How to make a Greek style helmet crest of horsehair and leather.

By Stratokles

email: Stratokles1@cs.com

Make a crescent shaped pattern for the leather base that holds the horsehair.

The bottom of the pattern must fit the shape of the skull of your helmet. There will be two sides to the base, make sure you cut them left and right. These pieces can be the same height front and back or can be slightly higher in the front. Cut a third piece 1" to 1.5" wide that will fit flat against the helmet and be sewn to the bottom edges of the two sides, making a pocket for the horse tail. The bottom piece will be tapered at each end. The sidepieces may be decorated by tooling/dying before they are sewn together.

Make the pattern
Cut the leather
Tool the leather
Dye the leather
Sew the lower edges of the sidepieces to the edges of the bottom piece. The sides will come together at each end where the bottom piece tapers to a point. (If using Velcro you should sew the strip with the hooks to the outside of the bottom piece at this time)
Sew the front and rear edges of the sidepieces to each other. You now have a pocket for your horsetail.

Obtain a horsetail.

Some times they are for sale at larger SCA event. They are usually on sale at Buckskinner/ Amerindian events. Slaughterhouses may sell them to you as an individual, they may not.

Clean the horsetail.

The tail is not tanned, it is raw hide, so you must prepare it properly so it does not rot.

Slit the tail to the end along the bottom removing any remaining pieces of tail bone. This will make the tail into a long isosceles triangle with hair on one side and flesh on the other.
Clean the tail of any maggots or other critters
Wash the tail to kill the bacteria and parasites
If the tail is white, use a half strength solution of bleach, it will also whiten the hair
If the tail is darker, keep the bleach off of the hair...I have heard that you can use boric acid for this process.
Fold the tail shut again, flesh side in/hair side out. Sew the open edge shut with enough stitches to hold it while it dries - once it is dry the stitches will not matter. In the next step remember that the slit is at the bottom, next to the helmet.
Lay the tail on its side and curve it to fit the curve of the leather crest holder that you have made. Press it flat, nail it to a board on it’s side in the proper curve while it dries. Put it in a dry place to dry. It must dry fairly quickly to prevent rot.

Assemble the crest.

Slide the tail into the crest holder. The slit in the tail should now be against the flat bottom leather strip of the crest holder. The smaller tip of the tail goes to the back of the crest holder, the thicker base of the tail goes to the front of the crest holder.
Make sure that all of the hair is pulled clear of the crest holder. It may help you to lay the crest on its side and arrange the hair in the typical fan pattern.
Begin sewing the top edges of the sidepieces of the crest holder to each other. As you do this you must make sure that you maintain the fan pattern by pulling some horsehair into each stitch as you sew. Begin at the front of the crest and continuing sewing until you reach the back. The entire crest holder should now be sewn shut, trapping the horsehair into a fan shaped pattern.

Attach the crest to the helmet.

I know of two methods of doing this: Velcro and Laces. The laces are much more secure. Some people feel that the Velcro is safer because the crest will come loose with a blow instead of twisting your neck to the side. I have not found this to be a problem. I do find it a problem to be picking up my crest off of the ground every time I run. Some people compromise by using Velcro and laces, leaving out the center lace.

Velcro:

Sew and glue the hook portion of the Velcro, this should be done when originally sewing the sides to the bottom of the leather crest holder.
Glue the fuzzy loop portion of the Velcro to the top of your helmet along the centerline from front to back. When dry, stick your crest on top of the helm. Done.

Laces:

Use a drill to make a hole horizontally through the crest base just above the bottom piece, piercing both sides so that you can thread a lace through the base from side to side. There should be a total of three laces installed: near the front, near the rear, in the center.
Place the crest on the helmet and mark the location of these holes on the skull of the helmet.
Drill the skull of the helmet, close on either side of the crest at the front, centers, and rear.
Place the crest on the helmet, feeding the laces into the holes. Tie the laces inside of the helmet to hold the crest in place.