Eyeslit/ocularium really wide in many SCA helms?

[Novice]

Why are so many SCA helms made with an immense ocularium? I get that it's probably for increased and better vision, but on anything but a hounskull bascinet, which has notoriously terrible visibility, or an enclosed helmet (early great helm) in which a wide ocularium would be historically accurate (I think), the proximity of the slit to your face means that you should have pretty good vision and widening it by a centimeter or two (even so wide as an inch) won't do too much for it--on the other hand, it makes an eye-slit several times easier to strike through, and one could imagine that, at the greater widths I've seen, it could even catch the rubber pad on the edge of a rattan, or something. And for blade combat... it would be much worse.

Plus, in my personal opinion it makes a helmet look perpetually confused or surprised, but that's just me--it also should be said that for all my meager experience in armoring and combat (and none of that combat was SCA, yet), that I have probably 3% of an idea what I'm talking about. I don't profess to know anything and all of this is up to speculation.

[Keegan Ingrassia]

You're not the only one driven crazy by it. It's a popular complaint here.

It all comes down to the individual, personal sliding scale between historical and competitive that people fall on.

On the far side, you have bar grills. On the other, historically accurate to the minutiae. Wide eyeslots and low-profile bascinet points are a couple SCAisms somewhere in the compromised region in the middle.

Also, it can be an issue of compounding errors. Someone builds a copy of a copy of a...etc. instead of looking at the real thing. So what is glaringly obvious when compared to historical examples, seems perfectly fine in a sea of modern production pieces.

[Konstantin the Red]

One very simple answer is how many SCAdians are glasses wearers. They *have* to have the visor well forward/roomy or else resort to contacts (workable) and fighting nearsighted (possible but harder to make work).

Bespectacled SCAdians enjoy the use of hinged bargrill bascinet visors for their roominess among other reasons.

The low-riding bascinet point among SCA bascs is to make the helmet harder to snag with a strike from the side, which in one target or another is over 99% of SCA cutting attacks.

We could help you find the local SCA, the "Groups Nearest You," if we knew your location from your Profile. You may be right next door to a huge amount of SCA activity.

Another simple answer to add to that one is that the SCA fighters hit each other with rattan 1 1/4" across at the striking edge -- and helm visor biggest holes and largest ocularia are 1" x 5", though lengthier slots may be divided with bars.

[Novice]

Well, I didn't think someone would get stabbed insomuch a rattan could, feasibly, catch on the edge of the eye-slit and cave it in something fierce, though that might not even be possible. Also, I have updated my profile accordingly, though I'm going off to college soon so getting in a club right now would make no sense.
Though I'm quite surprised it let me put so long of a title to say "San Antonio Area".

[Konstantin the Red]

It really isn't so possible, not with helmet metal .078" thick (14 gauge). Rattan batons ain't pointy, and we don't carry live steel on the tourney field. Haven't for fifty years since the SCA's founding in 1966.

Equipment for Cut & Thrust and Rapier combats doesn't let these implements into you either. With these games you get rather more steel-song than the thump-thwack! of rattan hardstick fighting.

College is a great place to find Creative Anachronists for swordplaymates, and it's an unrivaled dating pool for nerds too. Where's college going to be? The SCA is both nationwide and international. Other HEMA/ARMA type groups (who mainly play in rebated steel weaponry) are much less widely distributed.

[Aaron]

I've worn sports goggles under my close helm. There was even a picture here on the Archive of me wearing my sports goggles.

[Aaron]

Ah, here is the photo I was talking about.

[Aaron]

Here are some pictures of me in my old armour.

[Novice]

I see... but then you wore an armet over it (one of the closest fitting helms, I might add) and I'd hardly say said armet has a reduced ocularium. So in regards to wide eyeslits, you wore glasses, of a sort, then wore a close-fitting helm, and this didn't give you any trouble?
Also pardon me for asking, but what exactly do you mean by saying this? You wore sports goggles in lieu of glasses, or...?

[Rannulf from York]

Another possibility is that there are helms built generically,for sale sized to fit most heads. There for the eye slit is left a little large to fit the most people ?

[boris_]

Here are some pictures of me in my old armour.

Looking fly

[Konstantin the Red]

Another possibility is that there are helms built generically,for sale sized to fit most heads. There for the eye slit is left a little large to fit the most people ?

This is indeed typical SCA fare in hard hats, this genericism -- the vast majority of SCA helmets are pull-on affairs. A close-helmet literally closes around your skull and mandible. That's not where it gets its name from; that's from its fitting to your skull, face, and neck.

The common run of Anachronist helm and helmet is wider down below. The first widely distributed pattern of SCA helmet built from scratch of sheet metal was a sort of spangenhat-fireplug thing. Barrelhelms with enough room for your nose came nearly simultaneously, maybe some months later.

So, the critical minimum, gotta-have-it-this-big dimension was circumference about the brow, plus a margin for some padding. Everything else was free and easy. Once or twice recently, we've seen new SCA guys with their very first (used) helm, which frankly might be too short for them (giraffe-necked kids with tall skulls too) or too long (rough on the traps) coming here seeking advice how to sort things out. Alas, only some of the time have we actually been helpful, that we are sure of. Some we have advised that there's not much profit in trying to rework the hat in question to suit their particular frame, and they should sell it off to help finance getting a helm that's better for *them.*

[Aaron]

I see... but then you wore an armet over it (one of the closest fitting helms, I might add) and I'd hardly say said armet has a reduced ocularium. So in regards to wide eyeslits, you wore glasses, of a sort, then wore a close-fitting helm, and this didn't give you any trouble?
Also pardon me for asking, but what exactly do you mean by saying this? You wore sports goggles in lieu of glasses, or...?

I was pointing out that sports-googles can be worn and are not always terribly obtrusive. However, I know there is one photo where the sunlight caught my sports-googles just right, and it is clear I'm wearing them in the photo.