I've been looking into buying steel wire to make my own rings for a riveted mail shirt but I'm not sure what gauge would be best to make the flattened rings the most historically accurate thickness. Also could anyone point me to cheap rivets for it? It would be highly appreciated.

Historically accurate thickness varies between approximately 20 g (c. 0.5mm) and 12g (c. 3.3mm). What is "best" depends on the criteria you use. Ring diameter and historical timeframe might be factors to consider as well. Historically, rivets are made from wire or slit sheet.

You can use wire with 1.3 mm diameter. It is easier to handle and easy to pierce.
If your mail will be Viking Ages perhaps would be better round section rings . The rivet can be round wire but smaller, 0.6 mm in diameter or slightly larger, not more than 0.8 mm.
If you want wedge rivet, you can use metal strips 0.6 mm thick and cut wedges about 3 mm long. But for Viking Ages, better round rivet.
Regards
Julio

I know it only in mm but I think is ok.
You can roll the wire in a 7 mm mandrel and when you do the overlap the ring go smaller than 7 mm innternal diameter. Nice and more dense but more work. And the Viking Ages mails can be bigger than 8 mm.
I put photos with 7 mm ID and 8 mm ID so you can see how it looks. The wire look the same 1'3 or 1'5 mm, only more resistent withh thick wire.

Julio

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This chart may be of use.
http://www.vikingsonline.org.uk/resources/authenticity/chainmail/

You really should avoid flattened rings based on that evidence, as well as wedge rivets which don't appear until c.1300, acoording to our best current information.

With some practice you can do it with a ball-pein hammer.

Not really. It might work on really large links but that is about all.

So I'll just need a bit smaller hammer?

Ball pein

Alright what is it about ball-peen hammers that makes them the best tool for this?

If I use ball peen hammer for this, I destroy a lot of rings. Maybe I´m not skilled
I use metal rod ( was made by Pekka Passanen from Finland) and a good hammer.
I cut the rings, make the overlap and then small blow with the hammer and the steel rod so I flatten the overlap area only. Look the photos.
Very useful information in maille/info" target="_blank">https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/rivetedmaille/info
Regards
Julio

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Yes you will destroy a lot of rings untill you get used to the technique. If you don't practice with the hammer and instead use a fancy tool then how can you expect to get skilled?

A small steel bar is fancy tool? Amazing.You only need a little steel bar, not "fancy tool"
It´s cheap, easy and fast.
You need to make right the overlap and ring softening, like if you use the ball peen hammer . But it works better. Of course I used other methods before :)

Julio