The Armour Archive

Hello, I have a question about welding a helmet and the ridge on top. Specifically this is about the close helm pattern by Sinric, but this seems to be a pretty common feature on many other helmets. Is the ridge formed by flaring the edge of the plate before welding, or by the bead of the weld alone?

The first you said.

The flared V groove is more common.
The deeper your flare the bigger the gap needs to be.

It allows for less warping and provides more weld surface area.
The standard tack, position, and stich weld both inside an out will provide for a fairly strong joint.
Though you maybe able to run the third pas with a longer bead.
Its a little more brush work and using anti spatter spray may help with cleanup in the helm.
Its a little awkward for the inside pass and may not be needed if you have good penatration.
so pratice with knee cops or cup hilt.

Simply building up the material to grind the ridge profile takes a lot more material over several passes. its also easier to grind to thin when forming the ridge with an angle grinder.

I have sceen both methods used, the first takes a little more time to setup.
The second takes a lot more stock removal and cleanup on te back end.