Review: Well written beginner's instructions
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 03 17, 2013
I'm not a complete beginner to chainmail, and have a fairly extensive chainmail book collection that focuses on jewelry making. So I got this book primarily for my son and my husband who both are interested in learning to make chainmail.The author includes a lot of history about chainmail in the introduction and some theories about how some of the weaves got their names. He also includes a very well written explanation of aspect ratio, inner diameter, gauge and picking materials for your projects. He also talks about picking the right pliers for the material and ring size you are working with, and how to coat your pliers with a tool dip to keep from marring color treated metals.The instructions are well written with good step by step photographs for each of the weaves taught. He instructs on how to do speed mail, which is making the mail with a set number of closed rings and a set number of open rings so you are attaching more than one ring at a time. He makes it very clear that is not the only way, and advises people to find what works best for them.At the end of the book is a great resource guide which includes a place to buy rings in many sizes and metals, where to buy tools for making your own rings and places to learn more weaves.In fact, this short book is almost perfect for a beginner. The things it does lack are good beginning projects and how to either make a clasp or attach a clasp but the rest of the information in it does make it a great way for beginners to learn the process and start designing their own projects. I'm going to help my son design a project using this book instead of using one of my other chainmail books because the instructions are so clear and basic.