The Armour Archive

Ok, so I wear a flat topped great helm. have since I started fighting 6 or 7 years ago. It has served me well.

I don't mind the closed face, I like the look, but I want a new helm and I am considering other helm possiblities as well. My kit is mostly splinted stuff, circa 1350 welsh/english. My persona has just returned from fighting the French in the hundred years war.

The main reason for a new helm is I need more glancing surfaces. I find myself tipping my head to deflect shots....but they don't deflect because of the flat top etc. So I am looking for suggestions. I sort am known for my helm in the region and would like something interesting, but not wild. I like sugarloaf greathelms, but have been unable to find anything for a reasonable price.

So I am looking for suggestions and pictures and ideas from people...and links to where I can get it would be great too.

Llywelyn

I am open to new or used too, if anyone has something they want to get rid of.

You might look at this type.
http://home.armourarchive.org/members/h ... arloaf.jpg

Or something simpler like this?
http://home.armourarchive.org/members/h ... gen6.1.jpg

I like the brass myself:
http://halberds.arador.com/images/helmets/helmet08.jpg

Best of luck on your quest.

Hal

Hal that Sugarloaf on top is awesome. I like them all but that one is my favorite.

Take care

Pitbull

Thanks PB,

That was my first custom helm job.
I made it for a member in OZ.

I don't make custom helms anymore.
They end up costing too much.

Hal

Well, the Pembridge-y hats are c. 1370 if memory serves.

Of course, if your persona ages, he'd be passing through the fourteenth century's decades in the process. It's something you can justify: my persona upgraded his helm to something in a newer model.

Sounds like you want a crease-topped great: pointier on top, forehead plate sloping out somewhat farther and hence ventail plate an inch or two farther out (also very much a Pembridge element, these helms being rather deep front to back even as greats go) and the forehead and occiputal plates angling in more steeply, somewhat shorter, and fitting more closely to your skull. In a word, beveling the corners away. The creased top cap will be rather deep-dished, and likely interiorly fitted. The two plates beneath it will also have slight dishing, particularly at sides of head and back, and little or none along the front profile with or without a frontal crease.

I'm a fan of decorative details on helms, so I say get cute with the inter-ocular tab -- get 'er fishtailing some, or some treatment like the ends of arms of some of the varieties of heraldic cross -- patté, flory, bottony (like a shorter version of Hal's helmet08 jpg), all kinds of cute stuff. Even more rivets than strictly simply necessary. You like brass?

Pretty breaths go practically without saying, in view of the above. The Pembridge examples rather fall down in this respect, as they are simply very numerous small circular holes, rather casually laid out along layout lines that were neither rigidly straight nor the holes precisely spaced along them.

1350?

What about a DeStaunton Greathelm? Pretty much different from all other greathelms and it has a round top.



http://www.flickr.com/photos/13316415@N05/page3/

There was a guy on here a couple of months ago selling a Forth Castle one (the one pictured in the link)

14ga stainless steel and brass, it is nice. I have one.

InsaneIrish wrote:1350?

What about a DeStaunton Greathelm? Pretty much different from all other greathelms and it has a round top.



http://www.flickr.com/photos/13316415@N05/page3/

There was a guy on here a couple of months ago selling a Forth Castle one (the one pictured in the link)

14ga stainless steel and brass, it is nice. I have one.

Anyone know where to get a pattern for this helmet??
Well it never hurts to ask.......

O.o

Yeah, not to get off topic or anything, but that thing is SWEET!

(couldn't keep my mouth shut)

Shiz

InsaneIrish wrote:1350?

What about a DeStaunton Greathelm? Pretty much different from all other greathelms and it has a round top.



http://www.flickr.com/photos/13316415@N05/page3/

There was a guy on here a couple of months ago selling a Forth Castle one (the one pictured in the link)

14ga stainless steel and brass, it is nice. I have one.

Have to admit, it is the first time I have seen this helmet.. what is it based on?

Yep, like Konstantine said, Pembridge is good. I wear one.

75 years of great helms link. http://home.scarlet.be/~klauwaer/helm/

Gunvaldis wrote:Have to admit, it is the first time I have seen this helmet.. what is it based on?

http://home.scarlet.be/~klauwaer/helm/

From the Effigy of William DeStaunton

Circa 1326, a little earlier than you were looking but not by much.

I've got a cerveliere it's the tall flared edge with removable grill one on my site. It's in stock brand new fits the time period and the splints. And you don't see many cervelieres around.

To pattern that helmet there's a couple ways you could do it. Easiest is to use a normal top and weld it together. Then weld a skirt on the bottom so you've got the basic shape and then put the sideways band on top.

Slightly harder is to adjust your pattern slightly for a normal helmet top so it works sideways. You'll need to make it slightly narrower and slightly taller. Grab the bascinet top half pattern on the pattern archive. Then weld a skirt on the bottom.

Much harder and also harder to shape is to make the above pattern and then add the skirt to the bottom of the pattern. Goes straight down if you draw a line between the points of the pattern then alter it on the edges to reflect the taper. This'll be a pain to shape also.

Another option is to look around for the one piece barbute pattern that's floating around somewhere. Chop it in half and make it from two pieces.

First option is easiest.

A Pembridge is a really good helm. When I first got mine from Boldo it seemed like I just couldn't feel blows, most of the shots that hit it felt "skippy" and not solid. I was afraid I'd overpadded it (1/2" camper foam and that's it), so I asked my knight to watch me fight closely for several practice fights. When I sat down and took it off he was chuckling, and said "set it in that chair, and come back over here and look at it. It's like a Stealth fighter, there really isn't one square inch of it that isn't curved or slanted. You're calling shots just fine, they are skipping off of it."

I still got hit in the leg more, but that's what I get for specifying "a visor slit like the original", which was about 3/8" as best we could scale it.