Parts of a Knight's Helmet – Labeled Diagram and Types

All 14 parts on the diagram

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The close helmet 8

Skull The main plate of the helmet. The moving plates are fixed to it at the pivot.
Comb (crest) On close helmets it grew taller during the 1500s. It is also called the crest.
Visor It swings up on the pivot to uncover the face. The second helmet shows this.
Eye slits They are cut in the visor. Older books call the slit the ocularium.
Ventail (upper bevor) It juts forward like the prow of a ship. It turns on the same pivot as the visor.
Breaths They let air in. Getting enough air inside a closed helmet was a serious problem.
Bevor (chin piece) To put the helmet on, it swings up on the visor's pivot. It is also spelled beaver.
Pivot There is one on each side of the skull. The visor, the ventail and the bevor all turn on it.

Earlier helmets 6

Nasal helmet Worn from the late 800s, and the helmet of the Norman Conquest. It left most of the face open.
Nasal (nose guard) A single strip of metal that guards the middle of the face.
Great helm It has only small openings to see and breathe through. Knights wore it from the late 1100s into the 1300s.
Bascinet It comes down at the back and sides to guard the neck. From about 1330 it was often fitted with a visor.
Aventail (camail) It protects the throat, the neck and the shoulders.
Sallet It replaced the bascinet in the middle of the 1400s. The eye slit is cut in the front or in a visor.

How this list was compiled: Every name checked on 2026-09-30, a name kept only where two independent sources use it. (1) The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Handbook of Arms and Armor, European and Oriental (Bashford Dean, 1921), full text at https://archive.org/details/handbookofarmsar00metr (visor pierced with slits for vision, ventail with breathing holes, beaver or chin-piece, comb and crest, basinet, camail, heaume, salade, nasal guard). (2) Charles ffoulkes, Armour and Weapons (Oxford, 1909; ffoulkes was later Master of the Armouries at the Tower of London), full text at https://archive.org/details/armourweapons00ffou (the parts of the armet or close helmet: ventail, visor, skull, beavor; vision slit or ocularium; breathing holes; pivoted visor; comb; nasal helm and nasal; great helm; bascinet and camail; salade). (3) Wikipedia, text only: Close helmet, Armet, Visor (armor), Bevor, Nasal helmet, Great helm, Bascinet and Sallet. Licence: own work

The drawing: Drawn for this site on 2026-09-30 from plain curves; no museum piece traced. Licence: own work

How it works

A knight's close helmet of the 1500s from the side, closed and then with its visor up. Under it are four earlier helmets, in the order knights wore them.

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One pivot, three moving plates

Numbers 1 to 8 are a close helmet, which shuts right round the head. The skull covers the top and back, with a comb along its ridge. Three plates turn on the pivot at the temple: the visor, pierced with eye slits; the ventail below it, pierced with breaths to let air in; and the bevor round the chin. Numbers 9 to 14 are older helmets: the nasal helmet with its nose guard, the great helm, the bascinet with its curtain of mail, called the aventail, and the sallet with its long tail.

To put a close helmet on, the bevor swings up on the same pivot as the visor, then is fastened shut.
The word helmet began as the name for a small helm.

Questions and answers

What are the parts of a knight helmet called?

On a close helmet: the skull over the top and back of the head, the comb along its ridge, the visor over the eyes, the ventail below it, the bevor round the chin, and the pivot they all turn on.

What is the visor of a knight's helmet?

The plate that covers the face and swings up on a pivot at each side. On later helmets it is in two parts: the visor proper, with slits to see through, and the ventail below it, with holes to breathe through.

What are the holes in a knight's helmet for?

They are called breaths, and they let air in. Getting enough air inside a closed helmet was a serious problem, so the ventail was pierced with breathing holes.

What helmets did knights wear before the close helmet?

In turn: the conical nasal helmet, with a bar over the nose; the great helm, which enclosed the whole head; the pointed bascinet, with its mail aventail; and in the 1400s the sallet. The close helmet followed in the late 1400s.