[Sean Flynt]

I'm sure many of us have looked at cheap modern steel helmets--military and civilian--and wondered if they could plausibly stand in for medieval helmets. They can't, and even if their forms were appropriate, they're probably worth too much, financially and historically, to use them for projects. The mid-century American civil defense helmets might be the sole exception. These are plentiful, apparently, and valuable to collectors only in the best possible condition. The first image below is of an example currently sitting on Ebay at $9 with 12 hours left in the auction.

I got one of these in slightly worse condition for $5 at an estate sale many years ago. I've long thought it might make a decent kettle helmet, so I recently made that conversion. I'm very pleased with the result. Here are a few shots of the process.

[Bill Grandy]

Wow, that looks great!

[Aaron Hoard]

I like it - looks great.

[Edward Lee]

I was once told that these helmets were made of mild steel,painted and then heated so it would case harden. That was the case for most helmets up to WWII so I was told.

[Sean Flynt]

That sounds right—it was easy to drill this one and adjust the brim (lower in back, higher in front). The original press marks on the brim reveal the modern forming.

[Jeff Cierniak]

Nice work! That's certainly an idea...

[Ray Harrington]

That is awesome! I have the same OCD helmet and that might be something I could try and do.

[Sean Flynt]

Go for it! By the way, if you want to reduce or eliminate the drilling (though it's very easy) you can just use a single point of attachment for the chin straps, and use on of the existing rivet holes for that. It might be ok to use only the original rivet holes for the lining band, but there would be lots of un-attached band between those rivets. Might not matter.