07-30-2007, 12:34 PM
Allright fratres,
I have received an answer from Erik, and here it is:
[to be honest, I received Erik's answer already two days ago, but I was busy over the weekend
]
'My helmets are driven out either from 1.5 mm sheet iron or from 2 mm bronze sheets. They are neither soldered nor welded. With iron helmets the material gets so compacted and densified that it doesn't get soft again, even after repeatedly annealing/tempering it.
On the one hand this makes the calotte extremely unsusceptible to any impacts, but on the other hand further work is made much more difficult.
Using brass or bronze is much easier since heating makes the material softer. The helmet with these eyebrowes [comment Florian: the reason for this dispute here] was the first helmet I made from iron, and it was driven by hand. It's much easier to do it [= insert eyebrows] with helmets that are already pressed out ['how to translate 'vorgedrueckt'???'] like they are made by others. In these cases the material has not been densified and is often very thin. My helmets are not likely to get dents fast, which also makes heavy padding on the inside unnecessary.
Furthermore, my helmets are oval (ca. 16 x 20 cm or 18 x 22 cm) which naturally reduces the space available for working inside.
I now have to build special tools for increased pressure when making the eyebrows. Such a tool is likely to have existed also in antiquitiy. AFAIK nobody has ever used this method before. Otherwise there wouldn't be such unobjective comments [comment Florian: I guess he refers to the 'too bad for so many bucks']. It is not only very difficult to work according to ancient methods, but also very time-consuming.'
Ok, so Erik's 'faulty eyebrows' have not been a result of sloppiness or of a lack of good images and sketches, but are the result of a serious technical problem encountered during a - as it seems - pretty authentic working method.
In short, what we have here is experimental archaeology at work
Lets hope that Erik will have success with making the relevant tools. I'm confident he will
:wink:
I have received an answer from Erik, and here it is:
[to be honest, I received Erik's answer already two days ago, but I was busy over the weekend
]'My helmets are driven out either from 1.5 mm sheet iron or from 2 mm bronze sheets. They are neither soldered nor welded. With iron helmets the material gets so compacted and densified that it doesn't get soft again, even after repeatedly annealing/tempering it.
On the one hand this makes the calotte extremely unsusceptible to any impacts, but on the other hand further work is made much more difficult.
Using brass or bronze is much easier since heating makes the material softer. The helmet with these eyebrowes [comment Florian: the reason for this dispute here] was the first helmet I made from iron, and it was driven by hand. It's much easier to do it [= insert eyebrows] with helmets that are already pressed out ['how to translate 'vorgedrueckt'???'] like they are made by others. In these cases the material has not been densified and is often very thin. My helmets are not likely to get dents fast, which also makes heavy padding on the inside unnecessary.
Furthermore, my helmets are oval (ca. 16 x 20 cm or 18 x 22 cm) which naturally reduces the space available for working inside.
I now have to build special tools for increased pressure when making the eyebrows. Such a tool is likely to have existed also in antiquitiy. AFAIK nobody has ever used this method before. Otherwise there wouldn't be such unobjective comments [comment Florian: I guess he refers to the 'too bad for so many bucks']. It is not only very difficult to work according to ancient methods, but also very time-consuming.'
Ok, so Erik's 'faulty eyebrows' have not been a result of sloppiness or of a lack of good images and sketches, but are the result of a serious technical problem encountered during a - as it seems - pretty authentic working method.
In short, what we have here is experimental archaeology at work
Lets hope that Erik will have success with making the relevant tools. I'm confident he will
:wink:
Florian Himmler (not related!)
