Helmet

The helmet, all finished. Not the prettiest helmet in the world, it looks really hand made...with lots and lots of proud rivets. The trickiest part of course was to ensure that the eye slots were less than 7/8 in size. The helm is designed to be used within the SCA world of combat, and their weapons are essentially clubs, with a minimum of 1.5 inches. The eye slots are therefore a maximum of 1 inch, and of course that means that just in case one of the bars gets knocked a little out of position, I place them one inch apart on centre. The bars are also heavier than the SCA minimum, a full 5/16 across...they won't bend appreciably. (Though I dunno...I have gone up against some pretty hard hitting individuals...)
The steel used here is a full fourteen gauge, hot rolled. I prefer hot rolled steel since it has a lot fewer stresses in the metal. It is not as "stiff" as cold rolled, and will dent a tiny bit easier, but then I have never had a crack start working its way from rivet hole to rivet hole in hot rolled like I have with the c.r. steel. (Like I said....those SCA guys really work out a helmet!) All welds are at least an inch long, both on the front and on the sides. The clean up of all that weld spelter takes a lot of time, and is hard to do right.
The little chin plate is designed to be drilled to hang a curtain of chain maille. Always a problem with grill face helms....how DO you hang chain maille in the front? Well, this is how. The above helmet as shown is not quite finished...I installed eyeletted holes for a chin strap and flared the bottom edge out a bit to make it more comfortable to put on. The top has been chemically blued to help match it to the rest of the hot rolled helm, and the grill has been torched, again, purely to help it all blend in.

The lion was just a "notion". My idea to decorate up a fairly plain and functional helm. After it was all coloured with torches, a coat of high gloss spray lacquer is laid on the inhibit rust. Lacquer scratches pretty easily, but on the other hand, it is really easy to repair scratches with a swipe of a thinner soaked rag. Got to love the 1 minute repair!