Reconstructing a 6th c. Baldenheim spangenhelm

[Franklin]

Aha. Those are easily replaced then.

[Marcus Mummius]

By the way, this is the helmet one of my friends made. We made 5 of these helmets two years ago

[Franklin]

Gorgeous work.

So the spangens are bronze/brass and the lobes are iron? And the browband is copper repousse folded over iron? How were the copper alloy pieces gilt? And how were the iron pieces silvered?

Or maybe I should just wait for the construction pics. A lot of these questions are probably answered there.

[Marcus Mummius]

Hi Franklin,

We made these helmets to learn some basic metalworking techniques in our first year of Conservation and Restauration at university. Silvering and guilding was not done on these helmets (because that would have been too expensive). So we had to limit ourselves to iron and brass...

I got a lot of information after most parts of the helmets were already well underway. So some things are not correct, but the look is the same as on the originals.

Vale,

[Marcus Mummius]

By the way, here is another one of the helmets

[Franklin]

Well that's what I thought as well, but the high polish threw me off. They certainly look gilt and silvered. Did you use stainless or is that mild with a high buff?

[Franklin]

Your mates do beautiful work. It looks like almost everybody in your Archaeology track could be an art student as well.

[Robert Vermaat]

By the way, this is the helmet one of my friends made. We made 5 of these helmets two years ago

Blimey! Beautiful! Why did you make them? For sale or with re-enactment in mind?

[Marcus Mummius]

@Franklin, thanks for the praise, I'll pass it on. I like my helmet best, but that's just personal taste

Everything was sanded and polished by hand (I believe about 10 subsequent stages of coarseness). This took us a while

It's iron actually, not steel. We had an iron plate lying around in the workshop so we used that.

@ Robert: Thanks! Why did we make it? Well we could choose between two helmets. The other thing was nothing near as nice as this helmet type (It was some kind of Gergovian kepple hat with chainmail that was worn under a fur hat). Normally we had to choose to do either one of the kepple hats individually or one baldenheim helmet as a group. But we made 5 baldenheim helmets because we all wanted one:lol:

One of the girls sold of her helmet to a collector, the other four, including me kept ours. There are a lot of memories (good and bad ones) attached to the different components and the helmet is a very nice souvenir.

I have a bit of a helmet fetish so I will not part with mine. I plan to do late Roman anyway in the future, so it might get used for reenactment too at some point.

I graduated as an archaeologist by the way. I'm now studying Conservation and Restauration of archaeological objects (3rd year) and this was an assignment in the first year. We learned a lot of techniques. We did different casting techniques too for example to learn how do recognize different techniques better in original objects.


Vale

[Franklin]

Well I meant to count you in that number, obviously! You all did great work.

And congratulations, sir.

[Mithras]

That is a thing of beauty! The reconstructed spangenhelms I've seen and handled look pretty ugly and functional in comparison.

[Theodosius the Great]

Marcus,

Thanks for posting those new photos.
Your classmates' and your helmets are the best reproductions
I've seen to date !

I'd be interested in reading about your etching techniques for decorating the brass work. If I remember correctly, I think you used a dremel.

And congratulations from me as well about your graduation

~Theo

[Theodosius the Great]

I just replaced the brass disc that caps my helmet with something a bit crude but closer to the original, IMO. It's now smaller and flatter. The finial has also been replaced with an acorn-shaped one - I cut off the tip so that a horse tail can be inserted.

• Some new pictures :
  
  
• Photo 1
  
  
• Photo 2
  
  
• Photo 3
  
  
• Photo 4
  
  
• Photo 5
  
  
• Photo 6
  
  
• Photo 7

By the way, the armorer who made the helmet has an online store. Here's his direct link : http://us.nine.ebid.net/stores/James-River-Armoury His name is Eric.

~Theo

[Marcus Mummius]

Here some pictures of a baldenheim helmet made by another friend of mine.

[Robert Vermaat]

Ah, wow...