On next helmet I decided to go for thicker plate again, I was not pleased with the way the surface on the inside looked on the 3mm helmet mostly raised from the outside. The hammermarks did not looked the same as on king Eriks XIV:shelmet. So the first thing I did was to reshape the long stretching hammer so it got a more rounded head with smaller radius. Then I started with a piece of 4 mm mild steel measuring 40×35 cm. With cut corners on the side that will be the neck on the helmet.
Then I stretched the part that will be the forehead of the helmet. And worked around all sides.
This flat stretching I did on a modern flat anvil with a big stretching/raising hammer.
Now I have stretched out 6 cm on the length and 4 cm on the with. When I was pleased with the thickness of the flat stretching, approximately 2,5 mm. I started to heat and raise the helmet from the inside with the longer more rounded hammer.
Still on the flat anvil.
It is quite easy to control how much you want the material to move and I’m much more pleased with the look of the inside surface. I continued with this method until I had reached the length of 50 cm on the outside.
The result so far is much more promising than earlier.
The Masterpiece project 