The Armour Archive

hi all,
I've been doing a lot of raising as of late. I raised a few helms-two norman conicals (one with the nasal raised from the same piece) and a cervellier. right now I'm trying an onion-top bascinet, and ran into some problems-so I scapped the piece, but can still use it to practice techniques on. so anyways...

when raising something with an offset or not centered point, what kind of pattern should I be using? I noticed that it leaves too much on the front and too little in the back. what's a good general shape to use?

or should I make the point in the center, and "tip"/angle the blank and work it from there?

if I raise the point offset, should the "head shape" also be raised offset with it? meaning that the point should be somewhat centered on the head shape/oval? so should the head shape/oval be angled with it?

lastly should I raise the rough shape as a circle and then work the sides more at the end to make it ovular (oval/head shaped) or should I begin to raise it with an oval to begin with?

everything make sense?

Thanks for the help,

Aaron

BTW-how do these helmets sit on the head? angled or are they worn just "straight"? does this make sense?

I go with an egg shape. Basically, a regular blank that you would use for any round top helmet, but add a bit of an elongation to the back side.

I normally don't bother refining the shape any more than roughly octagonal, I just trim everything which is not needed in the end.

You can start offset from the middle if you want to get different lengths front or back, but as long as you are close to a spherical segment it really doesn't matter where the top is. Normally when I'm far enough ahead in the shaping that the profile starts to approach the desired profile in the top of the helmet, I decide what's front-back and left-right. From there on, I just move the metal in the direction I need it to go. Rather than raising the edges straight down, it is possible to angle them a bit in one direction or another. The cumulative effect can be quite large. And if that is not enough, one can always stretch the metal a bit in the direction needed.

thank you.

I angling the piece but it wouldn;t fit on my stake, so instead I kinda wrecked it by tapping the point down and making a new one. in the process of making a new one it formed a lot of wrinkles due to me being too many courses in to start anouther point. (and it's only 18 ga) but that's what learning is for.

I'm gonna have to make a few more stakes....

Aaron