Immediately recognizable, and very rare, 4 in 1 scale maille is a sight to behold. Its distinctive look and luster make it a favorite of visual media, often used by the most strong, noble, and wealthy characters, set apart from the common soldier, armored in chain maille. Between the cultural cache of its portrayal in media and the visual allusion to the scales of a dragon, I have always found scale beautiful.

As I got deeper into the culture of Amtgard I saw more and more examples of chain maille. Made of steel and aluminum, butted and riveted. I even saw haulberks of entirely soda can tabs, but only once did I ever see scale. It was a gorgeous blue and gold shirt. The man wearing it offered it for sale, for a measly $300 (roughly the cost of materials alone). the shine off of the small scales from the summer sun, combined with the price made it a tempting offer, but I decided if I was to have scale maille I would want it to be of my own design and make.

For years I left the idea in the back of my mind, always contenting myself with other varieties of crafts. As I did it became more and more clear that Amtgard would be a long term hobby, and my confidence in my crafting endurance grew, the idea of scale slipped back into the front of my mind. First I ordered a variety of rings to test the weaves. This gave me my first swatch, about 4 inches square, and with it a taste of the uniquely satisfying texture of scale maille.

Next I planned out banner to test my patience with the material. I used the heraldry for my local Amtgard park (which was also my design). It came out to 1300 scales, and likely took about 70-80 hours of weaving. I planned the pattern by importing a photo of my sample swatch into Inkscape (a vector graphics illustrator) and traced the outline of a scale. This outline was then copied to form a large grid of digital scales. I overlaid a translucent copy of the heraldry, and started recoloring scales to match. After moving the image of the heraldry off to the side manual tweaks were made to make it look just right. It was a nice exercise in geometric abstraction.

What I thought was going to be a months long project turned out to be nearly done in a week. I had to order more scales to finish the banner, and more for another banner along with it (this time the heraldry for the Colorado region of Amtgard). After two lovely banners and the excellent reception they got, I was confident enough to make the item I had dreamed of. the one that inspired my to even make my first order for test materials. My vest.

Coming in at about 10 pounds, 7100 scales, and 15000 rings, this piece took between 250-300 hours of work to assemble. Most of the scales are aluminum (with a few decorative exceptions) and the rings are entirely stainless steel split rings (basically like key rings but smaller). This drastically increases the strength and durability of the weave. For the pattern I started with a mountain motif that I had used in other projects. the angles of the scale happen to support this quite well. After determining that the vest needed a circumference of 70 scales, I could lay out the pattern in inkscape.

For the front I opted for the symbol for secular humanism, and the back is a gear representing utility (in both the practical and ethical senses of the word). The sides under the arms are simple small crossbows, and the quadrants are separated by long arrows. These are all allusions to my role as an archer on the battlefield. The base is rimmed with foothills, with subtle mountains just above that. The landmark at the bottom front is Horsetooth Rock, the most prominent natural landmark in my home town of Fort Collins. The back center landmark is the Boulder Flat Irons.

After finishing my vest I continued to make banners of various sizes. Some became gifts, some travel with me to events so I can show off, and some are hanging in my home. I intend to keep making banners for the foreseeable future.