Anatomy of a Chin Scale

[b.loree]

I was gutting a chin scale tonight doing my usual restoration biz in the basement when it occured to me that some of you might have not seen the innards of your typical officer chin scale. Consequently, we have this post:

The typical officer chin scale is composed of a cardboard centre to which is glued a thin piece of leather cut to match. The scales are then assembled and stapled through the leather covering and the cardboard. The flaps of the outer leather are then folded over and glued. I have seen leather used instead of card board on the chinscales of older officer helmets. These pre 1891 helmets traditionally have heavier scales than the more modern ones and are thicker.
It is quite common for the card board of the lighter ones to break and result in the need for this sort of restoration. It is also very common for scales to be missing as a result of this card board construction. The male - female end pieces which connect the scales together, are again things that are often lost.
The restoration here as you can see involves gently opening up the glued leather covering to expose the staples. The staples are then pried open and each scale removed. A new piece of card board is then cut using the old one as a template. Next, all sclaes have to be re affixed and the leather covering reglued. For our newer ciollectors, please note that the German chin scales always alternate scales with 2 and 3 scalloped edges. Brian

 

[J.LeBrasseur]

Brian- thanks for showing and explaining the procedure. You do great work!

James

 

[joerookery]

That was great! How easy is it to come up with replacement scales? It is not unusual to see one with several scales missing but the leather still intact. Thanks for the info.

 

[b.loree]

Joe:
Someone with the skills and a jewellers saw can cut out individual repalcement scales. You would also need brass shim stock of the same thickness. Not an easy job but not an impossible one. Brian

 

[b.loree]

A shot showing the staples pried open. These were rusty but not enough to cause them to snap off. This has happened to me in the past where they break. The solution is to go to your local hardware store and buy some staple gun staples and bend/cut them to fit. The card board on this scale which belongs to James Lebrasseur by the way is pretty well disintigrated and there seems to have been lots of glue used to fasten the leather covering to the card board. My main worry here is to get them separated without destroying the leather backing material.
Howeveer, I do have a solution for this if need be. The solution comes in the form of vintage ladies long opera style black leather gloves. These gloves are made from nice thin leather, almost exactly the same as the chin scale backing. Anyway I have purchased a number of pairs of these black gloves in antique stores in order to have replacement leather if needed. I guess a few antique dealers have wondered why some old guy would be buying ladies leather gloves??? Perhaps I like to dress up?? Ha! Ha! Brian

 

[joerookery]

I guess a few antique dealers have wondered why some old guy would be buying ladies leather gloves??? Perhaps I like to dress up??

Somebody tell Margo.

 

[Gustaf]

Joe:
Someone with the skills and a jewellers saw can cut out individual repalcement scales. You would also need brass shim stock of the same thickness. Not an easy job but not an impossible one. Brian

Hey Brian,
Brass shim stock is easy to come by in many thicknesses, and is very easy to cut, I use Maggie's sewing sissors to cut brass up to 40 mills thick.
Gus

 

[Gustaf]

It just occured to me that the hardest part will be matching the colour, as brass is not always exactly the same alloy.
Gus

 

[J.LeBrasseur]

Great stuff, thanks for sharing, now finish my chinscale!

James

 

[b.loree]

The chin scale reapir is now complete. So I am posting more fotos in this series. I had to replace one missing staple as can be seen. Everything was glued back into place using regular contact cement. One has to be very careful in reassembling the individual scales to make certain that they go on straight. It helped here that the original leather backing could be reused. There are also shadow marks on each scale of the one that overlaps it. These marks also aid in lining everything up. The holes for the staples were drilled using a small hand hobyist drill.
First a foto showing everything taken apart. Be sure to leave each staple in its original scale.

Next 2 shots showing the process. The new card board strip was glued to the leather backing before the scales could be put back on. The old broken card board was used as a template. The new piece had to be slimmed down carefully to make sure that it fit the leather backing perfectly. Otherwise, when you go to reglue the backing the 2 sides may not overlap as they did originally.

Last, 2 pics of the final product:

 

[J.LeBrasseur]

Very cool, thanks again Brian!

 

[Gustaf]

Hey Brian,
You need to keep this chin scale on hand for a few months in case there are any spacific questions about this repair.
Best wishes
Gus

 

[b.loree]

That is a definate possibility Gus as I have another that matches this one perfectly! Brian

 

[joerookery]

The other day Tony taught me something about chinscales I did not know. Armed with this new knowledge I started looking at catalogs -- there are all sorts of differences that I have not yet begun to scratch. There is even a high-class leather chinstrap. Differences by branch, construction, and all retailers seem to have offered some sort of a service to convert older style helmets --alter art- but they didn't always go in to model numbers. This page is from the Wunderlich catalog of 1908.

 

[zipperheads9]

brian
very inforamtive. I have a question about the leather adhesive. I am retoring a Canadian Pith helmet chinscal , or chinstrap . The leather is now supple but needs to be re-attached as it was seperated into 2 pieces. Should I contact cemnt the 2 pieces back together? Any advice would be aprecited.
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