Today's update:

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Spotlight: The 14th Century Bascinet
An article by Alexi Goranov

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Arms & Armor French Medieval Sword
A hands-on review by Chad Arnow

As always, you can see our Complete History of Updates listed right from our home page.

Very interesting reviews and very timely as I have questions about Bascinet type helms.

I just bought a Bascinet at the very low Moat sale price of $70 so any criticism or questions should bear in mind that these are sold as is without liners. (Although I have someone who may make me one if it seems worth it. )

The Bascinet came in good condition and coverred with grease: No rust.

The shape and finish looks good with only minor blemishes, but I may sand it down to a more satiny finish or possibly create an artificial patina.

Now to bring this back to ON TOPIC: The only flaw, but it's a big one, is the this helm seems HUGE and I do mean HUGE: Measured around the outside at brow level I get 29 1/2 ".

Now in the review it is mentioned that Bascinet could vary greatly in size but I wonder if what was meant that they could be, by type, small Cervellière skull caps to very large great Bascinet .

So, were Bascinet meant or usually fitted much closer to the head or could they sometimes be this huge and be fitted out with inch thick lining to make them actually fit !

One odd experiment I tried was putting this Bascinet over my much smaller Cervellière and it actually fits ! A very thin liner would make this a snug friction fit. Oh, my Cervellière is fitted with a felt liner for a 23" head, inside dimension, and is 27" outside dimensions.

So is it worth it trying to make this a useable helm ( As in, wouldn't look ridiculous ?) or should I just keep it as a display piece ?

Anyway, I hope that a personal question like this is O.K. to ask in a comment about a review. ( I did try to include a general question about Bascinets. )

Are you trying on the helmet with period armour? Being fully armoured would make a significant difference in the way the helmet looks. My burgonet seems to swallow my head unless I'm wearing something that approximates the bulk of period-appropriate clothing and armour (a light winter coat, for example).

The update from two weeks ago gave us our 100th hands-on review. This update has hit another milestone. With Alexi's article, we have our 50th feature article. :)

Great stuff again lads. Wonderful accomplishments to boot.


Bill

The reviews are complete and objective (I've always loved this A&A French medieval sword), and the article about the bascinet is very instructive and well illustrated. Moreover, it has a lot of useful links.
So, thank you all for this excellent work !

David

Alexi;

Oh, I know that a Bascinet is just a more evolved Cervellière and normally wouldn't even consider using a Cervellière underneath a Bascinet: But I tried it just out of curiousity and it FIT :eek:

Sean;

I also got a Norman Nasal Helm from the moat sale that also seemed rather oversized, but not to the same extreme degree as the Bascinet, last night I put on my linen arming cap and coif and put on the Norman helm: It did seem much more good looking under those conditions.

The Bascinet could still work if seen as being like a narrow vertical walled Kettle Hat with an open face if some sort of thick lining were added. From photos of people wearing Bascinet, most do seem much closer fitting.

In the review I think one of the artwork drawing shows a fairly wide Bascinet, but with the avantail attached to the edge would hide the fact that there is substantial space between the sides of the helm and the side of the face. Now this could be just that the artist drew the head too big :confused: :lol:

I'm getting advice from Allan Senefelder about this and he will probably be making me some thick felt padded liners that I can install by glueing to the inside of my two Barrel Helms. ( Might be better to send them to him for him to rivet in place but the cost of shipping and being in Canada makes shipping back and forth expensive and not worth it for Helms bought at a bargain price. )

For the Bascinet I might have a custom arming cap made that would look a bit like a WWII leather tanker's helmet: I'm still discussing it with Allan, I would like it to be a friction fit making the arming cap usable as a stand alone leather helm.

By the way for people with these INDIA made and unlined " cheap / inexpensive " helms Allan can make liners for these for self instalation or he will do it for you if you ship it to him. ( Call him first obviously ) ( Oh, I asked his permission to mention this just to be sure that it was O.K. to mention him by name. I wasn't sure if he was just doing me a favor helping me out, which he is. :cool: )