Jurgen's Coppergate Style Helmet

This book was the inspiration for the helmet pictured to the far right. The other photograph was taken from Tweddle's book mentioned above. It shows the original Coppergate helmet after restoration. I attempted to follow the style while adapting the helmet for use in SCA combat. The main additions are the rigid back plate under the maille and the face grille. My decorations are also somewhat simpler that the originals. The original inscriptions on the decorative brass bands were religious in nature. I chose to put "Vertias" and "Honour" on the side bands and "Ducere Ministrare et Illuminare" on the nose to nape band. The cheek plates are also fixed in place, the hinge is merely decorative. All of the brass work on my helmet was etched with the exception of the two eyebrow pieces which were cast. Below are links to more photographs of my helmet along with a link to another page with instructions on how I built the helm. Some of these images are quite large(200k+) to preserve greater detail.

Coppergate Helm Pictures

Front view	Top view	Side view
Rear view	Inside of Helmet	Closeup of Nasal Area
Interior Cheekplate Detail	Maille Attachment Area	Rivetted Maille
Original Restored - Front View	Original Restored - Side View	Face Grille - Front View
Face Grille - Side View

Coppergate Helm Instructions

Here is a photograph of the original helmet, after restoration. (Taken from Tweedle's book):

Here is a photograph of my version of the helmet, adapted for SCA combat (without the grille):

A number of the pieces for my design of this helmet are simple rectangles. I have scanned in scale drawings for those pieces that are not. In order to more easily understand the following instructions, refer to these pictures:

Step 1	Step 2

Step 3	Step 4

Here are the patterns I used for the nasal/eye cutouts and for the cheekplates. The scans have dimension lines or grids to help you scale them properly. If you print these images as is, they will be too small. You will have to scale them up appropriately.

Cheek Plate pattern

Nasal/Eye Pattern

This page only considers the construction of the basic helmet shell. All embellishments are left to the reader. A word of warning, certain embelishments must be put in place before the helmet is assembled. Keep this in mind if you are planning on adding embelishments similar to the original.

The basic design of this helmet, not including the grille, consists of 11 pieces.

• (1) Back plate
• (2) Cheek plates
• (4) Infill plates
• (2) Lateral bands(It's possible to make this as one longer piece)
• (1) Brow band
• (1) Nose to nape band

I recommend that the helmet shell be constructed in the following order:

1. Bend/dish nose to nape band to fit head.
2. Bend brow band to fit head
3. Rivet brow band and nose to nape band together (Step 1 above)
4. Dish/Bend lateral bands and rivet in place(Step 2 above)
5. Dish Infill plates and rivet in place (Step 3 above)
6. Cut nasal/eye holes from extra nose to nape band(Step 4 above)
7. Rivet cheekplates into place.
8. Rivet backplate into place

Various forms of decoration can be added during different stages of construction. I will not attempt to explain the embellishments that I made to the helmet in this document. If you have a specific question about any of the embellishments, feel free to email me. I also leave the construction of the grille to the reader. I recommend reading the entire set of instructions prior to cutting out your metal. Some of my design decisions were made to closely match the original helmet and may affect your work.

I will assume the reader is capable of sizing the helmet to fit their own head. All given dimensions are from the helmet I built, which fits my head (22 1/2 inches around).

All measurements given below are based on my helmet pictured above. These measurements should be fairly close. I developed this pattern(except the cheekplate and nasal) after the helmet was assembled. Hopefully any shaping didn't throw off my measurements.

• Nose to nape band: 3 1/8 inches wide, 24 inches long. I cut this piece extra long to make sure I had enough for the nasal.
• Brown Band: 3 inches wide, 27 1/2 inches long. If you want to overlap or have the pieces meet in front, cut it longer.
• Lateral Bands: 3 1/8 inches wide, 7 inches long.
• Back plate: 5 1/4 inches wide, 13 inches long(approximate)

The infill plates started as triangles taller than they were wide. Next time I make this helm, I'll make sure to measure the triangles and add that information here. After I dish them to fit, I cut off the points of the triangle so they fit properly. See here for a photograph of the final shape.

Once you have all the pieces cut out, you are ready to begin shaping and assembly. I usually mark several points on my metal while they are still flat.This usually includes centerlines, intended rivet lines, some of the rivet positions, etc. This is a great help in later stages of construction.

To start, bend the nose-to-nape band to fit over your head, while wearing your padding. The band will have enough extra that it will hang down past your nose in the front. (See the line drawings above) This is normal. The nasal will be cut from this extra later in the assembly process. This band will also require a small amount of dishing so that the helmet top appears rounded. This should be done as part of the bending.

Next the brown band is bent to fit around your head. This piece is only curved along one axis so it doesn't require any dishing. You will notice that this band is too short to go completely around your head (See Step 1 line drawing above). On both the original and my helmet, the brow band goes behind the nose to nape band in front. Therefore part of the brow band's "length" is made of part of the width of the nose to nape band. This is really optional. If you wanted to you could make this band long enough to meet in front. This would probably add a slight amount of strength to the helmet.

Once you have the brow band and the nose to nape band properly shaped, you can rivet them together. In the original and my helmet, the brow band join is in the front of the helmet and is covered by the nose to nape band. This can be seen on the exploded drawings above. Make sure the pieces are put together in a symmetrical fashion. This can be aided by the marks I put on the pieces when they were still flat. The original helmet was actually slightly asymmetrical, but this looks odd to the modern eye.

Once you have the nose to nape and the brown band securely riveted together you are ready to proceed to the next step. It is possible to cut the nasal at this time, but I waited until I had completed the top half of the helmet before doing this. The ear to crown pieces also need a slight dish to give the helmet the appropriate shape. These should be dished to fit in the framework already completed. The original helmet had two separate pieces for ear to crown pieces. This piece could also be done as a single piece of metal. It would be another rectangle, somewhat over twice as long as a single ear to crown piece listed above. If you wish to go down this path, you'll have to figure out the length of this piece for yourself. Step 3 above illistrates these pieces.

Once the ear to crown sections of the helmet are riveted into place, we are ready to do the infill plates (Step 4 above). These pieces start off as triangles which are eventually trimmed to fit in place properly. They must be dished to fit within the framework that is already assembled. You will probably find that the dishing on your framework is not quite correct to fit the plates when you try to assemble them so you may have a little bit of dishing on them at this point.

I recommend cutting the nasal and the eye holes at this time. The pattern that I used is contained in a link mentioned above. It is important to center this piece so everything comes out symmetrical. Again the layout lines I made when the helmet was flat will help with this. I used a jigsaw to make these cuts. They can be finished with an angle grinder or hand files.

The cheekplates were one of the most complicated pieces on my helmet. The originals were mounted on hinges. I wanted to preserve this look while making the helmet safe for SCA combat. In order to do this I cut out the cheekplates from the pattern above. I made the hinge and attached it to the cheekplate. I then cut another rectangle of steel and fitted it to the back of the cheekplate. This piece was then riveted to the helmet. Here is a picture of the inside of the helmet showing this construction.

Cheekplate interial detail

The front corner of the cheekplates meets the outside corner of the eyeholes. If you use my eye/nasal pattern from above, this makes placing the cheekplates easy.

There is another option for the cheekplates. If you are not interested in having a fake hinge, you can simply lengthen the cheekplate pattern above and simply rivet it to the helmet directly.

Once the cheekplates are attached it is time for the backplate. I just curved the backplate and riveted it in place. Once I had it riveted, I flared the bottom edge so that it wouldn't dig into my neck/shoulders. I used a brass decoration similar to the original to hang a sheet of maille to cover the backplate. This is also optional, though I think it makes the helmet look much better.

The helmet is basically done at this point save the grill and decorations which I leave up to the reader.

Good luck! If you have any questions, feel free to e-mail me and I'll try to answer them.