Is it armour or is it art? It's both!! One brand new, one of a kind, Valsgarde 6 Helmet designed
for SCA Heavy Combat. List legal and then some!! This magnificent helmet is a reconstruction of the Valsgarde
6 helmet from the Valsgarde series of burial finds in Sweden. I have added certain sections to the original so that
it meets all SCA Heavy List regulations (e.g. back slates, cheeks from the Coppergate helm, and faceplate of my
own design). The original dates to the mid 7th century which would put it in the pre Viking, Vendel culture. This helmet is constructed primarily
from 12 gauge steel and was handmade by yours truely. This is one SOLID HELM!! The main bands (nose
to nape, brow, and side bands) are constructed from 14 gauge steel. The rest of the helm is constructed entirely from
thick 12 gauge steel. Thats right, all of the infill work, the occular, the back slats and reinforcement band, cheek
plates and face plate are all constructed from 12 gauge steel. Yes, even the eyebrows are 12 gauge. This helm
is handcrafted, not stamped or pressed. Every piece in this helm has been painstakenly hand cut, hand formed, hand filed,
hand fit into place, and hand riveted. There are 102 rivets of 3/16" diameter used in the construction of the helm.
One of the photos shows the inside of the helm and how I did the rivets. Each and every rivet has been hand riveted
to a nice, non sharp head, unlike alot of armour Ive seen where they hit the rivet once so that is stays in place but you
still have a 1/4" plus of rivet still there to poke at you. As far as that goes, there are no sharp edges anywhere on
this helm. Each piece of steel in this helm has been hand filed to a nice smooth edge. Because this helmet dates
to the Dark Ages, I have left the helm in a natural blue/gray steel finish (every good raider knows that you dont want to
give away your position because firelight or the sun is reflecting off your helmet) which is very period and quite frankly,
darn good looking. I have also left hammer marks in place on the steel so that the piece has a more period field look
and feel to it. This helmet comes unstrapped and unpadded so that the buyer may custom fit it as
they like. This helmet is an heirloom quality item which can be fought in during your SCA career and then handed down
to your son or daughter to use during their career also. Be the only one in your group to own this great helmet
or even add it to your stunning show collection!! Are you Viking enough to wear this helm?
The dimensions of the helmet are as follows and are taken from the inside of the helmet unless otherwise noted:
circumference along brow plate is 28 1/4", front to back in direct line is 9", side to side in direct line is 8 1/2",
bottom of brow plate to top is 6" in direct line at center of helm, nose to nape along the plate is 17" (not including nasal),
nasal is 3 1/4", length of exposed slats is 4 3/4", distance between back slats is less than 1", the main bands are
2 1/8" wide, bottom of brow plate to bottom of faceplate is 7 1/4", bottom of brow plate to bottom of cheek plate is
5 1/8", the eyes at their widest opening is 7/8", the three center breath holes in the faceplate are 1/2" and the rest of
the breath holes are 1/4".
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