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Here's my beginnings in helm-making. I am self-taught as far as armour making goes (which is evident by the early ones!). I think I'm a better armourer now than I would have been because of it. I may not know all the tricks yet, and what does work...but from 6 yrs experience, I can tell you quite a bit of what won't work...and that's half the work!

My first helm: "Death". No dishing, just a lot of cutting, bending, welding and cussing! 12 ga & 14 ga mild steel	This was the second helm I made. Once again, no dishing, but a little less cussing...well actually, the very top piece was hit with a 4lb sledge over top the end of a 4" pipe which dished it...kind of. This helm has been in service for seven years now and is now retired..except for the occasional use as a loaner.	Here's the helm I currently use. It was looking really good, but I had to finish the face in an hour to be able to use it at Great Western War III, so it got a really bad grill work. A new helm is already in the planning! This one is 12 ga 316 SS on the panels. 16 ga runners and 14 on the cheeks and back. It's sturdy to say the least.
Richard's Fluted Spangenloaf Helm.It's a hybrid sugarloaf with a center spangen and multiple flutes along the top. All stainless. This was a good learning piece for fluting, piece fitting, and for working stainless. Absolutely no historic counterpart, but kinda cool.	Jennifer's Helm...actually, it now belongs to her brother over in Starkafn (Las Vegas). Yes, this is a spun top which has been sectioned and reconnected with a center band. The skirting and bands are stainless,the top is cold blued. Hey...even being a spun-top, it's certainly not the ugliest I've ever seen on an armour page!	Here's one finished 2/01/01. It's solid 14 ga with a "modified vendel" front. I hate bargrills, so I try to minimize their use as best I can. It has brass work around the eyes, nasal and down to the base of the chin. This is all riveted and used pan-head (flat topped) rivets. They look nicer and are more sword freindly to rattan!

Well, here's some fairly recent stuff. These were
made for freinds and have not had any finish work done
to them (no polishing, minimal cleanup of any welds, ect...)

Here's Richard's new helm (1/21/00). It's a mild steel spangen made from 14 ga. This was made in two days (10 hrs). I'd show how to do a step, and Richard would give it a shot. It's rough in a few spots, but for his first helm, it's pretty nice. The face could be a little better, but we were in a hurry Sunday morning.. so it got a bit of a rush job!

This is a stainless spangen (vendel style) for Baron Ulstead of loch Sollier (1/29/00). It's 13, 14 and 15 ga stainless. The first two pics are lacking the nasal section and brow work which will be 1/8" brass with a hammered finish. The final helm (without polishing) is shown in the third pic.

OK, here's a totally finished helm (9/99-1/00). This is the one the patterns were made from as it was built. This was taken apart and re-assembled several times. It's a basic spangen with occulars made from all 14 ga mild steel with a satin (munition grade) finish. This was made for Matt's wife Gina from the Armour Archive.

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