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.

Hat tricks.

OK, I didn't post last night because, well....I didn't feel like it.  (Just being honest :)  Tonight however, I begin a series of posts on what can seem like one of the most daunting tasks for the beginning to intermediate armorer; helmet making!  (At least, it was a pretty big deal for me starting out).

So, next, I'll present to you the way that I make a helmet.  I'm not saying this is the only way or even the right way, just my way...YMMV.  The kind of helmets I use this method for are constructed of multiple pieces, including the cranium, and riveted together.  All of the helmets I've pictured so far in this blog have been made using this method.

The first thing I do is take some measurements.  These are:
A. Head circumference
B. Head diameter, front to back
C. Head diameter, side to side
D. Distance from top of head to bottom of chin
E. Distance from point of nose to back of the head
F. Distance from top of head to the eye line

Right, so here are the pieces of information we need but, how do we get them?  Enter the cloth tape measure and caliper.

The metal pincer thingy is a caliper.  This one is probably an old, outside transfer caliper.  You can sometimes find these at a flea market or garage sale.  If push comes to shove, you could make one out some fairly thin plywood or sheet metal.  Thick plastic sheet would also work, if you just happen to have some handy.

The coiled up thing in the middle is a regular old cloth tape measure that you can pick up at Wally World for a couple of bucks.

To get the head circumference, simply wrap the cloth tape around the head, at what looks to be the widest part.  This is usually just above the eye brows.

Now we use the caliper to measure the front to back diameter (distance) and the side to side distance.  To these measurements, I add approximately 1" to 1-1/2" to allow for padding material.  I don't add any to the circumference measurement but simply use that measure as a target to let me know if I'm in the right range.

The last measurement I usually take is from the top of the head to the bottom of the chin, once again, with the caliper.  This will give us a target for how tall the helmet needs to be.  Lately, I found E and F to be optional measurements but getting the distance form the point of the nose to the back of the head can be fairly important, especially if we don't want our client's helmet to come smashing into their nose when they get hit.  Ouch.

I almost forgot, measure your calipered distances, lay your caliper on a ruler and measure the distance between the points.  This may be obvious to almost everyone but I've known myself to overlook things like that quite frequently and then have one of those "Well, duh!" moments.

This next bit is where my method will seem to take a flying leap from the path of logic.  I have a pattern piece that I start with for the helmet top and size down appropriately.  I've found that this works fairly well to fit most folks, unless they would have an exceptionally large melon.  Here's what my pattern for half of a helmet top looks like:

I label one side "A" and the other, as you may have guessed "Fred."  Just kidding, the other side is in fact "B."  Although this pattern may look symmetrical, I can assure that it is not.  When I trace the side marked "A", I write an "A" on the tracing I've just done on the steel.  I do the same thing with the "B" side and once the pieces are cut out, I dish them with the letters facing me.  This lets me know that I am making two different sides for my helmet top instead of two of the same.

Tomorrow, I'll go into more detail about the pattern piece and the dishing process.  G'night, folks!

Armor Bits 'n Bobs

When I first started out, I hadn't a clue where to find informational resources on armoring or where to get materials and supplies.  So, in order to make it easier for some of you out there, tonight I offer a bit of a resource list.  While not an exhaustive directory, hopefully it will be enough to get you started.  Also, I'd just like to point out, none of these folks have paid me for any kind of endorsement whatsoever.  I plug them here only because I have personally used there info, products and/or services and believe them to be exemplary.

Information about arms & armoring: techniques, tutorials, discussion, etc.

• Techniques of Medieval Armour Reproduction, The 14th Century by Brian R. Price  I found this book to be enormously helpful starting out.  There are wonderful photographs of period examples, articulation theory and design, instructions for basic techniques and step by step instructions for some specific projects.  Even if the 14C isn't your particular time period of interest, this book is still a great source of information about armoring in general.
• The Armour Archive - www.armourarchive.org - This is a great site with tons of useful info (tutorials, articles, etc.)  They also have a section with patterns that anyone can download for free.
• myArmoury.com - Just go to the site.  If you're interested in sword and armor and you haven't been there before, your eyeballs might just pop right out of your head.
• www.albion-swords.com - These guys make excellent swords, of which I happen to own several.  I've talked to Mike Sigman several times and he, and the rest of the staff, made my dreams of owning a real sword come to life.  Also, it might seem funny to include this site in a list about resources for armoring but remember, when making real armor, swords are one of the weapons we are trying to protect ourselves from.  Also, if you're interested in making armor, it's probably not a far leap to say you're interested in swords as well.  Just sayin'.

Supplies for armoring

• I get all my rivets from these folks: www.rjleahy.com  Their customer service is great and if there is a problem with my order, they call me, tell me about it, and ask me where I want to go from there.  Thanks, Russell!  You are the man!
• You can order small quantities of sheet metal, as well as a lot of other stuff, from  MSC Industrial - www1.mscdirect.com  
• www.onlinemetals.com This site is great for small orders of sheet metal and I've always gotten good customer service from them.
• For polishing, I use a compound call Satin Glo made by the Formax Co. and I get it from Midway USA -  www.midwayusa.com
• For all things leather: Strapping leather, armor leather, buckles, tooling, dyes, etc. - www.tandyleatherfactory.com
• www.piehtoolco.com - I've purchased several Peddinghaus hammers and abrasive belts for my grinder from these fine folks.  I've had questions before about whether or not something was in stock and they've checked their warehouse for me.  Very good customer service.
• Otto Frei has a great selection of stakes.  They're expensive but very worth it. - www.ottofrei.com
• For putting holes in steel, I mostly rely on my punch from Roper Whitney, commonly referred to as a "Whitney Punch."  You can walk rite up to their website and order one. - www.roperwhitney.com

So there you have it!  Like I said, not an exhaustive list but that should get you on the road to being a real "hammer-head."