Before automated wire drawing machines, the craftsman had to hammer down and pull metal through succeeding smaller dies to form thin wire. Once the wire was pulled down to the needed diameter, it was wound around a mandrel forming loops. Then, the craftsman would make a cut through the looped wire down the length of the mandrel forming individual offset loops. The craftsman would then interlock the loops, bend each link closed, and then solder each link. Tedious indeed, if you considered making an 11- 32 chain (.011" wire at 32 links per inch) by hand, it would contain 512 links for a 16-inch chain! Although the Persians and Romans were making chain, the best and most extensive use of forming wire into interlocking loops was during medieval times when armor was made by forming loops of wire and sewing it to an attached garment. If all the loops were interlocked together it was called chain amour. In fact chain mail (or chain

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maille) is a term that came from this time period referring to flat chain. (1)