The Armour Archive

Greetings,

To set the background...we are having a big influx of new fighters in our local group(which is very small). I (the local blacksmith) will probably end up making a great deal of the armour that is used. I can make pretty much anything for people, but helms. I have never tried a helm. I am looking for a simple but quick helm that I could throw together for people to start out with. Doesn't need to be anything fancy, but quick and simple are the words of the day right now. (I know its probably asking to much)

Anyone have any ideas, and better yet good patterns?

Thanks,

Llywelyn

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Stay open minded, but not so open minded that your brains fall out.

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I am neater with a 5lbs. cross pein than with a ball point pen!

The first and only helm I've made so far has been a greathelm. It's very easy to make, although it has a tendancy to be a "mace landing pad" in combat. The pattern I used was from the an online book called "Basic Armouring", I don't have the url.

James

Check helm patern by sinric, i particulary like the greathelm,and whit a rounded top it is not too much of a "mace landing point"

as for simple, what is your definition,, dishing no dishing?

what about a simple two piece spangen/dome with a center band?

The default generic helmet for starting out when I was young in the SCA was a spangen helm. Simple, doesn't require much in the way of dishing and the patterns are easy to work with.

Barrel helms are nice for loaners for a couple of reasons. One of them being that the flat surfaces influence new fighters to get their own pretty quickly.

The patterns for both of these are in the archive and easy to work with. The barrel is arguably easier to build though not necessarily truely so.

Regards,

Cailean

Does it have to be SCA legal? I've put plans for a simple spangenhelm up at http://www.geocities.com/egfroth1/HbkSpangen.html or if you want to make a Byzantine one from a spun helmet shell, you could use the pattern at http://www.geocities.com/egfroth1/SimpleSpunDomHelm.html - it doesn't need any dishing, either.

However, neither of these are legal for SCA fighting.

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Egfroth

"I can hear the word money from a distance of fifty miles, if the wind's in the right direction"

Major Dennis Bloodnok, Queen's Forty-Third Deserters (retd.)

see my webpage at www.geocities.com/egfrothos

I'm no spangen-slut/helm-whore [not a jibe at spangenhelms or those who use them... more of an obscure reference to Hal, the self-proclaimed helm-whore of the Archive], but I do have a few helms of various styles under my belt. By far, the easiest to make is a greathelm. I recommend using 12 ga, if you're going mild steel. If you go 14, you'll end up spending as much time banging out the really nasty dents as you did building the thing in the first place.

I use Sinric's pattern from the pattern archive. You'll have to enlarge the printed pattern a bit [unless you're making the helm for a 3 year old] but that shouldn't give you much difficulty. The wonderful thing about the greathelm is that your pattern really can't be too big [within reason of course]. If your guy has a smaller head, you can either cut the sides down a bit or move the front back a bit on to the back pieces.

Good luck. I know how it is to be the armourer of the group. Not a sunday goes by that I don't hear, hey, Asher... can you fix this for me?

Regards,


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Asher der Jäger
Owner, Asher's Armory

edited for new sig... just figured out the umlaut.

[This message has been edited by Asher (edited 12-11-2002).]

Here is my easy greathelm pattern and how-to: (authenticish)
http://home.kooee.com.au/uryen/erstwhile/articles/greathelm/

Thanks that was very nice page Uryen. How is your computer spangen program comming along?

Asher: What does "obscure" mean.
I hear Mount Baldy is covered with snow. I will be out for Christmas. Visit Family.

It was POD that called me helm whore. But I think Wade has everyone beat.

Hal.

Years ago, I read about a fellow who would get new fighters outfitted in a couple of weekends. He had one standard helm pattern. It was a rectangle that had an extra bit to cover the throat. The way it went together was it was bent in a big circle, welded up the back, then the eye slots were cut with an abrasive wheel. The top was laid onto a piece of steel, which was then cut out with a 1/4" margin. This was also welded on. The excess was ground smooth and the whole thing was padded. As I recall, this basic munition helm took all of two hours to make for an amateur.

I wondered for a while why no armorers were offering something like it for $30 to get new guys fighting. Then I realized it would be ugly enough that nobody wants his name on it. It would look like a big soup can. Still, it would get folks armored in a very short time.

In fact, if you only used one set of patterns, depending one what your tools are, you could get folks suited up in one good weekend. The problem is that everyone wants to look different and spiffy. But a soupcan helm, a char-aina, darted elbows & knees, leather vambraces and cuisses with 1/8" mild steel splints, and a simple steel-over-leather gorget would take care of everything but the hands. I keep thinking there's got to be a gauntlet pattern that would be so simple that any oaf could make it and still have adequate protection. Just don't know what it is yet.

So, that doesn't really help much, but the thing of it is, you can make a very simple suit of armor with a lot less effort than most folks put in. That is, if all you care about is getting folks on the field...

-Patrick

A barrel helm like truehearth's.

It's really easy. Rectangle that's shorter in the middle and taller at the ends on the bottom edge. And half an eye slot on each end in the middle.

A strip of steel.

Curve the rectangle into an oval. Drill breaths. Rivit the ends together with the strip of steel.

Turn it upside down and trace out the outline on your steel. Add 1/2" to the circle.

Cut this disk out and weld it onto the top of the helmet. Before it cools bash the edges down over a round T stake.

Finished. Looks like a garbage can but it's got the necessary oval shape (since heads are oval shaped) and it's SCA legal.

I'm going to offer them eventually for somewhere betwen $40-$50

Truehearth offers them in 16ga for $50 or 14ga for $60.

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The budding mid 14th century German Transitional guy.
Mad Matt's Armory

[This message has been edited by Mad Matt (edited 12-11-2002).]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR><font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Halberds:
<B>Asher: What does "obscure" mean.
I hear Mount Baldy is covered with snow. I will be out for Christmas. Visit Family.

It was POD that called me helm whore. But I think Wade has everyone beat.

Hal.</B></font><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Obscure- Not clear to the mind; vague; abtruse.

-ducking now as large hammers and jagged pieces of scrap metal are thrown... probably not wise to be a smart ass to a collection of armourers-

Yes, Sierra Blanca has a dusting on it. I hear Ruidoso and Cloudcroft have about a foot on the ground, or there-abouts.

So your family still lives in Alamo?

Asher



[This message has been edited by Asher (edited 12-11-2002).]

Got a bro in Alamo, Mom in La Luz and a sis in Tulie.

Well, if you're going to be in town on a Sunday and want to come out, our Fighter Practices are at 2pm in Alamieda Park [right next to the Zoo on White Sands Blvd].

If you want, drop me an e-mail and I'll give you my contact info.

Asher