The Armour Archive

tl;dr Can I strap a bevored sallet so that it doesn't pivot backwards off my head like my current one does? Becaues Ice Falcon's full sallet is dead sexy.

I've got an ashcraft baker "Sallet" Its their normal SCA football helmet with the back section cut out and a lobster tail welded on.

for reference: http://www.ashcraftbaker.com/Sallet.htm

Now, I love Sallets. Maybe its a darth vadar fixation. Anyhow, one problem I had and have been dealing with with the ashcraft baker helm is that it just wants to pivot backwards off my head. Mind you, this is with a four point chin strap. To get it to not pivot backwards, I came up with an odd, interior - exterior attachment for the chin strap. The top attachment point is around temple level on the inside of the helm. The bottom is at the back of the jaw on the outside of the helmet.

It's solid as long as I take what I would call normal shots. I managed to make it through a few years of fighting, without incident. However, once in a shield wall clash, it got easily unsettled and lifted out of position. And last week, I fought a pole arm fighter for the first time. A rising shot hit me on the right side of the helm, and I felt it unseltted the thing, and I felt that queasy flip top action kicking in as the chin strap slipped off my chin.

So my question is: Is this flip top nature inherient to the design? Because I need to get a new helm, this one is becoming a liability. I'd love to get a properly bevored sallet, and after briefly looking at Performance Armoury, and reading a ton of negative press here, I found this:

http://store.fastcommerce.com/icefalcon ... 2f5-p.html

I've heard nothing but good things about ice falcon, and I've actually met him at Saphire Joust, so I'm in love with that helm. Does the bevor make it easier to set up so that it doesn't just flip backwards off of one's head? Did I just not know what I was doing when I strapped the other one?

Thanks for your time.

Vader fixation? -- maybe not. Vader's famous helmet basically is a sallet done Japanese-style -- one of the more practicable pieces of his outfit. I think our Japanese mavens could probably point to indisputably authentic kabutos of designs not too far from the Vader helmet.

Can't say why your A-B wants to swing off you like that, though. Something about its lobstertail interacting with the skull top?

It's probably because AB helmets are so massively over sized.

That said, I wouldn't even bother calling what you have a sallet. :p Save up a bit of cash and invest in a nice helm from someone like Stone Keep rather than trying to fix the unfixable.

Or it might be that cutout at the back. With the flexible tail on it, I could easily see how, even with a 4 point strap, it might want to flip.

And all the Star Wars stuff was Japanese inspired. Look at the pre-production sketches. Vader has a kabuto with a single piece solid shikoro. But they dropped the kusazuri on the stormtroopers.

Well, right. I've accepted that I need a new helm. I'm looking at the Ice Falcon Sallet, and my main question was, is the flip top issue something native to sallets, or just my AB football helmet? If the sallet and bevor can be strapped so as to be secure, then I'll happily plunk down the $$. If not, then I'll need to look at another type of helmet, like a bascinet.

Re: Star wars, I know, I know. Its hidden fortress ripped off, Japanese inspired, etc.

Thanks,

Cailin

It flips backwards because it's an AB spun top. I've fought in one for years and even after I added the chain mail to it it wants to flip backwards. Everyone I know who fights in one has the same problem. Usually a four point harness will fix it to some extent. I don't know if it's a problem caused by the fact that they're all HUGE, that the spun dome on them is so heavy, or some combination of causes.

I agree, You shouldnt have a "flip top" issue with a properly shaped sallet

yeah, the junkie sallet I made myself doesn't have that problem at all. I mean it is a wee bit back heavy, but it's not a bit more than an under chin strap fixes, you need to get a new one...from the sounds of it badly...

I fight in the same kind of helmet and have the same issue, i am going to revert to my old helmet

I have three versions of this type of helmet, one from AB-crimson hammer and two from Christian Fletcher and none of them have the problem you describe. I fight spear a lot and so get hit in the face by other spearmen and don't have this issue. So I am confident that a helmet that fit you better and was well made and strapped would not give you the same problems.

Alexander

With Ice's sallet, no gorget would be needed?