Chinstrap

S

silent knight

Member
Hi everybody,

What do you think of this chinstrap?

af31a83c.jpg


509e46b9.jpg


wurttemberg006.jpg


Best regards
Pascal
 
My first thought is real brass parts, modern leather that was made to look old.

I don't know why the rivets. Most I've seen are sewn. Hence I think this was made to look old because someone didn't have a heavy-duty leather sewning machine.
 
I would agree, as I have not seen that type of revit, odd thing is, one can sew a chin strap by hand and make it lok right.
Gus
 
I wouldn't be too quick to dismiss the strap simply because of riveted construction. Here are two Ersatz Blech "kit" helmets from my collection.

KICX0792.jpg


Now for the strap assembly; first, the Preußen:

KICX0795.jpg


The Württemberg:

KICX0796.jpg


It is more labor intensive to sew than to rivet.

Chas.
 
:eek: :eek: when I wrote the article on Kit helmets a year ago, I took a million pictures, but never even thought to look at the construction of the chin strap. Great catch Chas! :thumb up: this makes a lot of sense. We learn something every day in this forum. :bravo:
 
Thank you all for your answers.

I took a picture of the other side of one rivet. as you can see there are traces of sewing under it.

wurttemberg007.jpg


Pascal
 
Hi Joe:

I believe Tony has a a similar chinstrap on one of his helmets. Also, I checked my Bing style Bavarian, and the strap is likewise riveted.

Three or four exceptions may be just that, but the straps are original to the helmets in question.

Chas.
 
Beautiful helmet, Pascal. The strap looks okay to me (and it certainly looks very good with the helmet).

Chas. :thumb up:
 
I can no longer load the first photo of the rivet, to me it looked aluminum, but the photo of the back side lookes brass and that would be a rivet that would be correct for the period. While riveting would be less labour, it wold be more expensive (remember, labour was very cheap then)
Gus
 
As Chas and Tony have pointed out riveted chinstraps do exist and are typically found on ersatz helmets. However, as for the strap in question, I believe we need to look closely at the leather itself. From the photographs the following "red flags" are apparent to me:
1. the leather is too narrow for the fittings.
2. the leather appears to have been hand cut with scissors which accounts for the "pilling" evident along the edges.
3. The cut edges are very very clean with no evidence of age or dirt.
4. There is no evidence of age, dirt or wear in the areas where the leather wraps around the brass end pieces and buckles.
5. The leather itself shows no evidence of age or oxidation.
6. The rivets, while similar to those found on original straps, are 2 piece rivets available in any leather craft shop.

Pascal's helmet is exceptionally nice, however, in my opinion, the learther portion of the chinstrap is a fairly recent replacement.

Reservist1
 
Gustaf said:
I can no longer load the first photo of the rivet
Click to expand...
Hi Gus:

Pascal's photos seem to come and go. I think this glitch is related to image hosting. At present, I can see all the shots of the strap, but not the helmet. Sometimes refreshing the page helps.

Until then, the rivets appear to be dirty brass on both sides.

I must confess, I thought the leather appeared very supple, certainly more so than my specimens. Pascal, does it still smell like leather, or is it odorless?

Chas.
 
R1 makes a very good discription of the strap, I was focused on the revit, but in the last photo of the strap, the condition of the edge of the strap is very fresh, with no ageing, and the pilling is very evident. The leather being too narrow would not worry me too much as leather can shrink, but could the narrowness of the leather be accounted for by someone triming a rough edge from an original strap to make it look better? On close inspection, the leather does not look good, but, it is a nice looking strap on the helmet.
Best wishes
Gus
 
Lost Skeleton said:
Pascal's photos seem to come and go. I think this glitch is related to image hosting. At present, I can see all the shots of the strap, but not the helmet. Sometimes refreshing the page helps.
Click to expand...

I change the hosting of my pictures, I hope the posting will be better now.

Lost Skeleton said:
I must confess, I thought the leather appeared very supple, certainly more so than my specimens. Pascal, does it still smell like leather, or is it odorless?

Chas.
Click to expand...

The leather has no smell and is not very soft.

Pascal
 
Good morning everybody,

All this exchange about this kind of chinstrap is very interesting, especially the analysis of R1: I lerant a lot of hints !

But, even if there is some doubt regarding this chinstrap, I would say that:

- we should keep in mind that a lot of 91/95 chinstraps were taken out from their pickelhaube to be mounted on M16, so its is difficult to find a genuine one
- if repaired/remade, this chinstrap was well done
- it fits very well this Wurt helmet

Eric
 
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