I thought long and hard about what sort of liner to put in this helmet. As far as I know, no examples of helmet lining or padding survive from this helmet's era. Authorities speculate. The Osprey Warrior Series #1, "Norman Knight", by Christopher Gravett, takes a shot at reconstructing several parts of 11th century equipment, and in Plate D shows a hypothetical helmet lining. "Wedges" or "gores" of fabric or leather are stuffed with padding (horsehair, tow, etc) and stitched to the bottom edge of a tough leather band that is riveted to the bottom rim of the helmet skull.

Fair enough. But it occurred to me: if the wearer of this helmet also wore a padded cloth headpiece, and a mail coif over that, further padding in the lining would seem to be a bit redundant. Period illustrations exits that show warriors with their helmets off, revealing considerable padded headpieces. With the finished rim of this helmet being about 9.25" by 7.75", a person with an average-sized head would quickly run out of room. (Granted, I may have made the skull a bit too small, but the proportions looked right, to me.) Maybe it went like this: early Medieval helmets were worn over padded headgear that was tied separately to the head. By the 14th and 15th centuries, padding was nailed or sewn to the inside of the helmet instead, and the wearer pulled the helmet on over his bare head -- or perhaps he wore a thin fabric headpiece.

So, I decided on a variation. I would put in a suspension-type leather liner, made of six gores, and stitched to a brow band. The gores, however, would be cut from only one layer of very supple leather, and not padded. This type of liner would (I hoped) make a comfortable fit over layered cloth-and-mail headgear.