Perfect for the Corporate Raider

I just finished up these Chain Mail Neckties. It was a nice change of pace to get back to chain mailing. I had almost forgotten how much I enjoy it.

I got the idea to make chain mail neckties from a joke. One night my husband and I were chatting while I was working on a chain mail shirt for him. He is a live steel sword fighter for The Swords of Valour. We were discussing the upcoming year and plans the lawn care company he works for had come up with. One of their decisions was that all salesmen had to wear a tie, even while on the phones in the office. My husband HATES neckties with a passion so it gave him another reason to be glad he was a tech. I jokingly held up the chain mail shirt and said "I could make you one out of chain mail." As soon as the words came out of my mouth I realized what a good idea it really was.

From there I swiped one of my husbands always tied neckties and set about forming a pattern from it. I ordered in some rings and began to play. After some trial and error I came up with a great base design, "The Proto-Tie" as my husband loves to call his. It is the only necktie he will wear willingly. From that Proto-Tie I made a few changes to the clasp system and have been quite successful in repeating the design in different colors.

The neckties are made with anodized aluminum rings for georgous colors and so the aluminum won't dirty a shirt. Raw aluminum makes for dingy shirts as I have seen many white shirts turn grey after a sword fight. When I make a tie I start with a 'general' size for length and neck size then adjust it to order. The neckties clasp at the back of the neck with an aluminum hook through an adjusting chain to accommodate different shirt thicknesses. Being aluminum the neckties are about the weight of some cloth ties at about 4 1/4 oz.