[Kristjan Runarsson]

Hi,
I am pondering the purchase of an 11th century nasal helmet that is available with either a permanent or a detachable aventail. The aventail is attached to a piece of leather which is then laced to the outside of the helmet which would allow me to switch between a full 360 face covering aventail and a lighter one that only covers the neck. Does anybody know if there any case for such aventails during the 10th-11th centuries? i.e. finds or manuscript illustrations etc. ?

[Stephen Curtin]

AFAIK detachable aventails don't show up in Europe until sometime in the1320s or 1330s.

[Kristjan Runarsson]

Seems there are two variants of this, one with the mail aventail attached to a leather strip fixed to the outside of the helmet using a leather chord threaded through iron studs on the outside of the helmet. This seems to be fairly common at eastern style events. Then there is the second variant where the aventail is laced to the inside of the helmet through holes in the helmet rim. In this last variant the aventail is presumably still attached to a leather strip and then laced in place using a leather chord. Quite frankly the second one looks more plausible to me.

This arrangement would make de-rusting the mail a lot easier.

[Lafayette C Curtis]

Yeah, this looks like a modern reenactorism of applying 14th-century attachment methods to a 10th/11th-century helmet and aventail for easier cleaning in a modern context.