The Armour Archive

Hello all,

A new fighter is working hard to finish his Zweihammer helm kit before Pennsic. The shaping and finishing has been slow but he really poured in the effort a few days ago and got it fully assembled. (I'll post pictures later).

Now we are rethinking our padding options. The rivets are already peaned tight so we can't put in a suspension liner without a lot of work. We were thinking about a padded hat/hood but now I'm concerned about the helm moving on the padding since it wouldn't be laced in the way a bascinet liner would be. We also thought about gluing strips and leaving the gaps open for air flow but my foam is blue camping mat (although I suppose we could cut strips of pipe insulation).

I'd like to know peoples thoughts and experience with basket woven style helms and how they paded them (or would choose to pad them)

Thanks,
Sean

What I've seen, make the padding as you would any other helm. Pull out the padding and cover it in a velvet. The velvet colors will show through the spaces in the helm giving a nice contrast. YMMV

Sixtus

For my helm, I padded the helmet along the major Y pieces, brow band, main band and the cross band. This pads it well and allows the air to flow underneath the helm. One word of advice, make sure he checks the eye openings. I am told that if the helmet is not riveted and formed right, they can allow a 1 inch dowel to enter. It happened to me on both of the helms I built, the eyes were to large by an eighth of an inch. I am going to fix the problem by adding brass trim to the eyebrows. Hope this helps.

Bjorn

(edited to add) If you like the color contrast, but want to keep the ventalation of the helm. Buy a brightly colored cap from underarmour. It shows through nicely and allows the heat to flow off.