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A buddy of mine picked up a felt ersatz with the dark green painted fittings last year. I think these are fairly uncommon, as I have not seen very many of them over the years. Single maker? Nice helmets! Bryan.

It looks really great, Coert! I also like these darkened fittings. Congrats on a great find! Bryan.

What a great helmet, Amy! My favorite type of all of the ersatz variations. Mine has the faint Depaheg makers marking on the liner. Is yours stamped as well? I have seen some that were not. Regardless, Zebedeus is spot-on; uncommon and rare! Great find! Merry Christmas, Bryan.

Great looking heavy Cavalry helmet, James! I like the Bavarian helmets of this type as well. They display very nicely in the collections I have seen them in. Congrats on a great score! And also, I will be contacting you about those items you sent when I get back home from California in...

Hi Giorgio, I absolutely love your helmet! I have a couple of examples, but nowhere near in as nice condition as yours. Congratulations on such a great find! Bryan.

On another note, I spoke with a guy up in Orange County California who owns a haberdashery where they specifically work on felt hats. I asked him about re-shaping a felt helmet in almost identical condition to yours that belongs to a pal of mine. He told me he could do a professional job of...

That is kind of weird...

You have some great looking M1915s in that pile, Coert! That is one area I think I would like to focus on myself. I think I like your Saxon and Wurt 15s the most. Nice collection! Bryan.

I used some soft wood pine scraps, and allowed the wood to slightly "bite" into the high, wide point of the cone, above the tube being bent back into true. It helped to lock the whole thing in place before I began applying force. I guess balsa wood would work pretty well for this. Bryan

Here is a drawing of what I did.

I know what you mean, Brian. Brass can be bent with a little bit of effort by hand. But when I tried this with a steel cuirassier spike, it needed a little extra leverage, and I wanted to support the entire cylinder of the lower portion of the spike. Honestly, when I did it, the outer support...

Hi. Yeah; supporting the spike when I did this had me scratching my head as well for a couple of minutes. I kind of jerry-rigged bits of scrap lumber cut-offs and also took some shop rags that I twisted tightly to pad the high central portion of my spike in a vice. Sorry; I did not take...

Sure! My spike looked just like yours when it was bent. So, what I did, was I found a short wooden dowel a little larger than the inner diameter than the inside of the spike, put a screw into the center of one end, wrapped the screw tightly with tape, and chucked it up on my power drill. Then...

Hey Brian, Could the front brim be saved by removal, gentle wetting, straightening, and finally pressing flat between a couple of sheets of wax paper and some heavy books? Or is the juice not worth the squeeze in this case? Bryan.

That does look rather nice. Especially those repro chinscales! I might need to get a set of those as well for my little JzP rebuild project... Bryan.

That is awesome Kaikun2001! Congrats on your first 1895 officer's helmet. It looks like a really nice, complete example. I remember being pretty happy when I got my first! Really chuffed! Watch out, though; they can be addictive! Bryan.

Hi Pontrest. I have actually worked on a couple of these to remove paint, address the tiny pitting and polish the shell exterior, and also fix a bent cuirassier spike back into being straight again like yours. I will be happy to explain how I did it, if you are interested. Bryan.

Thank you, gentlemen. These are some good leads! I found a guy on ebay selling all types of parts for pickelhauben, including feldzeichen. Has anyone seen his products? Are they good facsimiles? Bryan.

I was a little disappointed that it did not really follow the original story, but rather was loosely based on it with the director apparently putting his own spin on the story. "Re-envisioning", I think they call it. It was fun to watch, and gave a night's entertainment, but disappointing...

Hey Brian, Thanks for taking the time to follow up. To Amy as well for sending out photos of the completed work! My vulcanfibre version of this helmet is not twisted or torn, but my fittings are definitely dirty. The biggest issue that has stayed my hand at starting any type of restoration is...