Modifying an Old Coolus E?

[andrew359]

Hello Gents,

I'm currently in a dilemma :? shock: but as you are aware, it does have some inaccuracies ? It fits...but not at all as well as the inaccurate, older version of the Coolus E. Besides, it's extremely plain and doesn't look as cool the E. I still have not shipped the Coolus E back but obviously I need to ship one of them back soon.

My question is this -could some simple modification make the older Coolus E historically accurate?

The main problems with it, as I see it, are the large, cornered neck-guard, no little ring on the neck-guard and the spike on top is two pieces with a simple whole in the top. If I simply trimmed off some of the neck-guard and added a ring, would that make it acceptable?

I'm not a reenacter(yet) but I do love ancient history and collecting historic weapons and armor. I kind of feel like a jerk exchanging back and forth like this but for 200 bucks I want to be satisfied with my helmet!

Any help would be greatly appreciated

[Matt Lukes]

Hi Andrew- welcome to RAT

Absolutely you should be satisfied and good on you for not just being content with a poor-accuracy piece If you the rest of the elements of the helmet seem to be okay, then sure trimming the neck guard and adding the ring would certainly help a lot. Overall the Coolus E is a very simple helmet with few things anyone should get wrong- or that'd be too hard to fix I should think. You can cut/ file a slot in the crest knob too.

[andrew359]

Thanks for the suggestions and thanks for welcoming me

I've learned a lot from this forum already. The amount of knowledge here is amazing!

[andrew359]

Another question -If I took the feather tubes of the helmet, would it leave permanent marks?

The feather tubes of the Coolus E are welded on to the helmet. If removed, would the welds leave permanent dark spots? Or could I polish them off?

Again, all help appreciated!

[jvrjenivs]

As it is a deepeeka Coolus E I don't know what metal it is made of. On the brass items I have from them I don't believe it really is brass (as in what I can buy as brass in europe), which is some kind of stuff that breaks easily and is hard (often impossible) to polish to a nice finish.

[andrew359]

Wait, the brass you get from Europe is hard to polish or the Deepeeka brass is hard to polish?

Which do you mean?

[jvrjenivs]

Wait, the brass you get from Europe is hard to polish or the Deepeeka brass is hard to polish?

Which do you mean?

Srry, I see I just wans't clear enough I meant the Deepeeka 'brass' is often crap.

[andrew359]

Thanks for clarifying I'll keep that in mind.

Anyone else tried something like this before? Were you able to clean off the weld marks?

[Matt Lukes]

I shouldn't expect any problem with it- it's brazing, so really just a lower melting-point brass filling in the space; I'd expect if anything the spots might be a bit lighter and overall you have to bear in mind that nice is not good- things should not be super shiny, super smooth, etc. so the way commercial stuff often comes is one of its worst inaccuracies. The ancients didn't have motorized buffing wheels and super fine abrasives This is good for anyone who wants to do work on a piece because really what you end up with, in terms of a piece looking a bit rougher, is probably more 'authentic'. Unless you want something that looks 20th century and not 1st Since the bowls for these Coolus helmets are spun, the metal has to be of reasonable quality since the process puts a great deal of stress on the material- it's more I think things that are machined or cast that are not so strong (lead is added for machinability and cast stuff is inherently weaker than forged).

My only suggestion is to be sure when you cut that you leave excess material behind on the bowl so you can file and then sand it down- it's easy to actually cut too deep and leave lines below the surface plane, and those are far more problematic to remove. File until you're near the surface, switch to emery cloth or equivalent, then sandpaper (waterproof- regular sandpaper's abrasive grains aren't well-bonded to the paper so it doesn't do so well on metal) until you're reasonably happy with how 'hidden' the work is. Of course you'll have a couple of rather polished spots, so you'll have to go over the whole helmet to blend it. One thing that might make it easier is to heat the areas with a propane torch- not enough to get them red or anything but just to dull and color a bit- then soak it in vinegar and water (50:50 is fine) and then go over everthing with fine abrasive to blend. The heating will soften the brass if you get it glowing even dull red so be sure you don't go that far. It's not so bad if it happens, but it's better not to. Just heat until the metal goes from shiny to dull and maybe you start getting some oxidation colors appearing.

[Peroni]

The ancients didn't have motorized buffing wheels and super fine abrasives

How do you explain ancient bronze mirrors Matt? They must have used very fine (ash?) abrasives to get a mirror finish.

I'm not claiming that helmets etc were finished to that degree, but they certainly had the technology.

[Magnus]

Do you have any links to these mirrors that show the finish? How can you be sure of the degree of polish on them in the first place? I'm assuming of course that over the course of 2 milennia they're going to develop some corrosion, thus obscuring whatever surface they had. My point is that how do you know super-fine abrasives were used in their construction?

[Matt Lukes]

The ancients didn't have motorized buffing wheels and super fine abrasives

How do you explain ancient bronze mirrors Matt? They must have used very fine (ash?) abrasives to get a mirror finish.

I'm not claiming that helmets etc were finished to that degree, but they certainly had the technology.

hock: Gee- I would've thought it was pretty clear what I was saying... okay- guess I have to be moreso- they didn't have motorized buffing wheels and super-fine abrasives for making super-smooth, mirror-finish helmets like the commercial crap today... better? Sheesh LOL

[M. Demetrius]

As far as mirrors, I would just say that if they weren't reasonably smoothly polished, they wouldn't be, well, mirrors.

From what I've read, mirrors weren't really what we'd call "good" until they figured out how to apply silvering to the backside of glass, and that's a very recent invention. Making an extremely flat surfaced glass is required to prevent distortion, too.

I suspect the mirrors of the ancients were not nearly as smooth, clear of image, and reflective as the cheapest ones we have today. And odds are they were pretty expensive. Poor saps like me would have to look into a bowl of clear water to get a decent reflection.

[Matt Lukes]

And we mustn't forget that burnishing (rubbing with a smooth metal tool) is a primary way of really shining metal objects in the absence of mechanical buffing tools- abrasives only go so far. So much of what you see that's rather shiny and smooth was likely as not burnished, not abraded.

But all of this is getting way off-topic- the thread's not about ancient abrasives and polishing but how to modify a Coolus remember...

[PhilusEstilius]

Matt.
Where you make reference to these bowls being spun that is of course from the Deepeeka point of view and not originals.