after becoming good friends with someone I had met at the armored tournament event I went to a couple of weeks back, I became inspired to build an armor kit similar to his, which is a late 13thC / early 14thC kit featuring the great helm (or what most people would recognize as the classic “crusader” barrel helm).

I went down the historical rabbit hole of researching the great helm and found that at the peak of its usage by knights, the helm was mostly worn with just chainmail. however, there is a very brief transitionary period during the mid 14thC where people did in fact wear the great helm with plate armor. I think it looks super cool! but the window of time where this happened is so narrow that when I bring up my desire to wear the great helm for historical armored fighting, I have encountered several people who basically scoffed to my face the idea of wearing one in a match against more popular helm styles seen during the Hundred Years War, such as the visored bascinet like a hounskull helm.

anyways, I have decided to ignore the haters. I just bought 2 great helms, one of which I am expecting to receive today. will share some pics of my new great helm after unboxing it