Hey Chuck!

Thanks for your comments! I value them! Okay, the material is 16 gage Sterling silver sheet. I'll post more images as the piece nears completion...so far so great!

Jamie Santellano

Thanks Rick!

I love the questions...it makes me think. The layers are sweat soldered together. The Fluer De Lis is made from 16 gage sterling, and the links I have made out of 14 gage sterling. The links will be attached by some jump rings that will be soldered to the sides of the plate-not sure what gage I will use to connect the two yet.

I have a jump ring tool that holds the selected mandrel size, and has a hand crank-not quite sure of the name as it was given to me, so that I could make lots of jump rings at one time.

The Mandrel itself has a hole at one end where the wire hooks into while the handle of the tool is cranked the mandrel is held in place and rotates, and the wire wraps around the mandrel-the left hand holds the wire taught, so that the links wrap tightly around creating a coil.

I hope this makes sense.

Once the coil is formed at the bench with the jewelers saw I saw a line down the entire coil. When all jump rings are cut I tumble them to clean off the burs.

Then finally link them together, and solder each link.

Thanks for asking,

Jamie Santellano

Thanks for a great reply. I have a booklet called 'Making Chain Mail" or something like that and that is exactly what is in there. Thought someone with your obvious talent might have something more sophisticated than that. And soldering them is a good thought. The booklet I have doesn't say anything about closing the gap after, only pressing them together. I could not see a chain mail hauberk made for a warrior with all the links loose. Just didn't make sense at all.

SmokyRick
Rick Crawford at Smoky Forge

Thanks Rick!

I added an image of the plate as it is nearing completion. I'm very happy with it's progression. Fluer De Lis-moving towards completion!: Now all three pieces are soldered together and plannished, but theres more to come. I have added a curve to the piece, which will flow with the curve of the wrist nicely. I just wanted to share how it's evolving. I'll keep you posted on it as it nears

If your interested in chain mail check out www.spiderchain.com. Spider has a series of DVD's that I have watched and have the learned the weaving patterns from. I found it more helpful than the books. The books are great and full of information, but I learn better when I see it being done. Plus with a DVD it can be watched as many times as it takes to get the patterns down.

When they used to make the chain mail for the warriors they used to rivet the links together-just imagine how long a suit of armor would take to make!

Thanks again for your interest,

Jamie Santellano

Hello Jamie,
Verry nice Fleur de Lys
if that can help, what you called ( fluer de lis) it's " Fleur de Lys " in french
if you google it this way ,you will find many images .

and do not hesitate to correct me too.

Sylvain Goulet

Thanks Sylvain,

Yes you're right...I have found it spelled both ways on Google. It's one of my favorite symbols!

Cheers!
Jamie Santellano

it's french canadian flag symbols.

Sylvain