Kabuto Attempt #2

[reichmann]

After an unsightly failure at reproducing a Zunari Kabuto I was inspired by a link I followed posted by Yagyu Tametomo.

The maker of this helm is Battle-Forge.net and I did some scribbles to see if I could make a similar helm from something I'm more familiar with forging.

Here is their helm:


And here is the design I came up with, based off of the Conical Helm pattern available here www.armourarchive.org/patterns/conical_sinric/ :


Is this too outlandish for a set of Japanese armour? I can make that cap rather easily and the rest would follow almost exactly as shown, but firstly I'd like to know that if I showed up in period Japan people wouldn't laugh at the stranger's stupid helm, hahaha. Not that a huge German man in dare-I-say quote, unquote "samurai armour" wouldn't attract attention in itself

[reichmann]

Just answered my own question, rereading the manual it seems I've chosen to make a Shiinari Kabuto (acorn shaped) I just had a huge working blitz and I have completed the cap (5 hours @_@)

Here is the first component, waiting to be finished off on the ball stake anvil:


I don't know what possessed me to pull the stupid pose, I guess I was thinking of A Clockwork Orange for some reason Either that or I'm just too pleased with myself that it came out so fast.
Just look at those hands! Dirty, filthy boy!

[Lash]

looks alot like Clang's good reproduction!!

[roninpenguin]

Yeah, that guy I posted pretty much was making the Clang helm for $400, but then he disappeared off the face of the planet just as Mitsuhide (the one here in Atenveldt) was about to pay him. We gave him his measurements, was given a date of completion and then never heard from him again.

If anyone else is wanting to try this, but don't want to make a top, you can always get pre-made tops from Rough from the Hammer super cheap.

roughfromthehammer.com/parts.html

[reichmann]

What I wouldn't do for the pattern on that Clang helm, but probably out of my skill range until I get more practice.

Here's my schematic for the Kabuto, I hope I can make it look as good as it does in this image, the components are already cut out and shaping has commenced.


The skirt will most likely be made out of heavy buffalo hide, 6mm thick with a Shita-jikoro underneath to disguise the western style rear panelling. I'm going with leather so I can have Fukigaeshi on a combat helm (I hope I'm using that term right...) being 6mm buffalo it will be able to take a hit and just flex out of the way, springing back into shape afterwards without jarring my neck or shredding the opponent's weapon.

I think Kabuto look a bit too plain without them in my honest opinion

[reichmann]

Update time

most of the parts are ready to be assembled, still working on the visor template. we have 9pm noise restrictions here :/ otherwise I would have started already. Any advice or tips before I start riveting?

Here's what I have so far:

[Lash]

looking good!! i would go buy a pack of machine screws ,washers and nuts and attach it all together to see how it looks or use those freakin cool springloaded things i saw on a previous thread . cant find it now but they are COOL!

found it!
tousando.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=armour&action=display&thread=4295

quote author=meskeram board=armour thread=4295 post=36527 time=1361740414]

www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgEIVUVLrnQ

The video shows them in action. A cleco is a little spring pin operated bolt device. You use the pliers to disengage the pin and slide the cleco through holes in two pieces of metal. Then you let go of the pliers, the pin springs out, and the two pieces of metal are held together the same way a nut and bolt would work, but in way less time.

I have to say they are pretty ballin'.

Update on dou progress:
I have the back and the hinges with removable pin finished. I am starting on the watagami today. I was thinking about using steel with suspension odoshi for the wakiita, but I might end up just using leather again. On my last dou the leather allowed a lot of arm motion without digging into my shoulders and the area it protects seems negligible.

Adam Mesker[/quote]

[reichmann]

Whenever I've tried to assemble a helm with anything but the final rivets I find the alignment for the pre-drilled holes tends to go all skewed. I'm probably doing something wrong (Heck I do alot of things wrong when making armour only way to learn) so I'll have a look into that technique again.

Here's a Smexy update, remember kids; Safety first!


Here shows the visor which will be assembled once I finish the back first skirt:


All my rivets are hand formed cold from 6.5mm steel rod:


And finally here's a Namban helm that I'm also working on gradually, 3mm carbon plate steel D: its just a touch heavy:


This last picture makes my nose look like it could sink the titanic

[reichmann]

Hey guys, things are progressing well. First skirt is fixed and visor shaping & bar grille is next. The project is on pause for this week though since I need to get my training armour back up to combat readiness, this sunday marks the first time in armour in quite a while and i want it all to be ready by then with that sugarloaf i showed just above

Had a blast at the Gumeracha medieval fair and even had just enough leftover B-day cash to buy a professional gambeson
I'll post pics when its all done and ready.

[Dafydd]

This helmet was commissioned by me in late 2010. I asked him to make it as close to Clangs as possible. With spring steel shikoro. In February of 2011, I payed for this helm to the tune of $460.00

The helm never arrived. U.s. Mail only allows the sender to track items. When I confronted him about the helm he came up with a list of excuses for why he couldn't track the item.

The guys name is Sergei Prorak.

If I had the the money and could speak Ukranian, I would fly over to Kiev, shove his head into the forge, and beat it into the shape of a momonari kabuto.

Some other guy from Battle Forge promised me a replacement. That was 3 years ago. He also does not return my messages on the armour archive.

The picture you posted was one of the progress pics of my helmet.

If anyone has contact info or the physical whereabouts of this individual, inquiring minds would really like to know...

Dafydd

[roninpenguin]

Yeah, I'm glad we never sent him any money.

On the plus side after he fell through and Mike and I couldn't convince any other armorers to make a similar helm, I got off my butt and started making him something similar. I wanted more of the "Comma" look that period Momonari had, he wanted something more streamlined and I didn't want to copy Clangs so this was the compromise. I'm in the process of cutting out the Shikoro now (or earlier today to be exact but I had to come in to cook dinner for the family).

[Zed]

Beautiful shaping, might we get a profile?

[CLANG]

Hi, folks. First post here, though I've followed links to this board a number of times.

First, thanks for the kind words on my kabutos. I'm actually gearing up to finally do some production ones at LONG last. I've re-vamped my patterns (momonari is still in the works) and made several improvements. The newer version prototypes are shown on my CLANG FB page.

Secondly, Penguin, if you were avoiding copying my pattern as a courtesy, that's not necessary-I copied mine from someone else, too-some Japanese fellow who died several hundred years ago. There's not much new under the (rising) sun.

Reichmann, if you have any specific questions, I'll be happy to answer them if I can.

Lastly, yes, clecos are a gift from the gods. The aerospace gods, but still...

[alfredofromsanmarcos]

Does someone have a pattern for that sexy shikoro with the slight curve over the shoulders? I ordered a "starter" Zunari kabuto from someone who had never made a kabuto before and he did a great job on the bowl and visor but I would like to redo the shikoro.

[alfredofromsanmarcos]

Also... Yay! Clang is about to start Kabuto production!