As a chainmail artists with a humble social media following, I get emails, comments and DMs every day asking how to do chainmail. I am mostly self taught, so everything I know either came from trial & error, reverse engineering, or from a chainmail educator. While I would love to help every person who asks, there simply isn't enough time in the day to run a business and educate, so here's my master list of information:
Tools
The main thing you'll need to make chainmail is two pairs of pliers. Each artist has a different preference when it comes to the style; I personally use bent nose pliers but some use straight/snipe nosed, flat nosed or nylon jaw. The most important thing is that they don't have teeth (i.e. textured insides) so your rings don't get damaged. A spring mechanism will also help with efficiency and dexterity. Pliers can be purchased in a variety of places, including hardware stores, jewellery supply shops and online marketplaces like Amazon. You don't need anything too fancy to start off with, you may even have some laying around the house that can be useful for practicing.
You may have seen people promoting ring opener rings; I personally don't use these for chainmail as they don't give me the precision I need but they can be useful for opening the occasional lightweight ring if you only have one set of pliers to hand.
Some experienced chainmaillers make their own rings using wire and a ring former kit. I wouldn't recommend this for beginners as it's very expensive and leaves a lot of room for error and wasted materials.
Supplies
This is a tricky topic to broach. Every maille artist will have conducted extensive research into the best supplies and won't necessarily want to share this information with the world for free. I have personally spent over 100 hours and hundreds (if not thousands) of pounds researching and testing supplies, so hopefully you can understand why I don't give out my sources. Supplies can be found easily through google searches, reddit forums and even on other chainmaille educator's sites. The supplies you will need for different projects will vary massively, and artists will prefer different materials, gauges and sizes for a a variety of reasons (see AWG/SWG below). Plus not every supplier will ship to every country or shipping fees may be too much for you. If you're a complete beginner and don't know where to start, it might be best to look for a kit that includes everything instead.
Something to bear in mind when starting this craft is protecting your hands. Chainmail requires a lot of strength and dexterity in the hands, which isn't something that everyone has naturally. You may find yourself in pain if you start with a heavyweight ring, especially if it's made from stainless steel. Callouses are inevitable, and you may not like the way they look or feel but they will protect your skin from damage from repeated movements. Start slow, start light and don't push yourself too far or you will injure yourself (I speak from experience).
The word 'gatekeeping' gets thrown around a lot in response to this stance. I want to make it clear that this isn't gatekeeping. No one is trying to stop others from picking up a craft, but by expecting another artists to do all of the work and give you the answers for free, you are essentially asking them to do labour without compensation. There is also the concern that by giving the information, it will be used to replicated our work, effectively taking money from our pockets. There is a wealth of information out there already, you just need to do some work to find it. Artists of any medium are well within their rights to not disclose their supply sources, as long as material and safety information has been adequately disclosed for the finished products.
Education
There are many maillers out there with video tutorials, blog posts and compendiums for any weave you could want to learn. Everyone learns in different ways and some weaves are harder than others but luckily there's enough educators out there that you'll find something that works for you. I am autistic and can easily reverse engineer most things so most weaves just click with me, but I understand this isn't the case for everyone. Here are some resources and educators I have personally learned from:
If you'd like to use the gauge method, look into the difference between AWG, SWG and AR before purchasing anything. Some jump ring suppliers will use this method to measure and market their rings. They tend to be sold with the intention of being used in specific weaves, but it's not the only way to do it. I personally don't use this method as it doesn't align with my way of learning or with the supplies I use. Some maillers will say you aren't a proper mailler if you don't use AWG/SWG but I call bullshit on that. Learn the way that's best for you.
Hopefully this information is useful if you're looking to get into chainmail. I believe the best work comes from trial and error, as you won't truly learn if you don't make mistakes, so take this information and build on it.
This is all of the information I am comfortable sharing so please respect my boundaries and don't send followup questions. There are other maillers that are happy to answer questions.
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