It has been awhile since I last replied to anything here but I did want to add just one thing to this post. Over the last year two of my fellow students and myself have been forging early period helms using all period materials including bog iron for our base metal, in attempts to form working knowledge for my thesis. Not only have we used all period materials but we have reproduced the helms to the best of our abilities to be an almost exact match ( this in great part with the help of a very talented blacksmith here in the pacific northwest). I am very happy to report that I can say that after forging said helms we went about destroying them in test to see exactly how well they can withstand a blow. We used seven types of weapons to exact the damage upon the helms : Sword, Great Axe, Thrusting spear, Hand Axe, Arrow and
Seax. The results were very surprising.
We produced multiples ( 3 of each style for of each test ie 3 for sword 3 for seax 3 for Arrow etc ) style helm The Helms were as follows : Valsgarde Type 5, 6, Sutton Hoo, Coppergate Helm and Gjermundbu Helm Type 5, 6, Sutton Hoo, Coppergate Helm and Gjermundbu Helm
Test 1 : Sword, Seax and Arrow
All helmets were capable of taking multiple blows from the sword, seax and arrow. We attributed this to the curvature of the helms. In 90 % of all test the blades would glance off the helms when struck from the side leaving only damage to the bronze plates of the helm. When struck from over head something interesting happened in 72% of the tests of the helms that had a bronze crest. The strike would be slowed by the bronze crest and leave the iron ridge below fully intact. One twice during the test did an arrow pierce the helm. This was done at a 30 yard range using a draw of 50 lbs.
Test 2: Great Axe, Hand Axe
As was expected the Helmets did now fair well against the Great Axe, how ever we were excited to see that as with the sword seax and arrow text the over head strikes were slowed when the edge of the Axe blade came into contact with the bronze crest. However, the end result was that it did not slow the strike enough to keep the blade from puncturing the helm. However in only 62% of the test was the blade able to pierce the leather lining underneath the helm. The Hand Axe hard far less success. In only 34% of the tests was the Hand Axe able to pierce through the Helm past the crest to the leather lining. It is with fair assessment that we came to the obvious conclusion that this would be due to the momentum created with the Great Axe versus the Hand Axe. However not all was good news for the helms when it came to the Axe test. When struck from the side almost all helms struck with the Axe bent to suck a degree that not only would the helm be deemed useless for future combat but the crease would create such a head wound that we actually had to refer to a surgeon ( my uncle) for his opinion as to whether or not he thought that such a wound would be survivable. In his professional opinion he though that given the depth of the wound and the velocity of the blow would cause the patient to be rendered unconscious and more than likely bleed to death with out immediate medical attention, and even with immediate ( and modern) medical attention said patient would suffer brain damage. The Hand Axe faired very well against the helm when striking from the side how ever the depth of the blow rarely broke through the leather lining. We have come to the conclusion that it would be possible to survive a blow of this nature.
Test 3 : Thrusting spear
This is the weapon that faired the worst against all types of helms. In all tests only the Sutton Hoo helm failed to protect the head. The Helm was pierced by a forward thrust which struck the helm directly between nasal protection and the right brow. Once the spear had pierced the helm we were able to in the same thrust shove the spear completely through to the back of the helm this meant it completely pierced the leather lining and the melon that was holding the helm up. Needless to say we don't think the victim would have survived. When using the spear in a striking manner, the blade would either glance off the helm or bend upon contact with the helms
In our opinion based on all research and test we have come to the conclusion that the helms were more than battle worthy. However we are still debating as to whether or not the helms found in burials were specifically meant for burial usage or used by the own while alive. I do believe that given that if a people have a believe that the items laid in your grave will be used in the after life then it leads me to believe that these items were actually used in the owners life time as well. If a fighter had used a helm and it had been worthy then why would he not want that helm in the after life with him to save his scalp there. However then again we do have stories of warriors going to graves and stealing weapons (primarily swords) from the ancestors because the sword has great renown, it is plausible then that if a piece of armor had great renown that it to could be valued enough to either be passed on or grave stolen. this of course is all conjecture. Regardless our test at least prove that the helms could have been used to great effect in battle.
Now to stress the fact that this test was not carried out by mere academics, I would like to point out that the Man who made the Helms is a blacksmith by trade and living how solely reproducing arms and armor for sale as well as reproduction for Museum collections and has even done a fair bit of film work. One of the students who helped with this project is truly a master craftsman, before returning to school he works as a jewelry maker and designer and with out him I must say we would have been a bit lost when working with the bronze. The other student like myself has been involved in Dark Ages reenactments for several years ( myself over ten years) and again like myself is a student of the martial arts (we met in Ken do Class) I myself military training having served eight years in the United State Marine corps in a combative role, I also have over 25 years in the Japanese martial arts ( Kendo and Akido) as well as five years in Western Martial arts, I have also over 28 years in reenactment societies and am currently in the process of working on my p.h.d. in Archeology. We also did not rush into this project over night, in total the project had been in the works for a little over two and a half years. If anyone has any questions regarding the research we conducted prior to the test I am more than happy to pass it along, I however can not give any further information included in my Thesis until after it is completed and accepted.