New Old Stock, fantastic condition!

Wow!! Those are fantastic, I have only seen these in the WW1 black and white movies of Joffre, Petain etc. Congrats!

Yes Mathew, like George, I make my own shellac from flakes and I dye it. I do not use store bought shellac. Years ago there was another collector in my area who tried to do refinishing using the commercial stuff and he made a real mess of a couple of helmets....it ran everywhere! Good idea about the...

Some photos of where we are at now on this restoration: https://photos.smugmug.com/Before-Helmet-Restprations/i-4xVSjCH/0/2ca5f9d8/L/IMG_0629-L.jpg The rear visor has been straightened successfully. https://photos.smugmug.com/Before-Helmet-Restprations/i-CmWNB7n/0/5b5f8e80/L/IMG_0630-L.jpg This helm...

A very rare photo indeed Alan, thank you for posting.

Yes, there was a brief trade war between ourselves and Uncle Sam, fortunately cooler heads prevailed and we are back to normal now. Yes we will have some Wisconsin cheese in our grocery coolers...big whoop! The state of Wisconsin produces more cheese than all of Canada combined.....MAGA.

Hmmm......"Fatty Spue" a new phrase to add to my vocabulary! I wonder though, how I will be able to work that into "cocktail conversation" over a nice glass of Merlot or Cab Sauv?? :D Mike, your avatar reminds me to announce here that I am in need of an officer Garde Stern to complete a neusilber of...

I would just like to add here that with lacquer/shellac, we are dealing with a natural product produced by an insect, the female Lac bug largely found in a special type of tree growing in India. Consequently, I tend to think that we are talking about some sort of chemical reaction, a clouding of the...

Very interesting, I have learned something new. There are always surprises in this hobby. I suppose the talc was used to absorb humidity much like those small packets of crystals which we always find in new electronics, cameras etc. I have never encountered an as new helmet.

I have never heard that story before and I have been collecting hauben since the 1980’s. There are private purchase Officer helmets where the shell is made of lacquered felt and the visors stitched on. Any talc powder in my opinion might be some sort of chemical reaction after 100 years. At the same...

I should learn to make a closer examination before expressing an opinion.

Very nice condition, I see no issues except for the broken wappen, missing Reichskokarde and feldzeichen. Is this an officer tschapka? I can't see the crown on the eagle's head.

As mentioned previously, after the fittings were taken off the helmet was "bagged" and humidified for approx 4 days. You must keep an eye on this everyday just to check on things. On one helmet, I learned a lesson when I forgot about it and came back to mold and peeling finish, so don't leave it in ...

That is really cool. That must have taken months of work!

My thanks to new member Mike H. for his recent donation to help out with forum expenses.

Yes the Hagerty works on brass and is available on the internet. I suppose you can buy black linen Amy but I just have old hanker chiefs and cut off what I need. You glue the strip( contact cement) to the back side of the stitch line. Your thread will still pull through the broken bits of leather bu...

Hmmm... I don’t see my kokade in there James , I hope you haven’t sold it !

The helmet has all the Dragoner characteristics Mike but the wappen is not correct for a Prussian Dragoon Officer. You can see Dragoner examples here on the forum in that section as well as the Wappen/Helmet plate area. This group of military bureaucrat helmets are called Beamte Pickelhaubes. These ...

Regarding the “intervals “ between the holes being broken Amy, use contact cement to glue a strip of linen cloth along the broken stitch line. Dye the cloth black before you do this so it does not show.

I am now using a sonic cleaner Amy, Hagerty Silver Foam and a buffing wheel with jewellers’ rouge. All parts are first put through an hour of sonic cleaning then depending on the part, the other two methods. For example the spike and spine were buffed, while the wappen was cleaned with Hagerty. The ...

As I post this, the shell is in a sealed plastic bag with wet newspaper being hydrated. My hope is to be able to get enough moisture back into the rear visor to reshape and block it without removing it from the shell. The stitching on this helmet is extremely fine, a real nightmare for restitching!

I have started the restoration, first removing all fittings and then cleaning them. https://photos.smugmug.com/Before-Helmet-Restprations/i-85z6Rrj/0/8b6a5298/L/IMG_0596-L.jpg Here is a good shot of the front visor, you can see the problem with the stitch line. I have never seen this kind of shrinka...

Still working away at this project...adding finish and sanding between each coat, slowly filling things in. https://photos.smugmug.com/Before-Helmet-Restprations/i-rz9JWVk/0/82dc48f4/L/IMG_0602-L.jpg This will never be perfect, all we can hope to do is improve things from where they were. https://ph...

Thanks very much for all your work Amy. Your chart sums it all up....an original set of infantry officer brass chin scales would make this helmet correct. Yes Mathew, I have cut visor trim to fit on several occasions, very nerve wracking because you only get one chance to make the cut and drill a ne...

Fantastic condition, congratulations Mike.

You have definitely caught the haube bug Scott, congratulations!

I have always loved the Hessen helmets, congratulations!

Very nice helmet Scott I love those pre 1905 helmet plates with the extra leaves around the shield.

Yes Amy, as far as I know you are our lone female collector/member 😊. We are very lucky to have you with us. Mathew, that would be my advice also, add a set of brass infantry scales and you have a very valuable helmet. However, as we shall see there are some real problems with that front visor. The ...

I would also like to point out the thin chin scale backing......probably the scales are stapled to a cardboard centre strip backed with oilcloth. Older scales are much thicker/heavier stapled to a leather centre strip plus thin leather backing. There was a real desire in the 1890's amongst private p...

Welcome again Mike, as I said before, that is a real beauty both outside and inside. The maker, is also well known to us as producing high quality helmets. Please do not hesitate to ask questions here and seek out information, we all love to talk hauben and our membership has the best expertise on t...

The helmet in question was sent to me recently for some restoration work and I have it a part as I write this. I will be posting pics etc shortly. However, I do have a problem regarding the identification of this piece as suggested above...JR 119, 123, or PB 13. Now that I have the helmet in hand, i...

The quality of the helmet plate, spike base...every fitting is way below originals, no crisp, fine details. This is a fake which has been chemically aged to fool a buyer into thinking it is original.

Hi Arran: We have had this issue in the past...I believe that the problem lies with the recipient not clearing out their PM inbox on a regular basis. I don't believe that there is anything we can do but I will ask tech support.

Nice hat Ed....I take a size 58cm and I think I would look pretty cool in that! On a more serious note, the visors could also be pressed cardboard which I have seen many times.

Incredible detail, just excellent! Well done

Amazing tschapka congratulations!

I use a Swiffer duster to collect the dust off of my helmets.

Philippe: Convex chinscales on M91 posts, cruciform spike support, no visible Regimental markings. The wappen had screw posts. This helmet was a small size, made of heavier gauge leather and a darker interior than yours. The liner may have been treated with a preservative at some time

Thanks for the kind words gentlemen. Chenny, if you are interested in having me restore this helmet contact: [email protected]

I am going to try and repost my original pictures here. This was an excellent original photo which produced good discussion. The lady in question is obviously operating some sort of "press machine". It does look like a stack of visor trim to her left and Prussian wappen on the right.

I don’t see anything there that could not be either fixed or certainly improved. Check out some of the other restoration posts here to see what can be done.

There are 6 militaria shows held in the Toronto area each year. Here are some pics of the June 1st 2019 Show which I attended this past weekend: https://photos.smugmug.com/SOS-2019/i-PrkSvDN/0/1a8a6248/L/IMG_0535-L.jpg A pleasant surprise, I ran into Peter S. and his wife Enid who had come across th...

Well done Jeff! Nice to finally see a pickelhaube properly identified and appraised for once.

Very cool picture Glenn! It never ceases to amaze me how you can recognize and name the individuals in these photographs. Nice shiny hauben.

Removed and account deactivated. None of his posts were relevant to the topic being discussed.

I will check into this “member” and probably remove them. Tech support has now made the change to the site so that all new members will have to be manually activated by me. Hopefully, this will end the spam attacks. I appreciate the patience shown by members during the time we have struggled with tr...

Here is the response from our tech support: Hi Brian I’ve just changed the settings on the forum so that users can’t send private messages until they’ve made at least 10 public posts. Something else we can do if you want is set it up so new users have to have their posts manually approved by an admi...

More BS....what next?? . I have emailed tech support regarding this.

Very nice! I also like the background you have chosen for the photo.