The Armour Archive

What do you guys do when you are making a spangenhelm and after you assemble the bands together to make the basic frame, you find that your spangen panels are dished too much so that there is a sizable gap between the bands and the triangles? Or, if they aren't dished too much, then the bands seem taller than they should. How do you combat this? This case is so extreme that simply bouging it isn't an option.

When assembling your bands together and getting the basic frame down, do you often stick the spangen panels in there just to see how it will fit and adjust your banding accordingly? This seems to me like it would be a better process, but it is something that just dawned on me while typing this post.

Also, I'm using 2" wide bands for the top, side, and brow. After I put the brow band together and start fitting the top (or side) band over it, should I put the end of the top (or side) band right in the middle of the brow band so that it overlaps about an inch? Or do I just go ahead and have the bands overlap totally, or in this case, the whole 2 inches? Thinking about it now, if I overlapped the bands all the way so they were overlapped two inches, I think it would get rid of my problem of having the whole helmet looking too tall and the panels would fit right.

So, it appears that I partially answered my own question What kind of problems have you armourers encountered when making spanghelms? I know some of you don't have to worry about overlap since you just weld your bands (*cough*Krag*cough*) but what have you guys done to fix situations like this?

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I'm not being mean, I'm just telling you how it is.
Salinas Swordsman
Darkmoor Armoury
Western Hammer-In, September 22-23, 2001 - Salinas, California

Well, how I go about it is as follows:

I assemble the bands with the 2 cross bands going INSIDE the brow band, overlapping by about 3/4 inch. The panels are done one at a time, the shape is a triangle that is fat at the sides (curves slightly outward). I then shape each panel, planish, and attach it to the frame after I have a good fit. The frame never gets any real adjustment. Each panel is attached with only 2 rivets at first. Then I go around adding one rivet at a time to each panel. If you do all the rivets in a single panel at once, you can warp the frame to the shape of the first panel. By doing the rivets one at a time alternating panels, the effect is much more even.

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Otto's Armoury
(home of one HIGHLY overworked armourer!) http://www.members.tripod.com/SBvast

Well, actually, the one on the how-to is one of only two that were welded along the lower band. I overlap everything now. That's part of why I'm redoing the sections.

You kinda lost me on the question...so I'll answer what I think you're asking.

When I do the frame, I make it so the criss-cross bands are perpendicular at the bottom edge. This means, whatever curvature I made them to, I have them long enough that the bottom most edge is more or less perpendicular to the ground. On my lower band, I curve over the top edge. When the bands are all put together, they naturally fit with the front/back side/side bands coming halfway down the browband. This also makes a nice ridge to fit the lower skirting and cheek pieces to. For the panels. I dish pretty shallow, then fit check. My stump used to be perfect for shaping them, but 5-yrs has made it too deep. Noe I over dish them if I'm not carefull. I have a spun top I planish them over to make sure they're all the same shape. I little over dishing can be beat out. If it's too deep...some little kid now gets a new costume! You can flatten out the panels a hair along the side seams. For an oval head, the panels aren't the same curvature all the way around. I use screws and such to hold things in place, then weld from the inside, then clean up/polish, then put rivets in. For narrow banded helms, the panels are usually a close enough fit on the inside that they can be welded up without the bands if I wanted to. If I'm using wide bands (like the 2" ones you said) I use 14 ga for the bands and only overlap them 1/2" or so, just enough to catch the rivets good. however, I still weld them to the bands with about 1" long beads spaced periodically.

Did this help? It's late and I'm kinda braindead rightnow. of course, I'm always kind of braindead.

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Krag von Berghen
KragAxe Armoury

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