Felt Ersatz coupled with an Introduction

Hello everyone, I've been lurking on the forums for some time now, and figured now is as good of a time as any to introduce myself. I collect mainly First World War Canadian and German helmets and edged weapons. I've been collecting for around 10 years now; mainly CEF, but am new to the world of Pickelhauben.

For my first post, I've decided to share my first pickelhaube. A felt ersatz with the cover. The helmet came with a feldgrau shoulder board to the 361st RIR. If I'm to believe the provided providence, then the helmet would have belonged to the 361st RIR and was brought back as a veteran bring-back by a local Canadian fellow. The helmet is incomplete but serves as a fun reminder of my initial interest in the Great War. Both the helmet and cover are stamped although both are difficult to read. I look forward to contributing to the forum more in the future.

As well, if anyone has further information on the provided photos (especially the stamps) or anything else they'd like to share, I'd appreciate it!

Thanks,

- Alex

Welcome to the forum Alex and thank you for joining us. The forum in CN owned and administered so it is great to have a fellow Canuck on board! Congrats on your felt helmet and cover, very nice. The mid war cover/uberzug is a size 56cm and the ink stamp was put on by the manufacturer. This type of cover was designed for use with the spike top removed so it doesn't have the usual cloth top cone for the spike. I am wondering though, about your M15 spike does the patina/paint match the rest of the fittings on the helmet?? If so great but if not, then it could have been added on by a dealer perhaps? Many of these M15's have lost their spike tops over the years or in fact were never in place when picked up by the CEF soldier.

A felt with a cover, Very good for a first helmet, welcome to the forum, from a fellow newer member.

Hi Alex. Very nice helmet and Überzug. Well done. Perhaps some one on our Forum has an untouched M1915 spike to sell you. That shouldn’t be difficult to find. The Überzug is just the perfect condition; worn but not trashed.

b.loree said:

Welcome to the forum Alex and thank you for joining us. The forum in CN owned and administered so it is great to have a fellow Canuck on board! Congrats on your felt helmet and cover, very nice. The mid war cover/uberzug is a size 56cm and the ink stamp was put on by the manufacturer. This type of cover was designed for use with the spike top removed so it doesn't have the usual cloth top cone for the spike. I am wondering though, about your M15 spike does the patina/paint match the rest of the fittings on the helmet?? If so great but if not, then it could have been added on by a dealer perhaps? Many of these M15's have lost their spike tops over the years or in fact were never in place when picked up by the CEF soldier.

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Thanks for the feedback, from what I can tell, it appears that the helmet spike matches the fittings on the helmet. When I am home next, I will take better photos and update the thread!

Tony without Kaiser said:

Hi Alex. Very nice helmet and Überzug. Well done. Perhaps some one on our Forum has an untouched M1915 spike to sell you. That shouldn’t be difficult to find. The Überzug is just the perfect condition; worn but not trashed.

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Hi Tony, your feedback is always welcomed. Thanks!

You should also know Alex that your M15 style uberzug/cover is a pretty rare beast in my experience. I have only owned one in my 40+ years of collecting.

Welcome to the forum from another Canadian. I am from Kingston, Ontario.

Great helmet.

Welcome on board Alex

Welcome to the forum, like others already mentioned I'm also not a fan of the spike.

Like the helmet and cover congratulations

b.loree said:

You should also know Alex that your M15 style uberzug/cover is a pretty rare beast in my experience. I have only owned one in my 40+ years of collecting.

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That is awesome feedback! I will most definitely treasure it a little more now. I look forward to sharing more of my helmets in the future.

To everyone else who has replied, thanks for the kind welcoming words!

For those interested in the spike, a few photos. Please let me know what you think!

Welcome to the forum.
Nice felt with cover.
My take on the spike is that the spike may be original to the helmet.
But someone in it's past has painted the spike along with the base and rivets.
In an attempt to blend things in, the paint was wiped off on the base and rivets.
The attempt to blend things in was not done on the spike.
Maybe the paint had dried before an attempt was made.
You can see the paint on the rivets has had the top of the dome exposed ( rusty) with lines of paint around their lower level untouched.

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