[Douglas Huxtable]

I hope someone can help me, I recently bought a german sallet and bevor for re-enactment and as I tried it on realised the bevoir doesnt fit inside the sallet, Im sure this is wrong, but what do I do?
The helmet is lovely, perfect visor etc.. the long articulated tail is great too.
Someone help?

thanks

[Allan Senefelder]

Pics of the stuff on you would help out in judging the fix.

[Douglas Huxtable]

KK, I will get some posted, Im working on it now, have to resize them to fit them into the attachment size limit.

[Douglas Huxtable]

Here are the pictures, hope this makes the problem more clear.[/code]

[Ivo Malz]

Hello.

You might want to mount the neck strap of the bevor a little lower, maybe an inch above shoulder level, at the sides of the "chin cup". This will position the bevor edge one or two inches higher.

Ivo

[Douglas Huxtable]

Ok, thanks, I will try that, although generally the height isnt the problem, its the width of the bevor but thank you for the feedback, I will try it.

[Chad Arnow]

Can you return the item for a proper-fitting one? Who is the maker?

I've only seen them where the bevor goes underneath (and inside the lip of) the sallet. If the bevor is too wide, it would kind of defeat the purpose. I'm pretty sure you want the parts to overlap so that as blows go from top to bottom they don't slide into a gap.

If you can't return it, can you gently bend the lames of the bevor to fit underneath the edges of the sallet?

[Allan Senefelder]

Your bevor does not appear to be sitting close up on the face as it should, this may be because of the afformentioned strapping. This however will not help with the fact that it appears to wide on the sides. You can try giving it a squeeze, you'll have to be somewhat agressive based on the pics, but only do that if you can't return it to get it fixed. The sides should be parallel to the sides of the cheeks rather than flaring away so thats what you shooting for.

[Allan Senefelder]

Question is there a spring pin on the top of the lower plate of the bevor to keep the upper plate raised? It appears the upper plate is in a retracted ( down) position and I don't see any notch on the bottom edge of the top plate to accept a pin.

[W. R. Reynolds]

Douglas,

Allen is right. Your bevor should fit right up against your chin with the padding and in the photo it looks too loose. With the padding, mine smashes my beard against my chin and out of shape. youv'e heard of hat hair? Try bevor beard! This kind of fit gives you the best protection and the bevor should tuck up just inside of your helmet but still give you some room to turn your head somewhat. You won't have total mobility for your head, but you should not be locked in place either. Yours does look too wide though and may be a bit too long front to back. Hard to tell from the photo and without it positioned properly.

Did you but these from the same armourer? For these things to work right the bevor almost always has to be custom made to fit you and the helmet and any body armour that you are going to wear and it's best if the same person makes it all. Composite armours can be difficult to attain a proper fit with. Fortunately, bevors aren't as costly as helmets and if you can't make this one work maybe try and get a custom fit.

[Allan Senefelder]

The neck strap should be attached to the inside of the first plate rather than the outside of the top plate, this looks to be part of whats letting it slide that far forward.

[Gregory J. Liebau]

[Randall Moffett]

I'd say you have gotten some good information. Looks to me like the gorget flares out bottom to top on the sides which cannot happen so much or as is happening it cannot fit. I have only made a handful of sallets with bevors in pairs but those I have made leave a gap but only a slight one where the bevor and sallet would meet inside. This allows breathing but hopefully not blades and sharp items. The bevor should be closer to the face and they should not meet like they do in the picture front points to each other. My guess is the bevor need be tighter to your body and the sides pulled in. I'd also try seeing what the armourer would do. If they were things I had made, one or the other and I lived anywhere close I would fix it, likely for free.

RPM

[Sean Flynt]

If all else fails, it should be a very simple matter to remove the top lame. If you do that and move the strap so that the whole piece sits higher, you'd still have a historically plausible bevor that might be much more comfortable (and, theoretically, more effective). I'm sure I've seen relatively shallow bevors.

[Douglas Huxtable]

Thanks everybody for the feedback, and the "bend it in more, lift it up more" theory seems to be the resounding winner, athough having said that, Im not an armourer, it is 18 gauge and very hard to bend, and Randall, I live only a short drive away from you, we live in chichester and quite regularly make the car journey to southampton.
I will definately try to move the strap, but should I wait to hear from the armourer in Germany before tearing the bevor to pieces?
Also would I have to re-do the riveting to move the strap? the small rivets holding the chin strap into the helmet are banged on pritty stiff.
Also, sean, if I were to remove the top lame, im pritty sure it would fit, how would i go about doing this and how complicated would this be? would it not prohibit the functionality of the bevor? my only thinking is that then the lower lame may be too low?
W.R Reynolds, in answer to your question, yes the helmet and the bevor came from the same armourer in Germany, although the bevor was not custom made.

Heres a pic of the gap between the lower and upper lame, and pics of the top lame lifted, and supressed:
Hopefully now we can start to shorten the list of possible problems
thanks for the help so far everyone, cant wait to get it all right, and working

P.S Im waiting to hear back from the manufacturer in Germany, have sent him an email about this.

[Allan Senefelder]

Doug, your also going to need a spring pin to keep the top plate up and allow in to be dropped for extra air when not in action, there doesn't seem to be one on your bevor. This is/was a standard feature and its why the top lame won't stay up. You will have to cut or grind away the rivets currently holding you strapping in place, fill the holes with a flushed rivet, remove the top plate by clipping the two rivets that it articulates on, punch and drill the now holes on either side of the lower plate reset your straps and then reattach the upper plate with two new rivets in the pre existing holes.

[Randall Moffett]

Douglas,

PM and I am sure I can fix it if the armourer does not want to fix it. I have just moved again so not really up and running shop wise but I am sure we can figure something out.

RPM

[Sean Flynt]

To remove that top lame you'd just have the grind or file down the inside head of the rivets on each side. It's just two rivets, and rivets are very soft. From the photos, it looks like you'd lose only an inch or so, but you'd have to figure out exactly how much and weigh that against how high you're able to raise the piece by adjusting the strap. I'm working on a sallet and bevor project myself right now and as I fit the pieces I have to remind myself that I'm wearing the bevor over a t-shirt or other thin shirt rather than over a thickly padded arming garment and/or plate breast, all of which would significantly raise the level of the bevor. Again, I know I've seen shallow bevors, just can't think where.

Another option is to remove the top lame and just make a better-fitting one out of thinner steel.

[Douglas Huxtable]

Yeah, thanks for the feedback Thats a good point, and it would probarbly work.

thanks,

[Sean Flynt]

Here's a relatively shallow one, from the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Looks to me like this would cover to just below the nose, maybe not that far.