Fall Harvest of Haubes Part 1, Oldenburg Dragoon M15 Enlisted Helmet

ww1czechlegion

ww1czechlegion

Well-known member
Hello,

I've had a very lucky "fall harvest" of pickelhaubes this year. I was able to find 3-helmets out of the woodwork that were still with families.

This first one is an M15 wartime enlisted Oldenburg Dragoon helmet.

After the helmet was brought back to the States after the war ended, someone unfortunately painted all the gray metal fittings with a silver oil-based paint that I'm going to carefully attempt to remove. I may wait until next summer when it's warm outside to do this at my parent's farm where I will have access to an outdoor water hydrant to quickly wash off a water based paint stripper. I'm not looking forward to this tedious task. Hopefully it will work out o.k.

The maker stamp is a maker from Mainz. There are no issue markings to be found on the back visor.

One of the stud caps has broken off from the split pin half-way up on the back visor trim. Otherwise the helmet is complete and "as found".

Best Regards,

Alan

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Thanks so much John, I appreciate it!

Maybe I can talk Brian into paying him to remove the paint???

Best Wishes,

Alan
 
Great helmet !!

Remember it is just paint.
The old will come off with the new.
Several steps can be taken with new paint to make it old again.

 
With careful experimentation, you may well find a specific solvent that removes the new paint but not the old...
 
Such a rare, great helmet, Alan! You even have the spike with Perlring, which is seldom seen on M15 Dragoner helmets.
As to removing this silver paint (what a shame), I fall short of ideas though...
 
I need to admit my ignorance here regarding the issue of Alan's painted Oldenburg fittings. My impression of many years, is that the M15 grey finish is that it is not "paint". After 100 years it doesn't look like paint, to me it looks like some sort of finish that was baked on. More specifically I would advise Alan to examine the fittings on this helmet very carefully to make absolutely certain that this "paint" is a post war add on. DR 19 had silver fittings, is there any sign of paint splash/over paint, brush marks/thin spots on any of the fittings ?? Imperfections would indicate a collector paint job to me. I have seen silver painted M15 wappen before.
 
by b.loree:
My impression of many years, is that the M15 grey finish is that it is not "paint". After 100 years it doesn't look like paint, to me it looks like some sort of finish that was baked on.
Click to expand...

I think you're correct Brian in this thought/understanding. The finish is almost similar to the "parkerizing" found on guns. Parkerizing is a method of protecting a steel surface from corrosion and increasing its resistance to wear through the application of a chemical phosphate conversion coating. I think that's the finish that is on a lot of the M15 helmet trim pieces. That's what it looks like on the tip of the dragoon spike, and on the underside of the helmet visor trim work inside the helmet.

If I look at the underside or inside of the helmet, the "Silver" paint is not covering the underside of the visor trim, or the piece of the back spine that come under the underside of the rear visor. The original "?baked on" gray "pewter" look finish is still on the metal with no signs of any "silver" paint on it. Other than some sloppiness on the underside of the front visor trim where the "silver" paint got messed over a bit.

I understand what you're saying also about seeing silver painted wappen before. Actually I've seen it quite frequently on M15 Jaeger zu Pferde helmet wappens over the years. And you're absolutely correct about the Oldenburg Dragoon pre-1915 helmets having silver trim.

Thanks Brian! :thumb up:

Best Wishes,

Alan
 
Alan:

That's a terrific pick-up. It's in amazingly good shape.

Really love the fact that the spike has a perlring. Not something you see often.
 
KAGGR#1 said:
Do we have photos after the silver was removed ??
Steve
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Hi Steve,

No photos yet, because I didn't take the time these past 2-summers to clean the paint off from the metal fittings, outdoors. I'm not going to do this indoors, or have paint stripper stuff go down my drain in the house. I'll do it outdoors at my parents farm this coming summer, and use an outdoor water hydrant to wash the paint remover from the metal parts, or use some plastic tubs to rinse the parts in the outdoors, and then wipe the parts dry and blow dry with a hair dryer to insure all the moisture is removed. Thanks for asking, and sorry I haven't cleaned this silver paint mess up yet in order for everyone to see a much nicer Oldenburg Dragoon helmet than what we can see in its current condition.

Best Wishes,

Alan
 
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