Kettle Hat
A Kettle Hate is a type of helmet that looks like the brimmed iron hat. It is also known as a “Chapel de fer” in French or “Eisenhut” in German. This type of helmet appeared at the end of the XII century. At the beginning, it was designed like Scandinavian helms: four quarters joined on the top make the skull. This quartered helmet construction is called a “Spangenhelm”. A small handful of kettle hat helmets dated from the XIII century have been found in Scandinavia during excavations. It was cheap and easy to make which explains its broad use by infantry.
In the XIV century medieval blacksmiths made the kettle hat’s skull from one piece of steel. In the illustrated manuscripts of the time, the shape of the skull looks almost the same as the skull of a bascinet. Eventually, the brim came down further to protect the face and there were some variations of the skull shape and brim angle. It is not surprising that swiped down brims were the most common as they give an advantage compared to perpendicular ones: the blade slides down and doesn’t stick between the skull and brim. Some helmets even had eye-slots on the extended brim and look like a mix of the kettle hat and sallet. On some visual sources from the period, we can see the chapel de fer being worn with a plate or mail bevor.
In the XVI century the kettle hat was still quite popular. However, it was modified and adapted according to the needs of the XVI century soldier. Its most popular forms being the Spanish Morion and the Italian Kabaset. This is no surprise as these helmets had the advantage of unrestricted vision and breathing.
Our Kettle Hat is based off of late XIV – early XV century design with a slightly downturned brim and conical bascinet skull. Our kettle Hat is equipped with a chin strap and buckle. There is also a rib on the center of the skull. The base Kettle Hat is visorless, but one can be added upon request.
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