Ring Cutting Tools
Once you have your wire spun up into coils, the next step is to cut them apart into the individual rings, from which your chainmail will be formed. There are many ways to cut wire, some of which work well for chainmail rings, many of which do not.
Wire and Bolt Cutters
No. Don't. Many people have tried using these to cut rings with, and they have all ended up wondering why their rings won't join correctly. These tools are okay for cutting the coils off of the rod, but for cutting individual rings apart, you really need something that makes a clean cut. These are not it.
Rotary Cutting Tools
A somewhat obvious choice for cutting rings, rotary tools use an abrasive disc spinning at high speed to cut through things. Dremel and Black and Decker are a couple of well-known manufacturers of these tools. Unfortunately, this is one of those cases where the theory looks better than the reality. In my experience, these tools tend to eat cutoff wheels too fast to make it really worth it for cutting rings. I've also heard reports from people that the motors tend to burn up if used for extended periods. The heavy-duty versions may not have this problem, but I imagine that they still go through the cutoff wheels at the same rather alarming rate. This isn't to say that these tools aren't any good; I have one, and I just love it. I just don't recommend using them for this particular job.
Hacksaws
Some people swear by these for cutting rings. I've tried doing it this way, and it just didn't work very well. I could only cut a coil a few inches long, and in the time it took me to cut it, I could have done many times the number of rings, using any of the other methods. Hacksaws do make very pretty rings with perfectly cut ends, but in my experience, the results don't really justify the time and effort involved.
Jewelers' Saws
I've heard of people using jewelers' saws to cut rings, and for the life of me, I can't figure out why. The blades are fragile, and the teeth are really too fine to be cutting through wire with. I suppose they would work on short coils of small-diameter wire, but I can't really see how it would be worth the effort, expense, and anguish involved.
Aviation snips
These are by far my favored method for cutting rings. They're cheap, quiet, widely available, and one pair of snips lasts a good long while. They do require a little bit of effort and technique, but they're definitely the way to go for me.
Aviation snips, also called "compound leverage cutters", are available just about everywhere, from discount stores, to home centers. They come in a wide variety of sizes and blade profiles, but the ones I use are the large right-hand-cutting type with the red handles. You'll be sliding one end of the cutters into the center of the coil when you cut the rings off, so avoid the type with one really large, flat blade (I think they call these "offset cutters" or something like that). Another type to avoid are the ones with really long, thin blades. These are much more apt to twist the coil, rather than cutting it, and you'll just end up mangling your rings.
Over time, the blades wear down, develop notches, and no longer cut as effectively as they used to. It's a fact of life, and one you'll just have to get used to. Cutters wear out, and when they do, they'll need to be replaced. On the other hand, a good pair of cutters will make it through about a half-mile of wire before they go bad. This translates into many thousands of rings, so it isn't all that bad.
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