[Steppes] Armor questions

[Randy Shipp]

(This is cross-posted from the Barony of the Steppes page on Facebook, since
I know there's a lot more traffic here.)

Alright, I'll post looking for some helmet opinions as a start.

As background, my kit is shaping up to be late-14th century. Other details
are sketchy. I already have a globose breastplate not entirely unlike what
Fiacha wears, some splinted vambraces with simple elbow cops, some splinted
cuisses with simple, articulated knees, gorget, half-gauntlet, etc. My
eventual plan (for "pretty") is to have a padded lentner worn over all that
stuff. (Something like the Charles VI coat armor:
http://www.mallet-argent.com/images/pourpoint%201.jpg and
http://www.mallet-argent.com/chartres.html) For now, though, I have the
competing priorities of "need for a lid" and "not a ton of money."

The two leading candidates in my search so far are these:

1) Therion Arms selling a helmet made by Get Dressed for Battle:
http://therionarms.com/reenact/therionarms_c1077.html is a round-faced
visored bascinet, center pivot. Concerns here include: the klappvisier is
typically German style, though I guess it's possible there might have been
some style leakage west into France. Also, I'd need someone else to look at
that visor attachment and tell me whether it's likely to survive contact
with the enemy.
$175 (Though I think I've found another, less expensive source for the same
GDFB helms)

1b) http://therionarms.com/reenact/therionarms_c1078.html is a similar helm
from the same source, this time with side pivot hounskull. The visor style
is more typical for a western kit, I think, but the pictures make the
quality of the visor's execution appear...dubious. (No surprise...that looks
like a complicated thing to make!) Both the center pivot and side pivot look
like it would be possible to find someone to make a replacement bar grill
visor for everyday use, which is nice. Both of these have the very nice
extra of coming with vervelles already installed for whenever I can actually
afford a nice mail aventail.
$190

2) http://p7.hostingprod.com/@illusionarmoring.com/Helmets.html shows
helmets from Illusion Armoring. I'd probably be looking at the 14g mild
"bascinet with visor." I like the shape of the helm a bit better (slightly
less "back point" design) and would probably be able to send measurements
and other communications with the guy while it was being done, rather than
the "off-the-shelf" helms above. I'm unsure what I think of the look of his
hounskull visor, though...seems a little off somehow, plus that's probably
too expensive.  I'm also told that I might have to be prepared for a lengthy
wait if I use this armorer.
$145-170, maybe more if I got him to do a custom, removable side- or
center-pivot bar grill to leave visor options open down the road? $165 for
fixed grill in 14g stainless.

Thoughts? I wish I could afford to look at Wind Rose or Ice Falcon or
Anshelm, but that's a fantasy right now...since I'm almost certainly going
to have to sell other belongings to raise the money for this, I think
anything over $200 is going to be out of the question.  At the same time, I
want the best I can get for my meager budget.  I want it to be a decent
looking, reasonably built, adequately safe helmet for my 14th-century kit.

***

SECOND, I have a couple of metal hammering and strapping needs.  I have a
gorget that I need to roll one edge on, perhaps even cut one edge by a
fraction of an inch for fit.  Does anyone have a shop where I could be
walked through doing these things?  Also, I have a one-piece, globose
breastplate, much like the one Fiacha wears, that I need to strap up.  I
have two ideas as to how this might be done and wonder if either of them is
the "right" way:

- an X-shaped arrangement (left shoulder to right waist and vice-versa)
or...
- something more like the poncho closure on my old coat of plates...a belt
straight across from left to right along the bottom, and then vertical,
suspender-like straps over the shoulders to that horizontal belt.

Thoughts?  Thanks in advance

Antoine...