The Armour Archive

I have just recently gotten back into the SCA game, and I have been using a bascinet with a welded on grill that I bought about 10 years ago. I want to cheaply go for a more authentic look now. I have a nice pig face bascinet I made out of 16 Ga. mild a while ago that I would like to use without getting my brains bashed in. I was thinking of welding reinforcing strips of about 1.5" wide 16 Ga. steel into the inside of the helm.

Does anyone have any experience with this or think that it will work, or am I wasting my time? I could always just make another bascinet out of 14 Ga., but I don't have any on hand. I will try to get some pictures of it up later.

It's been done before. It's not all that easy and the success of the results vary. At the absolute least you have to refinish the helm due to the weld spots.

IMO it's easier just to build another helmet

Oh and PLEASE do not try and fiht in just the 16 ga helmet.

Most of your better fighters can crease that by thinking about it hard...esp in Atlantia.

You'll get a concussion

I would ask around locally for 14 Guage...
And some perf plate.
14 for your your new helm and perf plate to add a mask to the bassinet you have.
It should be a fairly easy sell to the cut and thrust helm if it looks decent.
More if its pretty.

I have on a couple occasions made sca helms from 16 ga. (I dont like to because IMO it dents to easy even if it is legal) What I did was use extra layers where ever I could. The dif. between that and what you are suggesting is, I build the helm that way from the start, I didnt try to retrofit after its built. Options? you could weld in some extra 16 ga, and pattern weld to beef up areas you cant get extra metal into. That said, it would prob. be easier to make a new helm out of 14 ga.

I concur.

Build a new helmet. It will be easier and result in a better result.

I don't play much at all anymore, but I am in NC. When I play I wear a 12g mild bascinet.

Wade

The finish on it right now is crap, so welding on the inside wouldn't matter. But after hearing all the comments, it sounds like a lot of work for nothing.

I will just make another out of 14 Guage when I get to it. I was trying to figure out an easy fix for my 14th century kit until I can get my early 16th century kit finished. For now I will stick with the grill bascinet and work on finding some 14 Ga. to make a new bascinet and a sallet.

Concurred. And even 14ga mild is still pretty cheap. Particularly getting "drops" from the steel store. Jacksonville's got a few, right? They gotta have fabricators in sheet steel, with Lejeune just down the road and MCAS New River...

I need to check around to find the scrap yards and steel places around here. Before I moved down south I had a friend who worked for a steel supply company and he gave me loads of 16 Ga. mild.

I'm not sure if I can cut 14 with what I have been using though. I have been cutting with electric shears that I think is only rated up to 16. I have been eyeing the knock off bev. shear at harbor freight, you guys think that can handle it?

Thanks for the input.

-Myron

I don't think the itty bitty HF shear will handle it.

That said, Mac uses a jigsaw to cut his stuff, and I may be going to a bandsaw. Mac had some interesting observations - he uses a very coarse blade to "chisel" out the material, instead of trying to "file" it out (which is what the 24+TPI blades are designed to do) He also makes sure to SECURELY clamp it down, because the coarse blades apparently vibrate like you would expect course blades on steel to vibrate.

I'm hoping that Mac can comment on the specific saw and blades that he uses...

Scott Martin

I cut 14 gauge with my HF all the time. If you know what you are doing you can do 12 but their blades are hit and miss so some will shatter. I find if you pace out the blades with thicker stuff the HF works fine.

RPM

Kinda wish Randall had included the S in "space." Adjust the shear blades farther apart for dealing with this heavier sheet.

Report is that electric shears can cut thicker stuff than they're rated for if you take it slow and easy. Take the usual precautions like feeling if the motor housing or the gearbox are getting too hot.

My electric shears are pretty good, they are a Kett. I think they are only rated up to 16, but I think they could handle some 14 if some of the really cheap ones out there are advertised as able to do it. They were a Christmas gift about 7 or 8 years ago when I first started messing with metal. Cutting inside curves on 16 Ga. takes some manhandling and bending of the channel strip, and I usually have to go back with a bench grinder and grind out areas I couldnt get to but they work well for what I use them for. My biggest problem is finding time to work on armor. When I do get time I get excited and start working on armor when I need to take some time to put my workshop in order and make some tools and stakes.

I have that same problem... each time I head to the shop I try to spend the first half hour clearning up and organizeing before starting a project.
Every 6 months I spend a day doing a top down cleaning, anything that not quite right goes on Ebay.
and all bits go to the scrap yard... I usualy endup replaceing my 55 gallon drum for charcoal production in the same trip.

It still grows out of control but self a clean shop leads a safer shop with to faster production and better quality.
When I was working in a fab shop there was a huge amount of waste because parts and tools where not put back or properly cared for.

Make a pseudo-crown from 12 gauge steel and it it to the helmet. Finish the metal all the same so it blends. This will hopefully avoid conflict with those who have actually earned the crown.

Interesting idea, Paulus, but I see two difficulties. Getting the curvature to match that well in the first place even with extensive soft mallet work, and I don't think it would avoid conflicts, particularly given how many royal SCA crowns are silver in color too. An exterior reinforce might require to be a different shape than a coronet altogether -- and real freedom in that regard really only opens up with sallets and their reinforces.