I don't think it is news to either of the people who read this blog that I used to be into SCA fighting. A lot of my hobbies and interests are still very in line with the historical side of the SCA. I still fight when my knee and back allow. And when I'm not quarantined because of a pandemic...
If you just stumbled across this blog, the SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism) is a non-profit organization that attempts to recreate some of the material culture of the middle ages. And holds tournaments where people in armor beat each other with wooden clubs.
Which is a lot of fun.
But does require armor.
This is the simplest helmet I know how to make. I learned this from an old publication (very pre-internet) called Best of the Hammer. The Hammer was a periodical devoted to SCA efforts to make armor and related items (there are articles about making swords, for example). Nowadays, we have blogs and YouTube. Back then, folks had printed material that was mailed from one person to another. With stamps. For real. The Best of the Hammer books are 4 volumes of what claimed to be the best of what was printed in that periodical. Volume 1 has the pattern for this 13th century pot helm.
The whole thing is made of 3 pieces of 14 gauge sheet steel. I started it yesterday afternoon and finished it today. Spare time build all the way.
It looks a lot like the helmet worn by the Black Knight in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Which should actually get it a little SCA cred. But won't.
Just for fun, and to make it a little more blacksmithy, I forged the nasal with a critter head and curly tail. Nothing really impressive, just a little bit of whimsy. Authentic versions would have a cross on the face. I'm not being authentic, I'm having fun. Although this is made to SCA spec, I don't know if I will ever fight in it.
Some discussion:
This project is meant to illustrate the fact that it isn't really all that hard or expensive to get started with SCA armor. I could make 9 of these from one sheet of 14 gauge steel, actually. I used 1/9 of a sheet to make it. I don't know what a sheet of steel costs today, but most steel sellers will have odds and ends on a fairly regular basis, so you might be able to pick up enough steel for one helmet for only a few bucks if you get lucky.
For illustrative purposes, I used only simple tools. A hand drill and a jigsaw were my only power tools. A couple of hammers. I did use my anvil, but I made several helms in the past before I ever owned an anvil. I had a scrap of railroad track and that worked just fine. In fact, I used that scrap of track for setting the rivets at the top of this helm because the shape of the anvil wouldn't allow the horn all the way up to that point. You can also set the rivets on the inside of the helm instead of the outside and then you only need a flat surface to pound on. I did it this way because I prefer the look of the peened over rivet instead of the machine-shaped head.
I started in the SCA as a broke college student about 23 years ago. At that time, the norm was still that we would look in the library at books that purported to detail information about the middle ages. We would share what bits and pieces we could find or figure out with others. If you had a decent set of patterns for an item of armor, you treasured those patterns and shared them whenever someone wanted them. I still have patterns I traced from other folks' tracings. We didn't have the internet as it exists today.
We also didn't have the businesses that now provide armor, clothing, and assorted reenactment goods. Back then, we had lower standards of authenticity, but we made most of our own gear. My first suit of armor took me close to a year to make because I had no clue how to do it when I started. I had to figure out how to make armor on my own. I did figure it out and I eventually got decent at it, though nowhere near the level of the professional armorers out there today. By "decent" I mean I figured out how to make a suit of armor that was protective, met SCA combat standards, and didn't look too terrible.
Why is this relevant? Well, look around an SCA fighter practice today. Or wait until the Covid 19 social distancing ends and look around at that time. How many helms do you see that are built by the fighters wearing them? Not many, if any at all. Now, how many helms do you see that are not a bar-grilled bascinet or similar piece of very obvious sports equipment? Again, not too many, though there are a couple of looks that have become popular among the fighters willing to pay for them. One is the full mail drape and occulars. Very nice look. With maybe one historical helmet to serve as the model that they all follow, but who cares about that, right?
It is really hard for a broke college student to get into SCA fighting these days, just because the equipment he is expected to buy costs so darned much! If my only options had been buying a helm that cost $250 (minimum) or else do something non-combative, I would have quit the SCA before I started. Seriously. I didn't have the money.
If you are in the SCA, you know about the Known World Handbook. But if you are only recently in the SCA, you may not have seen the older editions. The first 3 editions had articles about building helms that were good, solid, historical helms. The newest edition does not have those. The newest edition talks about padding the helm you bought. Oh, and using plastic barrels to make leg armor. Can't leave those plastic barrels off the field of valor, now, can we? Because nothing says Medieval quite like bright blue plastic on your arms and legs to go with that welded bar grill on your face, right?
Okay, you can tell where I'm going, here.
If your idea of fun is the sports equipment and you find history a drag, that's not unusual in the SCA anymore. If you are one of the holdouts who still wants to feel like a medieval warrior in armor, it may get discouraging to have the guys at practice keep telling you to ditch the authentic looking gear and spend a couple of thousand bucks on a suit that will make it easier for you to be more competitive.
If you wear the helm I just finished, you will get told "that's nothing but a landing pad for some dude's mace." You will get called Bucket Head. You will have to deal with (more authentic) reduced visibility and air flow, compared to the guys with fully ventilated helms.
But you will have a helm you could build yourself. You will have a helm that looks like a sinister warrior from 750 years ago. And when you retire, you will have the most awesome wastebasket anyone has ever seen.
I shot video of every step of building this helm and when I get the chance, I will edit it to a viewable form and post it on the blog.
