05-03-2014, 04:59 AM
Quote:So you have the cap and a wedge of scales all worked out in paper..
Now to make the leather cap or basis. Using the leather mentioned earlier, carefully trace the outline on the leather with a pencil eight times, and use some large metal shears to cut out eight precise wedges from the leather. Using your awl, put holes about .5 inches in from the edge of each wedge along the edges of all of them, making sure they are exactly adjacent to the holes on the other wedges (the holes should be in the same place on each wedge). PUT ABOUT SEVEN HOLES ALONG EACH EDGE, AND PLACE THEM IN THE MIDDLE OF EACH ROW OF SCALES SO THAT THE SCALE LACINGS DON'T INTERFERE OR BECOME TOO CLOSE TO THE HOLES THAT LACE THE WEDGES TOGETHER!! BEWARE. It is okay to lace a scale THROUGH one of the wedge lacing holes if that becomes necessary, you just want to avoid the holes being too close and causing a tear or bigger hole in the leather. To lace the eight pieces together, use a tapestry needle and the twelve-ply linen cord. You want to STITCH THEM TOGETHER MAKING SURE THE EDGES MEET UP EDGE TO EDGE WITH NO OVERLAP!! If you stitch them too tightly, they will overlap, and throw everything off. Push them edge to edge with your fingers while you are sewing them together. The bottom two holes on the cap should be sewn together separately (just to the adjacent holes, and not part of the whip stitch that will go through the rest of the holes on the eight seams of the cap --that way, if your scales end up not reaching all the way to the bottom, you can use the shears and trim the bottom edge off, and if necessary the bottom holes, without severing the cords that bind the other holes together. To sew the holes together at the seams above the two at the bottom that are separately stitched together, tie the first holes together with two overhand knots, then on the inside of the helmet, go diagonally up to the next pair of holes, loop through the pair of holes twice and then go diagonally up on the inside to the next pair of holes, loop through them twice, go diagonally up on the inside.. Until you get to the top two holes, and then end it with two overhand knots. So from the outside you would see two horizontal rows of lace connecting each hole (including the two separately tied holes at the bottom), but on the inside of the helmet, you would see one horizontal lace between each pair, part of a zigzag pattern going up the seam. Do this to each of the eight seams, and you will have a leather cap!
To make the linen liner that will go inside the leather cap that will also have the scale lacings sewn through it (thus making the construction very strong), get some strong natural linen, and get it wet and let it dry --iron it flat if necessary. Linen needs to be pre-shrunk this way, or if it gets damp later, it can shrink and DESTROY EVERYTHING.
Take the paper wedge and trace it onto a piece of the linen, THEN DRAW ANOTHER LARGER OUTLINE ABOUT 1/8 inch outside of the wedge outline. Then safety pin the layer to several others with the pin right in the middle of the wedge drawing. Might want to use a couple of safety pins. Holding it carefully, cut the wedge out of the top layer and the wedges below it with the shears might help to dampen the pre-shrunk linen first! Do this until you have eight linen wedges. Put one wedge on top of the other and start the stitch with two overhand knots right on the inner outline (actual wedge outline), so that the stitching will run up the wedge 1/8 inch in from the edge.
Just do a simple running stitch and finish at the top with two overhand knots. You might want to separately stitch the lower part just like you did with the leather in case you need to trim the bottom to fit exactly in the leather cap.
Gone crazy yet?? Wait till you make and sew on the scales! Bwaha, bwahahaha! blink.gif
Continue to hold the edges together of the other linen wedges and sew them up the same way until you have a duplicate of the leather cap! Put the linen cap in the leather cap so that the seams match up, and then with the thinner rust colored linen, sew the linen cap to the leather cap through the same holes in the leather cap-- do them all separately --one loop and two overhand stitches through each pair of holes. You might very well need to use the awl to push holes in the linen in order to sew through it. Be prepared to bleed as you will stab yourself with the awl an awlful lot! wink.gif
You may need to trim the bottom of the linen a bit, but your basis should be all done now!!
Now for the bronze scales. Use a fine sharpie to trace your cardstock scales onto some bronze sheet and then cut them out carefully with the shears. Punch the holes with the Whitney punch. These will be your MASTER TEMPLATES. Use the template and sharpie to trace the scale outlines onto the sheet bronze. Make one row's worth of scales in bronze and then sew them on, before you cut the next row. REMEMBER, AS THE SCALES IMBRICATE UPWARDS, YOU WILL BE SEWING ON THE TOP ROW FIRST AND WORKING YOUR WAY DOWN. PUT THE MASTER SCALE TEMPLATE OVER THE SCALE BLANKS AND USE THE SHARPIE TO MARK THE HOLES THROUGH THE MASTER's holes onto the blank precisely aligned below it. MAKE SURE EVERYTHING IS PRECISE!! DON'T BE AFRAID TO TOSS OUT AN IMPERFECT SCALE --you might do it quite a bit..Use the center punch mentioned earlier, or the chisel and jig to put a boss or short medial ridge in each scale.
I suggest using a blunt center punch to blunt the sharp edges of the holes left by the Whitney punch --just push the blunt end into both side of the hole and forcefully wobble it around --this will prevent fraying later.
Make sure your scales stay in an even line --maybe use a pencil to draw a line across each wedge at the level of the base of the scales. As mentioned before, when you sew on the first scale in a row, start it on a wedge in the same place it is in on the left side of the wedge in fig. 2 --right against the seam. And head right or left from there depending on the row --REMEMBER THAT THE SCALES IN THE ROWS ALTERNATE OVERLAPPING FROM LEFT TO RIGHT --THAT IS WHY THE HOLE PATTERN IS REVERSED IN EACH ROW. WHEN YOU SEW ON THE FIRST SCALE, AS MENTIONED BEFORE, JUST USE THE THREE VERTICAL HOLES AND SPARE THE TWO HORIZONTAL ONES, AS YOU WILL USE THESE TO SEW THE LAST SCALE TO THE FIRST, WHEN YOU COMPLETE A ROW!!! It reall helps to lay dowj the scales on the wedge you are going to go across TO MAKE SURE THAT AT THE END OF THE WEDGE THE SCALE WILL OVERLAP ONTO THE NEXT WEDGE AND THAT THE HOLE WILL LINE UP WITH THE HOLE ON THE SCALE STARTING THE NEXT WEDGE. DEPENDING ON HIW MUCH THE SEAMS OF THE LEATHER BASUS JUT OUT,YOU MIGHT NEED A CUSTOM MADE SCALE (wider) TO GO OVER THE SEAM (MAKE IT FROM CARDSTOCK FIRST).
When you get to the bottom row of scales, they have the extra row of holes along the bottom --this is where you can sew on or perhaps rivet the Corinthian faceplate piece, and the backplate piece on the back. Make the templates for those with cardstock first. The flange on the backplate you can beat over a metal bar or edge of an anvil, and the edge of a blunt repousse chisel held in a vice. First conquer the scaled cap! When you want to add a horshair crest in a wooden crest block, you could secure it with leather cords running through two symmetrical holes near the center top of the faceplate and backplate. There will be a small opening at the very top of the scale cap -- you can put a didc of leather inside the helmet at the top, and run two cords from the center of the crest block through two holes in it and tie it securely, to hold the crest box in the middle!
ONE MORE THING. For the upper two or perhaps three rows of scales, you might want to use a simpler hole pattern --this was done on Scythian helmets too. It can be tough to get a lot of holes on a small scale AND also cover all of them with another small scale at that point.. You will be able to tell with your cardstock scales BEFORE you cut bronze for them.... At the very top row you could resort to just two horizontal holes near the bottom edge but not too far down, and double- loop the cord through it before moving to the next scale. You MIGHT want to use the hole pattern I will post in just a minute, but BEWARE, I have never used it myself, but it would probably work.... Will draw it up and post it in a second!
ere is the simpler scale pattern that COULD work, for all, or just the upper rows. Remember the bottom ROW MUST HAVE AN EXTRA ROW TO ATTACH THE FACE AND BACKPLATES!
Odds and ends:
When you add a scale to the leather cap, position it first and lightly mark through the holes onto the leather with the tip of the awl, remove the scale and then push the awl through while supporting the leather and linen from the back to stabilize it. You WILL poke yourself sometimes, and if you start to bleed get your hand away from the helmet immediately so you keep it nice and pretty.
USE THE NEEDLE NOSE PLIERS TO WIGGLE AND GENTLY PULL THE NEEDLE THROUGH THE HOLES, BUT BE CAREFUL, BECAUSE IF YOU FRAY IT, YOU WILL HAVE TO UNLACE IT BACK A COUPLE OF SCALES, TIE IT OFF, AND START WITH A NEW CORD ON THE NEXT SCALE..
This is NOT an easy project, and it MIGHT not work for you the first time.......
If you have questions let me know!
Oh! You can also use the BRONZE AGE CENTER forum search to look for "scale helmet" to see pictures of the process for similar helmets, that I have posted in the past. If the forum search doesn't work (it should) let me know!
