Great helms

[Sir Edward]

They also have one that's a little less mac-bible, and more upright, and it costs a little less than the mac-bible one:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/CRUSADER-helmet-16-Gauge-Medieval-Great-Helm-Templars-/250965617621?pt=AU_Militaria&hash=item3a6eb76bd5

[Sir Ulrich]

WOAH, now I want to get that helm, it's basically exactly what I am looking for. Why does it have to be all the way in Australia. My folks aren't too keen on me ordering overseas (I dont have a credit card or paypal so they gotta order it for me), but I would say that helm would be worth it. It just looks so cool and the brass really makes it look a lot better.

[Sir Patrick]

Have you checked out By The Sword?  They have a pretty nice selection of early Crusader helms.

[Sir Wolf]

that is true, they do seem to have a lot of the european helmets. over priced, but they do have them.

[Sir Wolf]

http://www.bytheswordinc.com/p-4020-great-helm-french-md-306.aspx

[Sir James A]

Have you checked out By The Sword?  They have a pretty nice selection of early Crusader helms.

I had a less than stellar experience with them a little while ago: http://modernchivalry.org/forum/index.php/topic,1072.msg11349.html#msg11349

[Sir Edward]

I hope I have a better experience. I just ordered that great helm. Fingers crossed!

[Sir Wolf]

WHAT? oh you ASS hahaha jkjk hehehehehehehhee armour envy at its highest!!! ehhehehe i so wanna see it!!

[Sir Ulrich]

I have had bad experiences with By the Sword when I ordered my maille rings, though a lot of their stuff looks nice. Bit pricey though, especially for the liners and whatnot in the helms.

[Ian]

This is the very design I want but it says no longer made which is a real kick to the balls: http://armourandcastings.com/index.php?_a=viewProd&productId=243
All the best armor is made in europe for some reason, americans seem less picky about historical accuracy. GDFB may just be my choice, shame all the good armorers here are out of business.

The good armorer's in the US are just very expensive and do exclusively custom work (Jeffrey Hedgecock and Jeffrey Wasson for example are some of the best and most respected in the world).  There's just a much smaller market for high-end work in the US.  A lot of people in the US want cheap armor and don't care about historical accuracy as much.

A Great Helm is not designed to be perfectly fit to the wearer's head, there's typically a lot of stuff in between the head and the helmet, like an arming cap, coif, and then any lining for the helmet.  If you don't mind how historically accurate the padding in the helmet is, you can buy the standard sticky foam from Windrose Armory and easily custom pad up a helmet to fit perfectly to you with very little effort.  The foam is cheap, easy to work with, and very protective (it's what most folks use in their SCA helms to get beat on by rattan and not get concussed).

Here's the foam:
http://www.windrosearmoury.com/zc/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=30_23&products_id=93

It's got a sticky back you just peel off and then it sticks to steal with no problem and is removable if you need to take it out or replace it.

[Sir Edward]

Here's the foam:
http://www.windrosearmoury.com/zc/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=30_23&products_id=93

It's got a sticky back you just peel off and then it sticks to steal with no problem and is removable if you need to take it out or replace it.

Very cool, I hadn't looked at that. My current great helm is using foam as well, but it's that blue camping-pad foam. I hot-glued some sheets of it into place a number of years ago. I'm thinking of either pulling it out to replace it with a more period liner, or hide it by covering it with linen.

[Thorsteinn]

I use that foam in my Windrose Norman and it works pretty well. I only have a 1/2" all around my head in there.

Also a good chinstrap helps lots. The pic attached is what I use. Duke tested, Ivan approved.

[Sir James A]

Here's the foam:
http://www.windrosearmoury.com/zc/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=30_23&products_id=93

It's got a sticky back you just peel off and then it sticks to steal with no problem and is removable if you need to take it out or replace it.

Very cool, I hadn't looked at that. My current great helm is using foam as well, but it's that blue camping-pad foam. I hot-glued some sheets of it into place a number of years ago. I'm thinking of either pulling it out to replace it with a more period liner, or hide it by covering it with linen.

Hmm, I wonder how the blue cell foam compares to the EVA foam. I've got a bunch of blue stuff around here somewhere.

[Sir Ulrich]

Allright this is a bit odd of a request but I found a great helm I liked in this mount and blade game. I'd like to know what design it is and if there are replicas of it, it looks like a Maciejowski bible one though.

[Sir Edward]

Yeah, I'd say the closest thing to it is the round-faced mac-bible helms.