Stainless Zweihammer topfhelm with custom brass work

Sean Powell · Post by **Sean Powell** » Thu Feb 10, 2011 9:23 pm

This story will ramble a little so if you just want the pics, scroll to the end.

In the summer of 1991, 2 clueless college students, equipped with a small nylon dome tent, a cooler of food a few t-tunics and no real clue went to their first event. The event was Pennsic XX and I was one of the college students.

That Pennsic a scadian local to the college found those college students, pointed them to a place to pitch their tent, helped them with armor shopping, introduced them to the SCA beyond their small college world and kept them from drowning during hurricane Bob. This manâ€™s name was James Gallowglass but all of his friends called him â€œHawkâ€

Kilkenny · Post by **Kilkenny** » Thu Feb 10, 2011 10:32 pm

Looks great Sean. Couldn't go to a nicer fellow.

Halberds · Post by **Halberds** » Fri Feb 11, 2011 12:58 am

Jolly well done.
Nice fit and finish.
Thanks for the pics and story.

Hal

PS: The pics are bigger than my screen. :-(

Sean Powell · Post by **Sean Powell** » Fri Feb 11, 2011 8:01 am

Halberds wrote:Jolly well done.
Nice fit and finish.
Thanks for the pics and story.

Hal

PS: The pics are bigger than my screen.

Sorry. I'll go back and re-size them.

If you want to shrink or expand your screen ctrl - and ctrl + will change your screen settings until things fit... but it also adjusts text size at the same time so you will want to undo it after seeing the pictures.

Sean

InsaneIrish · Post by **InsaneIrish** » Fri Feb 11, 2011 8:52 am

Dude, suspension liner. Nice.

THAT did not come with the kit. Can you give specifics on it's manufacture?

Sean Powell · Post by **Sean Powell** » Fri Feb 11, 2011 9:39 am

InsaneIrish wrote:Dude, suspension liner. Nice.

THAT did not come with the kit. Can you give specifics on it's manufacture?

Yeah, I realized after helping a friend build his topf helm that there was tons of space to fill with padding. Ate up more then a roll of camp mat by the time we got it worked out. We probably could have been more efficient though.

There are six 1" D-rings (would have rectangular but they wern't available) from a sewing store with the ends brazed shut (belt and suspenders, I can't weld). There are 6 stainless 18ga tabs about 7/8"x2" that are bent over the straight portion of the D-ring and then the bottoms are filed and rounded over. Five have a single hole and the one between the eyes has 2 holes to match the helm construction. Lining up the brass cross, both halves of the upper plate, the nose tab of the lower plate and the 2 layers of D-ring tabs was a PITA but it can be done.

The liner itself is four strips of 1" nylon webbing 8" long and two 9" long. They had 4" of prikly velcro sewn to then about 2" from the end and then the end folded over and sewn down so there is a loop I can get my pinky finger through. The webbing was fed through the D-rings, velcro down and sewn in place with artificial sinew. (longer straps front and back) extra webbing was left for coarse adjustment or future repairs but the main adjustment is a loop of paracord fed through the ends of all the straps.

Padding to satisfy the marshals (and prevent it feeling like 6 sharp lines on your scalp) will be a 'hat' with 6 pieces of fuzzy velcro on top, stuffed with 6 fat spangen triangles of foam and a rectangle around back. Line up the padding above the eye-slot, press into the velcro, fight until sweaty, pull padding out and throw in washing machine... or at least that's the plan. It's a slightly more advanced system then what I use on my helmet but I still use duct-tape rolls instead of velcro.

Sean