Chainmail

It looks as though WikiHow is going through my college days looking for suggestions. For instance, today we have How to Make Chainmail and while I didn't make nearly as much as many of the folks I knew, I still put in some time with the pliers opening and closing 15-gauge* wire rings.

It was a rather pleasant way to spend time, actually, if you stopped before your hands began to ache. If someone was trying finish a chainmail shirt for an event we would turn into specialists - one or more folks coiling the wire, cutting the links, and opening the links. The actual "knitting" (the term for assembling and closing the links) was left to the person who was ostensibly making the darn thing.

So we'd all sit around and gossip and flirt (there were very, very few Markland activities that did not take place while gossiping and flirting - it's very like theater in some respects) and work on whichever project for a while.

Vastly more interesting than doing anything I was supposed to be doing.

*Want a quick comparison for 15-gauge wire? The plasmaphersis center where I'd swap blood products for lunch money used 15-gauge needles. A real chainmail shirt is heavy.