveting.
Weave - They are listed in order of easy to challenging. Every situation has its exceptions.

Category	UNMENTIONABLE	SUB-CRAFT	CRAFT	LOW	MEDIUM	HIGH	BEYOND
Skill (1-10)	less than 1	1	1.5	2	3	8	9
Price Point	$2	$4	$10	$25	$50	$200	$500
Ring Incidents	more than 10%	10%	3%	1%	0%	0%	0%
Chainmaille	75%	22%	2%	0.6%	0.05%	0.001%	0.0001%
Maillers	55%	31%	13%	0.5%	0.1%	0.01%	0.001%
Material^A	1 to 3	1 to 3	1 to 5	2 to 10	5 to 15	12 to 15	12 to 15
Ring Type^B	1	1	1, 2	3	3	3	3
Construction^C	1	1	1	1	1 to 5	2 to 5	2 to 5
Weave^D	1	1, 2	2, 3	2 to 4	2 to 5	3 to 6	4 to 6

A. MATERIAL	B. RING TYPE	C. CONSTRUCTION	D. WEAVE
1. Basic steel	1. Pinch-cut	1. Butted	1. 2-in-1 type chain
2. Aluminum, bright	2. Shear- or machine-cut	2. Welded	2. European 4-in-1, three rows
3. Aluminum, anod	3. Saw-cut	3. Soldered	3. Dragonscale, five rows
4. Nickelsilver		4. Brazed	4. Full Persian 8-in-1
5. Stainless Steel		5. Riveted	5. Micromaille Jens Pind 5
6. Silver plated or filled			6. Three-sided triple loop-in-loop
7. Copper
8. Bronze
9. Brass
10. Titanium
11. Niobium
12. Sterling silver
13. Gold-filled
14. Other precious metals
15. Exotic metals

	UNMENTIONABLE	SUB-CRAFT	CRAFT	LOW	MEDIUM	HIGH	BEYOND
1. Basic steel	$2 / $5	$4 / $10	$8 / $20	$15 / $35	n/a	n/a	n/a
2. Aluminum, bright	$2 / $5	$4 / $10	$8 / $20	$15 / $35	n/a	n/a	n/a
3. Aluminum, anod	$2 / $5	$4 / $10	$8 / $20	$15 / $35	n/a	n/a	n/a
4. Nicklesilver	$2 / $5	$4 / $10	$8 / $20	$18 / $40	n/a	n/a	n/a
5. Stainless steel	n/a	n/a	$8 / $20	$20 / $50	$25 / $60	n/a	n/a
6. Silver plated or filled	n/a	n/a	$8 / $20	$20 / $50	$25 / $60	n/a	n/a
7. Copper	n/a	n/a	$10 / $25	$25 / $60	$30 / $70	n/a	n/a
8. Bronze	n/a	n/a	$10 / $25	$25 / $60	$30 / $70	n/a	n/a
9. Brass	n/a	n/a	$12 / $30	$30 / $70	$35 / $80	n/a	n/a
10. Titanium	n/a	n/a	n/a	$40 / $90	$60 / $140	n/a	n/a
11. Niobium	n/a	n/a	n/a	$50 / $120	$75 / $175	n/a	n/a
12. Sterling silver	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	$75 / $175	$200 / $500	$500 / $1200
13. Gold-filled	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	$85 / $200	$225 / $600	$600 / $1350
14. Other precious metals	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	$400+ / $1000+	$1000 / $2500+
15. Exotic	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	$200+	$500+

Prices given for a bracelet / necklace. The appearance of n/a does not mean there are no examples. The ones in red should not exist because they are x-low quality. The ones in yellow probably don't exist due to financial expense, time constraints, etc.

Posted by M: December 7, 2016

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