The Armour Archive

I have a few aluminum practice longswords en route, some WMA groups have been raving about their use when practicing German or Italian longsword styles. I'm toying with the idea of making or modifying a helm for use with these swords. Some groups have been using fencing three-weapon masks, but that seems a little on the light side. I was going to use a thinner gauge open-faced helm and add a perforated steel face plate.

Anyone worked with that kind of thing before? What kinds of specs and materials should I be using? I figure I can use a heavier gauge sice it is going to be about 50% air. What distance should the holes be apart, and how large should each hole be? Obviously, I want it to maintain its shape after a good shot, but I also want decent ventilation and visibility.

Thanks!

Transparent Aluminum would work well too

Here is an article I wrote a while back for an SCA publication (Tournaments Illuminated). It may help. I've put perf steel faceplates on a few helms.

http://www.companyofthebronzering.org/l ... elmet.html

Kevin O'Shaughnessy

I did perf steel over the eyes on my first helm. Didn't like it. To dark IMHO but that could have just been the steel I used.

Arturious wrote:I did perf steel over the eyes on my first helm. Didn't like it. To dark IMHO but that could have just been the steel I used.

Could have been a couple of things. It could have been the perf steel you used or perhaps it was too far away from your eyes.

Just guessing....

Kevin O'Shaughnessy

Your right about the distance. It was to far away as well.

The sheet I bought was 16ga and very easy to work if you're doing any dishing. Right in front of your eyes you want to be looking straight through the holes. If you are looking through an angle you will see the sides of the holes. For example, my light weapons helm (early 13th century helm shown in Kevin's article) has a single piece of perforated metal on it. The part in front of my eyes is flat and the part in front of my face is dished. When I look down, I only get a rough idea of what is down there. If I had a welder, I would have used a more open perforation in front of the eyes and the same for the dished part. When dishing, the holes in the deepest area stretched out to the SCA minimum protection. If you are only going to be facing the larger AL weapons and not olympic fencing blades, you can probably use a thicker sheet with a greater open area.

The best looking and strongest way to do it is probably to only use the perforated steel in the eyeslots of a visor. A large unsupported expanse of perforated steel will dent when hit.

Jacob

Perf steel, I still have a half sheet of 14ga.
I have use perf in several helms from fincing to heavy weapons. During the sunshine it's great stuff, but low light it is like wearing sunglasses inside.
16ga. perf is no better than 18ga. for stringth, so as long as it fits the groop go for it.


AB Hammer

Bang it out, put it on and then find your eyes' viewpoints and punch through there.
From there you can see where your blindspots are... have someone pretend to attack you while you wear it. Its a little back and forth on trying it out and perforating thevisor, but you should be happy with the outcome.

I wear a helm faced with perf plate for rapier fighting. I find it no more difficult to see out of than a standard fencing mask. I wear glasses and with them on my vision is fine but if I try to go without the glasses my nearsightedness makes seeing past the perf plate very difficult. If you have 20/20 vision you should have no trouble focusing beyond the face plate.