The Armour Archive

the rest of you may find this obvious, but humour me. how were helms made in the medieval era? obviosly they hammered out thin sheets of metal, boared holes for rivets, used chisles, etc. BUT, how did they form helms like sugarloafs, salets, or even beter a basinet? obviously they didnt have a mig welder, so did they dish the out of one piece, or did they weld it in a forge? just something thats been on my mind.


-Steel

That's a good question. From my understanding, a great many helmets were raised from one piece of metal. How? Well, check out the link below to go to a photo essay by the infamous Eric Thing who raises a Norman Conical helm from one piece. The end result is quite impressive.

http://anvilfire.com/21centbs/armor/NormanHelmet/index.html

Really a good essay.

thanks clay, that was awsome! thanks for letting me see that. I highly recomend everyone seeing that!

-Steel

Interesting site. I wonder if he used oxygen tanks to construct his dishing forms and the left over long sections of the tank to construct the gas furnace. You certainly couldn't use a dishing stump. Kind of gets the wheels turning in my head. I wonder how 14 gauge stainless would respond to heat. I expect it would be much easier to form. Anyone have an idea on this?

[This message has been edited by Willing Pell (edited 03-22-2001).]

Obviously, yes, stainless as well as mild steel gets easier to work when you apply sufficient heat. I think you would be well-advised to anneal the stainless completely after your last hot pass, and planish it cold, to avoid excess work-hardening, and brittleness.
This based on exactly zero experience hot-working stainless, of course

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The head and stage of the sheet-metal furnace are just 16-gauge mild steel, lined with ceramic wool, which is in turn coated on the inside with ceramic paint (ITC-100). Love that wool! It insulates terrifically, and is very light. To hold the wool liner in the head, there is a stainless steel collar around the bottom of the head, held by 3 stainless clips screwed to the head outer skin.

The forge has worked well, but Mark V is now being designed. I am helping a friend raise a monster barbute (blank weighs about 13 lb) which is taking the forge to its limits.

*starts drooling all over the place*
Um... you're going to document raising that barbute, right?
That'd really kick ass... Can't wait to see it.
--tom

Eric, what are you using for a burner head? You're using bottle gas right?

Willing Pell: If by bottle-gas you mean propane, yup. A 30-lb LP tank, which can run the forge for 6-7 hours. The burner is a Ron Reil design, using the Zoeller stainless steel "trumpet flare"; I highly recommend the design, it is very easy to build and works very well. Just the one burner at 7 lb input pressure gets the inside of the forge head to blazing orange hot in a few minutes.

I told the webmaster of anvilfire.com that I would post more info and pictures regarding the sheet metal forge someday. Maybe in a month or so...

Garridan: I don't think I'm going to take pictures of the barbute work...so far, there would be nothing but images of me snarling and cursing, while manhandling a 24" diameter blank back and forth to the stake! I think we overdid it on the metal, but I wanted a benchmark as to the largest blank it was practical to start with, and boy, did I ever get my wish. If I figure out how to post a pic on this site, maybe I'll put up one of this monster at a later stage...

Since there's no back-link to the other articles showing Eric's shop layout and tools, you may want to check out: http://www.anvilfire.com/21centbs/armor/index.htm

He's got some wonderful stuff, well arranged.

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Eric, Your work and blow by blow description of helmet raising are truly inspiring. I have been slowing teaching myself to raise various armour pieces. I haven't tried a helm yet but your site gives me the confidence that its do-able. I have been salivating about your forge design and would love to see what ever design and construction tips that you post on the anglefire site. I'm sure that my wife will appreciate another noise enabling tool in the garage.