Medieval Helmet

Medieval Helmet

by Dunhar (with a little help from Dad)
Photos by Dunhar

Last Friday we had an amazing demonstration by some medieval actors.A helmet just like the ones knights would have worn during the Crusades.
First we found pictures of a few helmets we liked and decided on one:

Dad measured my head and cut a blank of steel.

Dad has a machine called a VibroShear that makes a dome shape in the steel, but it doesn't go deep enough.

So he used a tucking fork to shrink the edge.

He put a large iron head on the stake, heated the tucks, and flattened them with a wooden mallet.

Then he used a bossing mallet and block. A block is just an old tree stump, but they have been used for hundreds of years for making armour.

A wheeling machine was used to smooth out the lumps.

More steel was cut and rolled for the front and back pieces.

The edges were stretched in the wheeling machine so they curved out.

The sharp edges of the steel were folded over on the stake.

All the parts were riveted together.

Dad drilled holes in the front part.

Finally it was cleaned with Scotchbrite and coated with Gibbs Brand Lubricant.

Finished!