fandomhigh | Shop Class; Monday, First Period [09/10].

"Good morning, class!" Amaya greeted them as eager for another morning of working in the shop as ever, which would often mean far too much for a Monday morning. "Hope you all had a good weekend and are ready to get back to work. I was thinking we'll take a break from sharp spinny things and get back to metal and work a bit on chainmail!"

Which would explain the practice dummy with the chainmail shirt at the front of the shop room, yes.

"Chainmail's a type of armor that was designed to help protect warriors from slashing damage, as the interlocked rings made it difficult for steel to slice through, but it's also very commonly used as decoration or in jewelry as well. Now, back where I'm from, this is a long and arduous process because we had to hammer and chisel out the rings ourselves or even pull our own wires before we could make the rings. Around here, though, we've got commercially available spools of wire that makes at least that first step a lot easier. We'll be using these today, but if anyone is interested in the process of making wire like this as well, let me know, and we'll see if we can fit it in. Meanwhile, we've got plenty of this, in different metals and colors so you can play around with it a bit.

"But first we've got to make the rings. Start by choosing your wire, I recommend the 16 guage steel, this one right here, but feel free to venture into some of these others, too. Then, pick out one of these thin dowels that I've got right here," she gestured to the wooden sticks on the table to her side. "The width of the dowel will determine how wide or small your rings will be. We're going to drill a hole into the side of the dowel," as she showed them with the power drill, "then you just turn the dowel to wrap the wire into a tight coil around it. If you like, you can pop this dowel right into the drill to speed it up, but I'll always prefer doing it by hand myself. Since we've only got a limited amount of time for class, though, I wouldn't blame you if you wanted to get this part done faster.

"Once we've got a good amount of coiled wire, we'll just slip it from the dowel," like so!, "and then we're going to use these bolt cutters here to cut out the individual rings. Then we just have to put them together in a pattern. To link them, bend the ends of your rings apart with a pair of pliers, hook the next rings onto the other ring, and then use the pliers to close them up again. Bend, hook, repeat, until you're on your way to building whatever you're making.

"Feel free to play around and figure out how to link them together on your own, or I've also gotten written instructions for different patterns and a few projects for diffrent skill levels: I've got a chainmail ball, a bracelet or necklace, gloves, and a shirt.

"Now some of these, those last two especially, are going to take longer than the time allotted to our class, so you know what that means. You've got yourself a little bit of homework, but that's one thing about this project is that you actually can take it with you. We'll get started now so you can get a head start or figure anything out before you're left to your own. Feel free to borrow the pliers and take all the wire you need. Trust me, I've got plenty. And tomorrow we'll show off what you came up with; you might even think of something entirely different.

"And, with that, I'll open it up to you guys for questions, or you can go ahead and get started."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Armored!

Prompto Argentum

Aloy

Norman Babcock

Beaker

Jason Lee Scott

The concept is simple enough, and it calls for a lot of little dainty work that might be hard to really see during a lecture, but Amaya's more than willing to go over anything individually if needed.

Time to get to work! Everything you need should be available, so start wrapping and snipping and prying and linking, which you won't at all be really sick of by the end of the class, no! Perish that thought.

"Why do the rings if you can just use a solid plate of metal?" Aloy wondered, as she began the process of bending her metal wire.

Maybe she'd find out soon enough.

"That's an excellent question," said Amaya, who may have looked more than a little eager to talk about armor, yes. "Chainmail is far more useful than it may first appear. You'd think plate was clearly offering the best coverage, right? And it does, but mail's nothing to scoff at. If you get a chance, try taking a blade to your chainmail once you've got a good patch of it together, and you'll notice just how useful it against slicing and stabbing. Or, heck, try it now here on the dummy!"

It had to be there for more than just looking pretty, right?

"Plus, it's lighter than plate mail, which offers slightly better mobility, especially if you're doing more refined attacks. There's no denying that plate is going to cover you better in most melee situations. Plate's more rigid, too, more likely to restrict you, and you can't really cover your joints as well. That's where plate and chain work together, so you're still covered in the event that someone manages to get at the vulnerable joints in the plate, like the back of the knee or the armpits. Still, the way plate is constructed, it's not as heavy or restricting as some people might think, and it's still better than chainmail if you have the choice. But since mail is easier to produce and usually much less expensive, it's a convenient alternative to when plate isn't an option."

~~probably i don't know i just read about it on the internet~~

Edited 2018-09-10 11:44 (UTC)

Many of Aloy's future enemies would... not thank you, Amaya.

Aloy, however, nodded along thoughtfully. "I guess I can see that," she mused. "Something to cover up the joints... hm."

She was going back to work. She was probably keeping the work, too.

Ooooh, chainmail gloves would look sweet as hell! Plus, tinkering around with a lot of little pieces and putting them together was totally Prompto's jam, even if it usually involved more gears and switches than just boring old metal rings. But it was the sort of activity that could easily hold his attention as he pulled and hooked and made quite frankly a mess of different colored wires that weren't really coming together as anything at all, an amalgamation as he tried some of the different patterns and put them all together.

And he was totally using the drill to wrap his wire. Not because he was lazy, he just thought it was super cool.

Norman was going to start with something simple here today. The ball looked straightforward enough. And that way, once he got the hang of it, he could see if he wanted to try something a little more complicated.

He was totally getting to work on a bracelet before the class was through, yes. The fiddly detail work was kind of nice to get lost in for a while.

Guess who managed to bind themselves up like they were in a straitjacket? Go one, guess.

Beaker? Was it Beaker? Amaya was gonna guess Beaker.

"Beaker...how....?"

She always asked, yet she always knew there was no explanation. Amaya sighed, waving a hand.

"Don't worry; I'll go get the big wire cutters..."

She's there if you need her, working on coiling and cutting a few rings of her own, probably for something she, too, will finish up in the week.

"Hm, I should make chainmail," she said to herself, as the tall stack of other 'projects' she 'should' start glanced woefully at the clock and its diminishing hours....

Shop Class; Monday, First Period [09/10].

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