Hat Tricks IV: A Ridge to Nowhere?

OK, so...I have once again terribly neglected my poor little blog.  What can I say?  I really have no excuse here so I'm not even going to pretend.  On with the show!

The next thing I do after making the two helmet halves is to make a central ridge piece to join them together.  This type of thing can actually be found in many extant, period examples from different cultures.  The spangenhelm is sort of an example but a more direct example would be the Japanese kabuto, particularly the zunari kabuto.  A zunari kabuto was typically a constructed helmet that had two side plates that formed the skull joined by a central ridge plate.  The rivets were usually ground flush with the surface and all lames heavily lacquered with the very nasty, toxic urushi lacquer.  (Seriously, you can get a rash from this stuff).  But who doesn't want to suffer for their art, right?

In this post, I've included several pics of a helm I'm working on now for a friend of mine.

Now, here's the thing about the central ridge; it needs to match the profile created where the two helmet halves meet.  (You've probably already guessed that but I point it out because it wasn't obvious to me the first time I tried to make one of these things).

For the European-type, constructed helms I've been making recently, I cut a strip of metal for the central ridge that is about 1.5 inches wide and long enough to cover the entire seam where the two cranium halves meet.  The strip will actually be longer than I need so I can cut it to the proper length when I finally settle on the other design elements.  And, if you happen to have a shear, it's fairly easy to cut the ridge after it has been formed.  Also, you may notice that the ridge is fairly narrow.  This is another reason why it's important to make sure that the helmet halves match up nicely, meeting closely with as little gaping as possible.  :)

Once the ridge strip is cut and de-burred, I dome it in the same dish that I used to make the helmet halves.  When you begin to dome the piece, it will have the tendency to curl up on itself but can usually be uncurled by hand, providing the gauge is not too thick.

After the ridge strip is sufficiently domed, I tape the two helmet halves together with duck tape (yes, I know it's actually 'duct tape' but I really like the thought of this stuff being produced by industrious mallards).  Now, I bend the ridge strip, by hand, to conform to the profile of the temporarily joined halves, adjusting by hammer as needed.  If your two halves form a peak when they meet, the ridge will not seat properly, if you want to keep the peak look.  Not to worry, that's what the next step is for!

Mark a line through the center of the ridge.  This is probably a little easier before forming but, sometimes, the forming process can erase marking lines.  For the marking process, I usually prefer to use masking tape and a sharpie marker.  Once the central ridge is marked, you can use a creasing stake or a chisel held in a vice (or a combination thereof) to raise a crease down the center.  I use the word "raise" here because I kind of feel like that is what is happening when you begin to put a crease in a piece and also because I use a raising hammer for this.

A note on creasing:  Creasing is a technique that can require a bit of practice to get the hang of.  Basically, you hold the piece over your stake, as exactly as you can to the line that you have marked that will become the crease itself.  I hold the piece at a bit of an angle...we'll say about 30° or so.  With a raising hammer, I then begin striking on one side of my line, raising what may first appear as a series of bumps along the line that I marked.  I then repeat this process on the other side.  What is actually happening is that the metal directly over the creasing stake/chisel remains where it is, at the same height and you are actually hammering the metal alongside, making it lower than the metal over the stake.  Another way to help start the crease is by marking the lines on the inside of the piece, lay it on a wooden block, hold the chisel on the line that you have marked and give it a good smack with a hammer.  Follow the line you have marked, moving your chisel about half the distance of it's contact with the metal.  It may take a while, but the result will be that you can now see, on the reverse side, where your lines should be and your crease has been started.

Refine your crease until it is as sharp as you want it, taking care not to cut a line right through your piece.  Also, remember to check the profile and fit of the ridge piece by periodically placing it on the two helmet halves.  If it doesn't fit and seat well, this whole party will have been for nothing!

Now, once we have our crease laid in, how do we finish it?  Enter: The flap wheel!

This is a 120 grit flap wheel made for grinding metal and it is attached to an angle grinder.  I got it at Home Depot for about $7 or $8 bucks.  Lowes and other hardware folk have also been known to carry them.

Taking the proper safety precautions (gloves, goggles, hearing protections, filter mask) I use the edge of the flap wheel to grind up to the crease.  Try not to cross over the crease when you grind because this can make it less sharp and crisp whereas grinding "up to the line" can help to sharpen and define it.

After the ridge is finished and cut to length, you can then define the spacing for the holes and punch them.  Once the holes in the ridge are punched, match it to the two halves of the helm and mark through the holes to transfer their location onto each half.  (Once again, this is why it is very important for pieces of any constructed project to fit together well).

Punch/drill out the holes in each half of the cranium plates and you're ready to bolt the pieces together to check fit and do any necessary tweaking.

Finishing up:  I'm sure there are things that I've left out and things that may need clarified.  I will (hopefully) tackle those in upcoming posts so, if you see anything like that, please, feel free to comment or send me an e-mail.  Until next time, happy hammering!

Hat Tricks Part III: The Grinder of Skulls

Been a bit since I last posted.  Sorry about that but I was...well...making armor!  My apology is something along the lines of "Never trust a skinny cook."

Anyway, the third stage of my helmet building procedure is to "grind in" the cranium halves I've made so that there is as little gaping as possible along what will be the center line of the helmet skull (cranium, melon top, etc.).

I do this by placing the halves together and, wherever they touch, I draw a line across where the point of contact starts and another where it ends.  This line will be perpendicular to the center line of the skull and should be on both of the pieces you have made.  This tells me where I need to grind.  The idea is that wherever the helmet halves meet are the high spots and these should be ground down to reduce the gaping.  I try to grind equally on both sides.  After each pass of grinding, the two halves are brought back together and lines are renewed or added as necessary. *A word of caution: do this bit very slowly and methodically as it can be quite easy to take off too much material with a grinder.  The pieces pictured below are nearly at the end of the grinding stage but the lines from the process can be seen in the picture.

The next picture shows what the halves look like before the start of this process.

  The next part of the process will be to make the central ridge which will cover this seem and join the two halves together.  This whole operation might seem a little tricky but, once you get the hang of it, it's a nice way to produce a usable helmet with no welding required.