Learning ways to paint/design/shine chainmaille.

[Kodiak Bloodclaw]

I'm a pretty good maillesmith, but I use this iron wire and it looks like it would be worn by an Orc. Balck color, some rust here and there. Any ideas on putting designs on it or shining it to look like silver?

[Exo]

Well normally for mild steel maille dropping it in a barrel of sand and rolling it down a hill helps improve the looks, but I'm not quite sure about iron. I know painting does not work, the constant ring on ring contact will rub it off in no-time.

[Atman]

If it's just plain steel wire, anything you do to shine it up won't last for very long with you sweating in it.
As far as designs go, paint won't last any appreciable amount of time before wearing off. What you can do to put designs in it is inlay a contrasting metal like copper or brass to do relatively simple designs. The main thing to watch out for when inlaying is having a secondary metal that is weaker that the surrounding mail. What you may want to do is use secondary wire of a slightly higher guage to make up for this. http://www.mailleartisans.org/gallery/subcat.cgi?key=23284