CHAINMAIL LEGGINGS

Put a chainmail recipe in a crafting grid and nothing happens, because there is not one. The Armorer selling Chainmail Leggings at apprentice for 3 emeralds is not competing with a workbench, only with luck and loot.

Neither a chest nor a mob's equipment table on this site lists this item as a possible drop, which leaves trading as effectively the only door in. That scarcity is worth weighing against the price: 3 emeralds sounds steep for one armor piece until you remember there is no cheaper backup plan.

Protection-wise it lands ahead of leather and behind iron, a real but modest step up. Most players treat it as something to wear while gearing toward iron or diamond rather than a final set, since nothing about chainmail scales up the way enchanted diamond gear does.

The Armorer is the sole trader for this item, asking 3 emeralds at apprentice. No other profession carries chainmail, and with no crafting recipe to fall back on, this is the entire market for it on this site.

Chainmail Leggings sells for as little as 3 emeralds, from the Armorer at the Apprentice tier, and 2 of the other 13 cost less. The price is fixed rather than rolled, so a second Armorer will quote you exactly the same.

The Armorer at its apprentice tier asks 3 emeralds for chainmail leggings. 8 of the 72 villagers that pay emeralds, emptied out:

3 lava buckets against 78 potatoes for the same 3 emeralds, 26 times the carrying, and the shortest wait is the Mason at 1.9 real minutes of shelf, gathering not counted.

Chainmail sits above Novice on the Armorer's list, so a villager needs a few trades under his belt before Chainmail Leggings can appear. Work through his earlier tier first, even if none of it interests you, purely to unlock this one. The purchase itself pays him 5 experience, which is a small bonus on top of getting the item.

A cured zombie villager holding the Armorer job keeps that profession and resets his trades, giving another roll at this offer without starting a new villager from scratch.

The slot holds 12 uses before it locks, and refilling it takes 2 real minutes. Two refills fit in a 20 minute Minecraft day, so a single Armorer can supply 24 pairs across one full day.

Given how scarce alternate sources are, most players clear the slot once and call it done rather than farming it repeatedly.

Pay for it with spare Iron Ingot if the villager buys it, and keep his furnace fed with a Lava Bucket so he does not lose the job while you level him.

Round out the set from the same sheet: Chainmail Boots and Chainmail Helmet sit nearby, with Chainmail Chestplate a tier further along. If you would rather skip chainmail entirely, a Shield and enough Diamond put you on the path to gear a full tier above it.

Leggings are the second most protective slot and the one people most often leave in leather for too long. Chainmail is the odd way to fix that, because it is the only armour material with no recipe: no crafting grid arrangement produces a pair, at any cost.

Mobs that spawn wearing armour are the other source, and their gear usually arrives damaged. A traded pair arrives whole, which matters more than it sounds when you plan to spend levels enchanting it.

As a set, chainmail is the collector piece rather than the fighting kit. If you want the full four, the armorer is the only supplier who will sell them to you on purpose.