Helm Tops

Armourkris · Post by **Armourkris** » Thu Aug 02, 2001 6:52 pm

I'm hoping to start on another helm soon. somewhere, spent 3 hours today looking for the pic again, i saw an exploded pic of a roman(i think) helm, i also saw it could be converted to sca legality reasonably easily, i'd like to make something like it. my question is this...

i've never made helm tops before, and cant aford to buy a pair, not even from ron simmons. BUT, the armour gods smiled on me and i quite literally stmbled over some 14 gauge steel, enough for the helm, but not much more, cant aford to mess up and make it to small, so to get it all over with how do you size your paterns for the helm tops so they actually fit right.

and for the edited part....
P.S.
would a copper ball the size of the average trailor hitch be workable as a planishing thingy?

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What, drawn, and talk of peace! I hate the word, As I hate hell, all Montagues, and thee:

[This message has been edited by Tybolt (edited 08-02-2001).]

Galileo · Post by **Galileo** » Thu Aug 02, 2001 8:08 pm

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR>...{industrial-sized snip}...How do you size your patterns for the helm tops so they actually fit right?
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I've played with construction paper, or posterboard for sizing things. It's cheaper than screwing up on steel.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR>
Would a copper ball the size of the average trailer hitch be workable as a planishing thingy?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I can't speak from experience on that one - but I imagine the copper would be too soft for the steel, and you'd either make the deformities worse and smash the copper into an unidentifiable lump, or have absolutely no effect at all. Course, I could be completely off base too...

G--
(hope it helps some)

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Gabriel Tullis

"I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God."
Luke 1:19 (KJV)

Gundo · Post by **Gundo** » Thu Aug 02, 2001 10:52 pm

The copper ball should work fine. It'll deform but not so radically with each shot as to prevent it from working.

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Erik Schmidt · Post by **Erik Schmidt** » Thu Aug 02, 2001 11:41 pm

Quoting Tybolt, "would a copper ball the size of the average trailor hitch be workable as a planishing thingy?"

That thing might be OK for dishing, but useless for planishing as you need a light weight, flat face hammer for that. But I guess you meant to say 'dishing'.

Erik

Norman · Post by **Norman** » Fri Aug 03, 2001 11:46 am

If this is your first helmet and you're not too sure on sizing and planishing,
make a "spangenhelm" design with many pieces.
(I'm assuming the Roman helmet you saw was a Romano-Sassanid "ridge" type spangenhelm?)

Make the browband first -- it's a single strip of steel - make the strip of paper first - put it round you head and make sure you get the space you want between head and strip.

Then make the ridge band (the band running front to back) -- again just a strip of steel -- this will define the height of the helmet and the shape in one dimension.

Then make the other bands -- defining the helmet shape in the other compass directions.

Then make the fill plates -- essentially, these are triangles.
They will have to be big enough to fill the spaces left between bands and overlap for riveting.
To reduce worry, Make them oversized and cut them when you're done.

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Norman J. Finkelshteyn
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Armourkris · Post by **Armourkris** » Fri Aug 03, 2001 11:12 pm

what i meant eric is something to planish onto.
uhm, as for the helm, well, something like this..
http://albionarmorers.com/armor-greece.htm
the late romano ridge helmet, bottom half of the page.

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What, drawn, and talk of peace! I hate the word, As I hate hell, all Montagues, and thee:

Erik Schmidt · Post by **Erik Schmidt** » Sat Aug 04, 2001 3:23 am

Ahh...OK, now I get it.

I would consider that ball too small for planishing on, but that is easily fixed. Just grind/file down the top so that the curve flattens out, something equvalent of at least a 4-6 inch ball.

Hope the helm ends up a perfect fit first time. Something I wasn't able to do. Why don't you e-mail a pro armourer with your head measurements and ask the size of their roudtop pattern to fit that. They may be willing to give you that info via e-mail, but not in an open forum such as here.

Erik

Norman · Post by **Norman** » Mon Aug 06, 2001 12:09 pm

Tybolt --
That's exactly what I was talking about.
But theirs is much more "duded up" then I'd presume you'll make your first one.

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Norman J. Finkelshteyn
Armour of the Silk Road - http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Olympus/3505
The Silk Road Designs Armoury - http://www.enteract.com/~silkroad
Jewish Warriors - http://www.geocities.com/jewishwarriors
The Red Kaganate - http://www.geocities.com/kaganate
silkroad@spam.operamail.com (remove "spam" from e-mail to make it work)