A reenactment helmet has to do two things a display helmet does not: fit a real head with a liner and a strap, and survive being knocked about at an event. That means riveted construction, honest gauge steel and a shape that matches something people actually dug up. This archive spans several centuries and several armies, because most reenactors end up owning more than one period.
Shapes, gauges and fittings
Steel is mild steel at 16 or 18 gauge. Sixteen gauge is the heavier of the two and carries the great helms, the sallet and the spangenhelm caps. Eighteen gauge covers the nasal helms, the spectacle helmets, the Sutton Hoo style full face mask and the Roman bowls, which keeps them wearable for a long day. On the Norse side there are spectacle helmets with riveted eye guards and brass brow bands, conical and rounded nasal helms with riveted nasal bars, and four panel spangenhelm domes, one of which ships on a runed walnut display stand. The medieval end runs to a visored helmet with a perforated bevor, a pig faced bascinet with a hounskull visor and brass hinges, a sallet with hinged temple pivots and a swept rear tail, and great helms with brass cross reinforces. There are also Roman cavalry and imperial gallic bowls with hinged cheek guards and meander bands, a Corinthian Greek helmet with a hammered crown, and two kabuto with laced neck guards and crescent crests. Detailing includes Elder Futhark brow bands, chased vegvisir and valknut work, knotwork engraving, domed rivets, padded leather liners and chin straps. Prices run from 279 dollars to 429 dollars.
Before you buy
Measure your head over whatever you wear under it, and remember a liner eats an inch. Our notes on buying a Viking helmet cover sizing, gauge and what a riveted dome actually buys you. If someone in your group insists on horns, the horned helmet myth is the short, blunt correction to hand them. The Norse shapes live in Viking helmets, and the later European patterns are in medieval helmets.
Ransack Viking is a US company based in Chicago, Illinois. These pieces are handmade in the Czech Republic, then imported, inspected and shipped from Chicago. Engraving is done in the US after arrival: text 19 dollars, symbol 39 dollars, family crest 49 dollars.
Free US shipping
On most pieces. Heavier and oversized ones carry a flat charge.
Hand Forged
Heated, hammered and ground by hand.
Engraving available
Names, dates or Norse runes on most pieces.
