Garde Infantry Officer Re Stitch

[b.loree]

My last winter project, this also needs the rear visor stitched back into position. The before photos:

A very nice crisp Garde Officer wappen, with no dmage to the white enamel background. Flat scales for infantry service.

The same problem as the last helmet.

This presents a real problem! The helmet is marked 54.5 cm with 54 cm being the smallest size that I have seen. The stiffener reed on one side is mostly gone so the cloth flops into the centre of the shell. My hand is going to have to go into the shell at least 200+ times to get the work done! Despite taking great care I may do more damage to the silk but I do not want to get involved with stitching this silk if at all possible!

In place, the silk looks sort of ok but my reality is the photo with the silk pulled up for stitching. We shall see what can be done.

Visor removed but stitch holes not cleaned out.

My apologies for the dark photo. We see here the screw post plus 2 soldered prong model of spine on this helmet. The previous artillery helmet had only one prong plus a different tang pin. This pin is the more typical one that we see on these helmets.

 

[b.loree]

A sunny day here again so work continues:

We find a vulcan fibre rear visor here and no broken spaces between the holes. So we have a leather shell with V fibre visors, a good thing. For you novices, the black rim here tells us that it is vulcan fibre, an early form of plastic.

The reverse side of the wappen....unusually long screw posts, the Garde star prongs have been soldered...sometimes no solder. Square brass nuts with tin washers for both posts which is proper. But.....

The right hand post threading does not match the left and it has been epoxied into the old original solder. The epoxy has a dull yellow colour now. No collector should feel bad about this, I take these things apart at my convenience. You buy them at auction or at a show, there is no way that you can see what i find here. The helmet plate itself, is a superb high quality example!

 

[Gunner who?]

Brian, your work is absolutely stunning and it must be very satisfying to see the result in the end. Please keep on sharing your good work, thank you.

Peter

 

[Bobted]

What a stunning helmet! Great fiddly work as usual. Rob

 

[b.loree]

Progress: I had some warmer temps and sunshine yesterday so The first pass along the stitch line is finished. Going back across is always easier although the stitching on this little fellow lined up perfectly. You always know that things are lined up when after pining, you can hold the piece up to the sun and can see light coming through the stitch holes.

Light flecks seen along the stitching is the bees wax used to protect your thread as you stitch.

Masking tape was used to keep the torn silk out of the way and to keep the scales from separating and flopping down into the "work area". Thread will catch on anything imaginable...anything still on the surface or inside the shell!! However, I want to be as less intrusive as possible when dealing with a 120+ year old piece of History. Consequently, the scales were left on, stars and spike base. The tattered silk has to be dealt with though.

 

[dick roback]

Progress: I had some warmer temps and sunshine yesterday so The first pass along the stitch line is finished. Going back across is always easier although the stitching on this little fellow lined up perfectly. You always know that things are lined up when after pining, you can hold the piece up to the sun and can see light coming through the stitch holes.
View attachment 73216
Light flecks seen along the stitching is the bees wax used to protect your thread as you stitch.
View attachment 73217
Masking tape was used to keep the torn silk out of the way and to keep the scales from separating and flopping down into the "work area". Thread will catch on anything imaginable...anything still on the surface or inside the shell!! However, I want to be as less intrusive as possible when dealing with a 120+ year old piece of History. Consequently, the scales were left on, stars and spike base. The tattered silk has to be dealt with though.

Brian; Are you thinking of replacing the liner?

 

[b.loree]

No Dick , I don’t want to get into that. I will probably tighten up some of the original thread that holds the silk on to the sweatband but nothing more. It looks bad when pulled out for stitching but when folded back into place it will look as it was when you sent it to me. I just read my last comment above, it is misdealing. The liner will not be replaced.

 

[b.loree]

I finished the stitching last week:

Unfortunately, despite my best efforts, the calf skin sweat band split in 3 places while I was putting the spine back on. Fortunately I have some paper thin leather with me and was able to patch these up on the inside. In order to glue these in, I had to remove the silk so now that has to be resewed. Sometimes...the gods refuse to smile upon your efforts.