Weaves by Family | Weaves by Form | Weaves by Attribute | Weaves by Name
According to the Maille Artisans International League (M.A.I.L.), a weave is defined as:
There has been some debate in the chainmail community concerning what constitutes as an actual weave, and the true meaning of the word. Terms such as 'variant', 'construct', 'structure', 'unit', 'web', etc. have come up on different occasions. In all fairness, the stated number of weaves on this website is a bit misleading. For the sake of completeness, this website includes any weave, variant, structure, construct, unit, etc. which contains a distinct ring connection pattern, regardless of whether it is a true weave and where it logically fits in. When it comes down to it, it doesn't matter if something is technically defined or classified as a weave, variant, or whatever. It matters that it is a unique ring connection method which forms something beautiful, which, in many cases can be used in certain applications. In order to make this website more intuitive in regards to weave orgainzation, weaves can be sorted in a few different ways, in accordance with certain characteristics that individual weaves possess.
A weave can be classified by any one of a few different characteristics. Three of the most fundamental classification methods in the study of chainmail weaves include family, form, and attribute.
There are currently eight major weave familes, and each weave comes from one of these families. The family into which a particular weave is categorized is generally based on the connection types and interaction between the rings, but this is not always the case. In many cases, a weave will be found to logically fit into more than one family. These are usually considered to be Hybrid weaves. The Hybrid category also contains those members who don't seem to possess the key elements of any one of the other families.
The idea of sorting weaves by family seems to have been around since chainmail became more widespread through the use of the Internet. It started off with the distinction of European and Japanese weave families, which are based on ring connection methods used in armour coming from these areas during the very early days of chainmail manufacture and use. The Persian family of weaves is not known to have roots from within the area defined in the name, it simply defines a different basis of ring connections. Spiral and Hybrid families closed out the 'original five'. The Orbital/Captive family followed a few years later (late 2004). As of April, 2008, I have decided to define a few more families, these being Byzantine, and Celtic Visions. More weave families will be considered/added as needed.
Weave form refers to a weave's state with regards to the space it occupies, and how it forms when expanded on. A weave can only be of one form. The four weave forms into which weaves are classified include unit (a single entity, which when complete is finished; the weave itself in this state is no longer expanded), chain (a weave which can expand on one plane, indefinitely), sheet (a weave which can expand on two planes, indefinitely), and dimensional (a weave which can expand on all three planes, indefinitely).
Because of the fact that a weave can only be of one easily identifiable form, this is logically a good way to categorize them. One observation about classifying weaves in this manner is that there are a large number of potential entries under certain forms, like chains. The percentage of known chainmail weaves that are chains is quite high; the more weaves added, the larger the chain section becomes and eventually it can quickly become rather time-consuming to leaf through. Conversely, the dimensional category will only ever contain very few entries when compared with the others. It's not that these factors create a problem per se, it just means less balance between the categories.
Regardless of how they are categorized according to family or form, within each weave, one or more attributes can be identified. Weave attributes include whether a weave contains certain elements, such as a specific unit type, or type of functioning ring, ring angle and orientation as they sit within the weave in its natural configuration, or having had a function performed on it, such as doubling, inverting, etc. Due to the versatility of ring connectivity methods possible, the list of possible weave attributes is quite large. This website allows you to sort weaves by any attribute I have identifed in the weaves I have done so far, and as I discover new ones, I'll add them accordingly. The number of different attributes a weave can contain will vary from weave to weave.
Each weave family will have members that can be of any weave form, and a certain weave form can have members from any weave family. Some weave attributes will be more prevalent in weaves from a specific weave family or weave form, and some attributes will have members from only one family or form.
Each weave page contains one or more pictures and a summary of the weave, as well as information regarding the weave family, form and attributes. Certain entries have minimum, maximum, and preferred aspect ratio information, as well as a recommended range of aspect ratios which will work with the weave. All listed aspect ratios are actual figures calculated from measured ring sizes.
Weaves by Family | Weaves by Form | Weaves by Attribute | Weaves by Name