Welding a helm

Just a few shapshots Tamooj took during my last open shop.  It's kind of weird that it doesn't look any where near that sparky when I'm wearing my goggles.

   A philosophical note on welding- I used to be strongly of the opinion that welding was a bad path to go down if your ultimate goal is to make great armour with the right, historically accurate lines, using historical technique.  There's still some truth to that.  But it does allow you to make fantastic tools to make great period armour that you can't otherwise make without welding.  An oxy-acetylene rig lets you do hot work, which in turn lets you create the correct shapes that they used for historical armour in ways that you pretty much can't do without getting some parts of it red hot.
  That said, it can be over done.  I've seen a lot of armourers make amazing metal shop creations that are very much the product of a good welder, and quite obviously so.  Most bar grills have the welds out flapping in the breeze.  While bars are a necessary evil for any open face hat, there are some ways to conceal the modern techniques.  Many helm styles are made a lot easier by welding parts together.  Sometimes that works out just fine and you can't really tell.  Sometimes it's painfully obvious.  At least try to hide your work if you can.
  So I'm not trying to dump on people's hats- just point out that we can do a little bit better with this one thing.  We can raise the bar.  On your next project, try to do just that.