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My first helm project
Posted: Wed May 24, 2006 11:34 pm
by Bjørn
Well, I finally got around to making the Val 6 helm I ordered in December (kit arrived in time, I was just to busy working on other projects until I got around to making it). It took me about 2 hours a day for a week to make it. I really enjoyed making it and looking forward to making the stainless version for myself (I am selling the first one in the classifieds). Thanks for looking.
Bjorn
Posted: Thu May 25, 2006 5:21 am
by Asmodei
looks good
Posted: Thu May 25, 2006 6:06 am
by Stahlgrim
Helm looks great!
but whats up with the Rupert Everett poster?
Posted: Thu May 25, 2006 6:38 am
by Morgan
Stahlgrim wrote:but whats up with the Rupert Everett poster?
Not that there's anything WRONG with that....
Good job on the helm man.
Posted: Thu May 25, 2006 8:37 am
by Baron Alejandro
Bjorn,
I've long pondered that helm kit. Can't wait to see yours finished! I need to get back down to Attilium...in my copious spare time.....
A
Posted: Thu May 25, 2006 9:16 am
by Otto
Looks like it came out pretty well...
Can I suggest using a small rivet-head sized dimple in your anvil so that the rivet heads remain rounded and clean instead of flattened? It actually does improve the appearance a bit.
Side question... how much of the shaping and such did you have to do?... and how much was pre-done?
Posted: Thu May 25, 2006 1:34 pm
by Bjørn
Thank you for the compliments. As per the Rupert Everett poster, it is from the movie "Midsummer Night's Dream" (I had a thing for Callista Flockhart in college, I grew up... eventually).
Alejandro- Come on down and we will have a grand old-time. I hope to have the stainless finshed in time for June's baronial practice.
Otto- Thanks for the advice about the rivets. I am going to try it when I make my stainless helm. Everything came flat in the kit except for the brow band (Zeihammer had to put a single curve in to fit it in the box).
Bjorn
Posted: Fri May 26, 2006 9:12 am
by Otto
Y'know, something just occurred to me... when you do your nice stainless helm... make sure to use stainless rivets as well. It'd be a shame to do all that work in stainless and have a shiny helm only to have the effect ruined by rusty rivets.
Ooo, if I could make a small shaping suggestion... (and this is just my personal preference, not the "right" way to do it)... on the band that runs across the top from one side to the other of the dome... I'd round out that center section just a bit more... avoid that flattened center section.
Posted: Fri May 26, 2006 12:19 pm
by schreiber
Otto wrote:Can I suggest using a small rivet-head sized dimple in your anvil so that the rivet heads remain rounded and clean instead of flattened? It actually does improve the appearance a bit.
$1 block of pewter + bench vise.
If you're feeling industrious, make a hardie tool that has a cup on the top that holds pewter - then you can carefully propane torch the surface once it gets cratered.
And you don't end up with a dimple in your anvil.
I won't recommend lead since it's really soft, and also because it's lead. I'm using 95/5 solder melted into a black pipe cap, but I may go with copper added or straight copper as soon as I can melt it, just to see what it's like.
Posted: Fri May 26, 2006 12:37 pm
by Otto
I use a piece of old railroad track as my primary anvil... at one end, I just drilled a couple of carefully sized indents... one for the 3/16 rivets I use and one for the 1/8 I sometimes use. It's held up for years of fairly intensive armouring.
But whatever floats your boat... my "anvil" isn't fancy enough for me to stress over minor modifications.