A Suprise Early Christmas Present to Restore

ww1czechlegion

ww1czechlegion

Well-known member
Here's a piece straight out of the woodwork here in North-Central Iowa that needs some Serious TLC & Restoration. I heard about this piece last May, and things worked out to finally aquire it yesterday. I wish it could "talk" to tell how it ended up in a little sleepy farm town close to the world-famous "Boondocks U.S.A." just off interstate I-35.

It will need some serious work, as seen by the photos. Apparently it is an issue helmet. I only wish that it had the "G.H. Osang, Dresden" mfg name inside of it.

Obviously I will need some generous hearted friends willing to sell any extra parts at whatever price they may wish to ask of me, in order to bring this piece back to its former glory.

I have a couple of places in mind to take the shell to in order to get the dings & dents taken out. One place is a jeweler in the Twin Cities of MN who's firm expertly removed the dents/dings from a far worse condition GdC e.m. helmet with eagle top, found by a late friend back in the early 1990's from an estate sale in the Twin Cities.

Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks everyone!

Merry Christmas,

Alan Schaefer

P.S. I can only wish that this piece would have been taken care of like the spectacular GdC that Bruno found from the family in Germany.





URL=http://img31.imageshack.us/i/saxon002.jpg/]
saxon002.jpg
[/URL]















 
Wow excellent!! That is a spectacular find despite the work that needs to be done. Brian
 
Hi Alan

Congratulations on a wonderful find, a nice early Christmas present too, and as my friend KP says, " straight from Taka-Tuka land' =D> As far as a restoration attempt goes, why not leave it as is, give it a light bath and enjoy it. It will never be a more honest an example of its type than it is right now.
Merry Christimas

M/M Larmo
 
Alan,
Normally I would vote to leave helmets as found except for a light dusting, but you have active corrosion on the shell so like it or not, you are going to have to clean it once to remove that and stabilize it. Dings I could live with, but if you really want them out, find a company that restores old musical instruments. they have these machines that rolls the metal between balls of differenr sizes and flattens the area out in a conical shape. Very slick. Then you need to find a completely trashed M15 Kürassier with a decent liner that you can harvest, then flip the shell. Chinscales, well, good luck! Tony
 
Wow! What a great find!

Some of those dings are pretty 'sharp' and tombak is (of course) different than brass, perhaps more brittle. I know from my GdK that it's much more springy and strong in thinner gages (thicknesses)... I'd be concerned about cracking the metal.... I've only worked with brass, copper, silver and steel.

Good idea about the instrument repair place. Most high school music teachers know of a restorationist or can get you on the right track. Be sure to tell them it's not brass or copper, but tombak... it might make a difference.

Best of luck! I think you have all of us in MN, WI and other nearby states jealous.

:D Ron
 
This is a great find Alan! If you want to restore it, I have no doubt that the shell can be brought back to near mint condition. At least I know someone who has done it for me on a GdC helmet. More of a problem is liner replacement, since finding an original one is almost impossible.
Bruno
 
Just a thought here, seeing it on a wig head. In case you weren't aware, styrofoam / bead foam is death to most liners, oilcloth, etc. I've seen a lot of items (medals and such) get severely marred finishes from 'styro'.

I don't let the stuff anywhere near my collection... although I'm sure it's not hurting the tombak at all, especially for photographic purposes...

Cheers

:D Ron
 
Hi Alan, Ron,
The helmet below, found on the countryside in the south-west of France, was worse than Alan's in terms of dents and dings. This is how it turned out after going through the hands of a specialist.
DSC00075-1.jpg
 
The only problem is that, due to the technique used to pull the dents out, the outside of the shell is hyper-polished at the end of the treatment. Which is not pretty on tombak... No way to keep the nice old patina. Then you will have to wait about 6 months to see the metal start regaining the darker, orange tombak color.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top