The Armour Archive

I am trying (my first attempt) to do a LH grade helmet padding/strapping for a standard Norman-Style raised helmet with attached nasal for 1st to 3rd Crusade.

I had originally thought to use a leather suspension over a padded coif, but having read another thread here would like some practical advice.

1. Should I pad the leather suspension instead? (2 layers leather with heavy batting between)

2. In any case, are six attachment points as shown here :

http://forums.armourarchive.org/phpBB2/ ... ng_592.jpg


sufficient and historically accurate? (Yes, I know the picture is of an SCA sport helm: I am just asking about attachment points of the suspension system).

3. For attachment of the suspension to the helmet, can I use copper rivets (my usual choice when I work with leather) or should I be using something else?

4. In attaching the chinstrap, should I not use two points of attachment per side, and use a different point of attachment than the suspension leathers?

5. Instead of using leather suspension, would cloth padding be a better historical choice?

Thanks for any help!

Tigernach,

Looking through my own limited sources on Norman helms of your stated time, I can find nothing historically based showing a period lining in a Norman style helm. I have one image, taken from "Barbarians Warriors: Saxons, Vikings, Normans" by Dan & Susanna Shadrake, that shows a suggested reconstruction for LH. In it, a leather suspension is stitched into small holes around the helmets rim, folded over the edge to also act as edging.



I have found several images of the use of padded caps, or for wearing the helm over a mail coif. Perhaps a padded coif would be a better choice, but if this helm is not intended for combat use, the simple leather suspension method above would seem to work.

For a padded, built-in helmet lining of any sort, I believe that a row of rivet holes around the base of a Norman style helm could have held a leather strap, to which a padded lining could have been sewn. There are a few existing helms which have these holes, which upon a quick photo inspection seem to number around 8-12 rivets holes evenly spaced along the lowest helmet edge (one example is the Olmutz helmet, in the Kunshistorisches Museum, Vienna) I don't have any info here, so as to the exact shape and form of such a lining, I cannot hazard to guess at.

Now, as to my opinion on copper rivets, I believe they are right out. I have never seen them used on a LH quality or historical replica piece (not saying that they weren't, mind you), and even so, I believe the historical shape of a copper rivet if used, would probably resemble more a modern roofing nail.

Hopefully, some one with more knowledge than I will offer a researched historical basis for including or excluding copper rivets.

I hope this helps you out...

Thank you very much! This helps a lot. I know the way I want to go now.

And it may be that the Olmutz is not properly a helmet, but a helmet dobble. It's got holes around its lower edge that seem curiously fresh and clean -- new looking compared with all other parts of the piece. Suitable for affixing it to a stock of heavy timber to make a massive helmet-making stake of the whole?

The Olmutz is remarkably thick -- AFAIK it is nowhere thinner than about 6-7mm except at the nasal, which tapers somewhat from brow to tip, and is equipped with a curious little hooked appendage at the end of the nasal that would seem very useful for stabilizing the end of a nasal or even a broader extension of metal in the frontal area of the helmet that would later be cut away or trimmed into Viking oculars, while the rest of the hat is being hammered.