Chinstrap with relatively soft and flexible leather

[Sandmann]

Fear fellow collectors,
last year, a chinstrap of a Pickelhaube fell into my hands, which still has a relatively soft leather and which is still very flexible.


The leather seems to be very dry and therefore old, because it tears immediately at the edges when you twist it a little. But it is still so flexible that it‘s not hardened in a typical position. What I mean by this is that most chinstraps harden in one position over the years, so that they can no longer be adjusted easily due to hardened bends around the fittings. With this chinstrap, however, adjusting is still possible without any problems, as there are no hardened bends in the leather. The chinstraps on my other helmets (but I have only 4) have hardened somewhat, so I'm unsure and would like to know if you have chinstraps in similar conditions? Could it be that a particularly high-quality leather has been used here or that the chinstrap has been stored particularly well? If so, there should be similar examples and I would be grateful to know.
Many thanks for your opinions.

 

[b.loree]

Hi Sandy....my opinion only....it looks like an older reproduction to me. Why?: chunky brass buckles with no rounded edges and most important, the leather is dyed on the flesh side. In my experience all original straps were only dyed on the smooth hair side. Again I could be totally wrong.

 

[Rkinkade]

The buckles do look similar to some of the old repro’s, but I have some known originals that look similar. They certainly look better than most modern repro’s and have nice patinaThe leather bothers me. As Brian says, the rough side should not be black, but that could have been done post-war. As sharp as the edges are, there doesn’t appear to be much wear. I would expect to see some presence of the border line edge embossment that we see on many original straps. Not all straps were embossed though. The way the edge is fraying, the leather may be something other than horse or cow hide. When leather became scarce, every form of animal was utilized. I have a few that I believe are lamb, rabbit, goat or something that look somewhat similar as far as the fraying, but they do not have a rough back side. They are relatively soft also but have riveted ends. I, for one, would be happy to display the strap on a helmet given how difficult it is to find a nice original.

 

[Sandmann]

Thank you both for your answers. I really appreciate it because chinstraps are still difficult for me to assess.

@Brian: Could you please explain what do you mean with „buckles with no rounded edges“? The edges of the buckles look rounded for me. So, could you please highlight the edges and draw a sketch or something how it should look like?