I recently acquired a Fixed Neck Sallet from Mercenary's Tailor. My sallet is slightly different from Allan's standard offering, as pictured on his website. The difference is in the visor, which is modelled after one on a German sallet pictured in Chapter 5 of Arms & Armor of the Medieval Knight, by Edge and Paddock. If I recall correctly, Allan said that this alternate visor came about as a result of discussions with our own Jean Thibodeau.

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Very nice Steve! I was thinking of eventually getting a sallet from them. What do you think of it?

Congrats,
-James

Steve;

Mine has the segmented tail. I did a bunch of Photoshop versions at some point giving Allan some alternate versions of the visor just for fun and as part of discussions about the helm type and many months later he decided to use one of them.

I'm not 100% sure but I think the intent is to offer these as an alternate design or as a replacement for the earlier design as the new standard one. I would guess that someone wanting the old version could still have it made if they like it better.

The fixed neck version sure looks good also. :cool:

What I like about the segmented neck is that if one pushes the helm back the neck protection doesn't jamb against the shoulders if the head is tilted back: Tilting the helm back does clear the eye line without opening the visor if one doesn't want to open the visor for a quick peek. With the visor open one doesn't have to tilt the helm back to improve vision but one can do both for maximum unobstructed vision. ( Playing around with it or any other helm you discover all the possibilities, some more useful than others, some redundant in that doing both is not needed i.e. do one or the other. )

Yes Steve, that answers my question perfectly. Thank you very much. I like how it sounds, functional and rough, not a polished up showpiece. Thanks for the info and once again congrats on the new sallet!

-James

My opinion...
while many of you are swords collectors on my own side I collect armour pieces. Indeed, that one is really great for its price As you are sooo serious when it is time to get the finest sword from the best smiths around the world I still wonder where is your interrest of collecting LARP-quality pieces of armour?
That is not munition grade. Real "munition grade" were from the pieces used mostly by foot soldiers,. They were made in mass production. in the mid 15th in Augsburg a big smith shop was able to produce full equipment for more than 50 men. We believe black sallets come from that type of production. They were using some sorts of patinas or blued steel to prevent from rust instead of mirror polish that is really much longer to produce (but it works really well, trust me)

If you don't want to spend too much money on a beautiful helm you shuld take a look on www.illusionarmoring.com where a great italian sallet is only 315$..........There are too many great armourers now to go purchase to Mercenary's Tailor wich I really believe he is way too much expensive for what you get...
Ok, there are no bad purchases when it is about armour pieces. There is only better purchases....

I still love you anyway (O:

Marc-Antoine,

I am not sure I agree 100% with your assumption on munitions armour. They were making munitions quality armour from at least the late 13th. 1297 the king of france orders 1000's of 'plates and other armours from Bruges (I think via italy but not sure I can say that as bruges had many armourers). In the second decade of the 14th Edward II buys the same items in great numbers plus others from London armourers. If munitions means mass produced armour for mass soldiers it has existed for sometime. I will not even look at helmets as literaly thousands of helmets go through Bruges, Ghent, London, North Italy, and others. Augsburg was just one of many great cities who sold munitions quality armour (Nuremburg likely sold more munitions quality armour than any in Germany in the late 15th I guess by the huge numbers ordered and their reputation for such in the late 15th). Now very true Augsburg did have many productions of munitions armour in the mid to late 15th.

I am not sure I see why this would not be classified as munitions armour. I have seen some lower quality historic armour through my work and don't think it lacks anything overwhelming. In fact it looks fine to me. I also own alot of armour and make some as well so repo armour is not new to me either. I am glad Merc's Taylor changed the old visor to one that looks more correct. I agree they are somewhat expensive for 'munitions armour' Overall a functional helmet it would seem.

RPM

Indeed, I know "munition grade" was made before mid 15th and I also know there were other cities known for their mass production of armour. The point was not to make a list of them, but to use it as an example, only.
But, your precisions are really appreciated.

Marc-Antoine,

sorry I thought you were saying that munitions armour only came from second half of 15th augsburg. My mistake.

RPM

Folks,
This is not the thread in which to discuss munitions grade vs. other finishes nor to advocate for or disparage anyone's wares. The latter, especially, is downright rude in this thread.

If you want to get into that stuff, make a thread elsewhere.

Chad,

sorry about that.... will do for next time.

RPM

The discussion about Illusion Armoring has been moved to its own topic.