The Viking Helmet (part DONE)!

Best Viking Helmet EVER!.

OOOOHHH. . Shiny!

It's even cuddly!

My rivets aren't half bad!

Here you see where the horns connect. I just hid this with fur. 

Far. . FAR from perfect 

(but still awesome)

The liner. I cut the leather straps too short. . oh well, it still works. I'm gonna glue a thin strip of fur in there for comfort. 

So. .that was one heck of a project. I had NO IDEA it was going to be so difficult. or so much FUN! I thoroughly enjoyed this challenge. I learned a TON about how metal works and even got to buy (and make) some new tools! I guess I'm going to need a new project now! (I'm open to ideas!). 

I will be posting one more video showing the rest of the parts of the costume and the final result! I might post one summarizing what I learned and what pitfalls to avoid too, in case anyone ever reads this blog. 

Ok. On to the video summary. 

This video is the last in the series and it's the one where I do the horns and the final polish. I bought the horns from Black Bear Haversack (http://www.black-bear-haversack.com/index.php/cow-horns/water-buffalo-horn/un-polished-water-buffalo-cow-horn-create-powder-horn-bulk-price.html). They are water buffalo horns. I was only buying two and they sell them in bulk, so I called them up to discuss my purchase. I told them what I was doing and they cheerfully agreed to personally find me two similar horns. It hadn't occurred to me until I received them that I needed a rightie and a leftie (I was just asking them to find me two of similar size). The horns are, of course, curved in three dimensions. . so two righties or two lefties would not have worked!. . Bottom line. . if you order horns, make sure you call up and tell them what you need!

To attach the horns to the helmet I simply inserted a piece of wood into each one with a bolt in it and bolted them to the helmet. Basically, just shape a piece of 2x4 for each horn using a sanding disk. Make sure  you insert the bolt before gluing it! I used a carriage bolt so that I wouldn't have to worry about a nut loosening up on the inside of the horn. 

If you want to shape the horn to fit the curve, you're on your own. I didn't do it. But,  I did think about it. I would probably shape JUST the horn and then insert the piece of wood a bit deeper into the horn above the concavity. That way you don't have to shape the wood too. I 'think' this will work, but I'm not sure. Give it a shot and let me know. Otherwise, you'll have to shape the wood before gluing it in b/c of the bolt sticking out. 

My solution for the fact that the horns didn't follow the curve of the helmet was to hide the joint with fur. It still looks cool and saved me a lot of work. . I was running low on time by then!

My horns!

Mark a piece of two-by

You end up with two wooden disks. Use a high-speed sander to shape the disks. I used a 60-grit sanding pad. 

Here's one of the disks after sanding it to fit. 

 And here it is inserted into the horn (before gluing). 

 . . and the final result. 

I used a 'fine' wire wheel brush to clean up the frame. 

Releasing my inner VIKING! RAAARRRGGHHH!

The Video