On armour - the european 4 in 1 chainmail weave

In your quest to get affordable and decent homemade larp armour, after producing chainmail rings you will inevitably encounter this - the european 4 in 1 weave. Its the most widespread weave as far as chainmail is concerned and not without reason. Basically everything is made from 4in1: coifs, bracers, hauberks, battle bikini, decorations, well you name it!. 4 in 1 is simple and once you learn that you got the basic know how on making something bigger.

European 4 in 1 is basically rows of links, going opposite ways that are interwoven in one another. Once you get the hang of that basic bit you won't be making mistakes when weaving it.


There are two basic ways of weaving 4in1.

First is to do it ring by ring. Thus its impossible to make a mistake but since only a maximum of two people can work on one piece, its a bit time consuming.



The second is to weave small pieces or strips and then combine them together. Like this for example

 

 

Well adjust this for size depending on the project - when making a hauberk for example, I work with strips that are 1 meter long. The advantages are that you can have a dozen people working on the same project, producing parts of it that are later put together. Literally anyone who can hold pliers can help. There is however room for mistake here, so not everyone can close the seams later on. Once you catch on the basics of 4in1 you can do the more exotic bits like expanding it, contracting it and so on that you will need to learn to make full suits of maille.