M95 Baden Pioneer Battalion No.14

b.loree

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Baden had only one Pioneer Battalion No. 14 created in 1850, based at Kehl, XIV AK. The problems.....both visors and liner have been glued on. Original liner must be replaced, tears and covered in glue residue. Front visor trim (original) which is officer style does not fit and is an obvious replacement, it does not belong on this helmet. Fortunately, I have a piece of original OR neusilber trim which can be used here. One plus to this piece, is that the finish is in excellent condition, one of the best I have seen! The before photos:
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You can see here how excellent the finish is on this piece, even the stitching looks great.
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White glue residue on the tip of the rear visor...UGH!!!
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Three of the spike brads are polished steel M15's. :(
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The spine brad has to be re soldered. We do have the remains of the original liner which will be shown later. You can see 3 patches of torn liner glued to the shell in this photo.
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Glue remains all over the rim of the shell, even another part of the torn liner in the foreground. More glue :mad: One of the M91 posts has been prepped for removal, both posts will be taken off in order to stitch the new original liner on. If I was stitching on one of my new repro liners, I would not remove the posts. These repros, are wet when they are stitched on and the new leather can stretch over the posts.
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This white glue has to be carefully removed causing as little damage as possible.
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Our last picture shows more liner remains glued to the shell rim and illustrates the fact that this officer style visor trim is not original to this helmet. More to come......
 
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Thanks Sandy, just scraping off the glue and cleaning out the stitch holes right now. The liner will be a bit of a challenge but I have done them before. My apologies to everyone for misnaming this piece, it is Baden Pioneer not Wurttemberg. I was working on a Wurtt. officer helmet and somehow got things mixed up. Old age? 😊
 
The wappen and kokarden:
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Kokarden are original but the strap is an older repro. The wappen is the older screw post style.
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A test to make sure that the new original liner is going to fit. This replacement is in good shape and it needs to be as there will be a lot of stress on it during the restitch. A perfect fit! :)(y)
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The visor stitch line has been cleaned out and some of the liner stitching but you can see how close the liner was stitched to the rim of the shell. Once again the glue and remnants of the liner are going to have to be carefully cut off with an Exacto knife.
 
Liner looks really like made for this shell :)
Don‘t know why somebody glued the Visor, many of the holes seems to be intact, right?
 
Yes Sandy, the stitch holes are in good shape although the ones for the liner are very close to the edge of the shell rim. I believe glue was used because the thread had rotted out and the person that did this was either too lazy or did not know how restitch it. The new liner is a perfect fit,
 
You are correct, that is a modern nut and does not fit properly on the screw post.
 
I love to see how you create a masterpiece.I myself now do nothing,because there is nothing interesting to buy.I made my helmet a few years ago.I unnecessarily repainted one of the kokarde,but well it was a mistake of "youth". Regards and I send photos.
 

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Very nice neusilber collection! I have never seen that may together before. I have not been working on hauben since my last post, too many outdoor projects to do in the good summer weather! We have also had the grandchildren for the last 9 days so that is a priority. 😊
 
I finally finished this piece a week ago, it turned out pretty well but there was a lot of work involved in getting things back to original condition. Some photos of the finished helmet:
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Fortunately, I had bought a front visor with neusilber trim off of Ebay several years ago. It fit but both sides had to be shortened and new holes drilled for the split brads. Again, only one shot at this so you better make certain your measurements are correct! The spike base brads are repros from Poland as the originals were simply polished steel M15's.
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Both visors had to be stitched back on after the new original liner was installed. Again, the finish on this helmet is in exceptional condition. I have only seen one other like this in 40 years of collecting! Some glue had to be removed from each visor but the stitch itself went well.
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This was the real challenge...stitching in a 100 year old liner without tearing/destroying the leather. I must emphasize, just how much stress is put on these old helmets during restoration, no matter how careful you are. When the materials were new, they had lots of flexibility and strength in them. However, after 100 years of use and abuse one has to be very very careful. Folds and creases in old leather are weak points and are just waiting to tear or split! Anyway, I got through this with some success but stitching old leather around the rim of a helmet shell takes patience, skill and some good luck. Last....the modern nut (Imperial) does thread on to the spine screw post for some reason. :)
 
Thank you USN. If you compare the pre fit photo of the liner with what it looks like now you can see how through my handling, some of the liner has flaked off. :(
 
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