Editing Chain mail (section)

==Manufacture==
[[File:Fotothek df tg 0008481 Ständebuch ^ Handwerk ^ Plattner ^ Rüstung ^ Harnisch ^ Kettenhemd.jpg|thumb|upright=1.1|An [[engraving]] from 1698 showing the manufacture of mail]]
Several patterns of linking the rings together have been known since ancient times, with the most common being the 4-to-1 pattern (where each ring is linked with four others). In Europe, the 4-to-1 pattern was completely dominant. Mail was also common in East Asia, primarily Japan, with several more patterns being utilised and an entire nomenclature developing around them.{{Citation needed|date=September 2024}}

Historically, in Europe, from the pre-Roman period on, the rings composing a piece of mail would be [[rivet]]ed closed to reduce the chance of the rings splitting open when subjected to a thrusting attack or a hit by an arrow.{{Citation needed|date=September 2024}}

Up until the 14th century European mail was made of alternating rows of round riveted rings and solid rings. Sometime during the 14th century European mail makers started to transition from round rivets to wedge-shaped rivets, but continued using alternating rows of solid rings. Eventually European mail makers stopped using solid rings and almost all European mail was made from wedge riveted rings only with no solid rings.<ref name=Example2006>{{Cite journal | last1 = Richardson | first1 = T. | title = Armour in England, 1325–99 | doi = 10.1016/j.jmedhist.2011.06.001 | journal = Journal of Medieval History | volume = 37 | issue = 3 | pages = 304–320 | year = 2011 | s2cid = 162329279 }}</ref>

Both were commonly made of [[wrought iron]], but some later pieces were made of heat-treated steel. Wire for the riveted rings was formed by either of two methods. One was to hammer out wrought iron into plates and cut or slit the plates. These thin pieces were then pulled through a [[draw plate]] repeatedly until the desired diameter was achieved. [[Waterwheel]]-powered drawing mills are pictured in several period manuscripts. Another method was to simply forge down an iron [[Billet (bar stock)|billet]] into a rod and then proceed to draw it out into wire. The solid links would have been made by punching from a sheet. Guild marks were often stamped on the rings to show their origin and craftsmanship.{{Citation needed|date=September 2024}}

[[Forge welding]] was also used to create solid links, but there are few possible examples known; the only well-documented example from Europe is that of the camail (mail neck-defence) of the 7th-century [[Coppergate Helmet]] found in [[York]].<ref>{{cite book | last = Tweddle | first = Dominic | author-link = Dominic Tweddle | title = The Anglian Helmet from 16–22 Coppergate | series = The Archaeology of York | volume = 17/8 | date = 1992 | publisher = Council for British Archaeology | location = London | isbn = 1-872414-19-2 | url = https://www.collections.yorkarchaeologicaltrust.co.uk/s/publications/item/74497 | url-status = live | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20240321135711/https://www.collections.yorkarchaeologicaltrust.co.uk/s/publications/item/74497 | archive-date = 21 March 2024 }} {{free access}}</ref> Outside of Europe this practice was more common such as "theta" links from India. Very few examples of historic butted mail have been found, and it is generally accepted that butted mail was never in wide use historically except in Japan, where mail (''kusari'') was commonly made from ''butted'' links.<ref name="b1" /> Butted link mail was also used by the Moros of the Philippines in their [[mail and plate armour]]s.