Fiber helmet with riveted visors

R

Robert

New member
Yet another ersatz oddity..

The ear pieces are sewn but the visors are attached with rivets. This is no repair job though, stitching was never present there. The shell in made of a fiber-like material. No rear spine.

In the rear visor two faint stamps are distinguishable: "BAII" and "1916". They are inverted on the light tan color, which could be either the remains of an original finish or the result of aging. The scribing on the inside disc reads "R 84.1916 II R." I have no idea how to interpret that, IR84 would not match BAII.

Strange.. :D

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Yes Robert, but yours has more rivets! Tony, how is the front visor on your helmet held on?? Is it just the visor tim and its split brads? These helmets are made from Vulcan fibre Robert which from what I have read is an early form of plastic. Brian
 
3 rivets. Mine and Robert's are identical. Same contract.

b.loree said:
Yes Robert, but yours has more rivets! Tony, how is the front visor on your helmet held on?? Is it just the visor tim and its split brads? These helmets are made from Vulcan fibre Robert which from what I have read is an early form of plastic. Brian
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Thanks T...same contract but are the markings the same?? These seem to be an even more simple form of "kit helme" than the ones that Joe has shown us in another thread. Brian
 
The scribing on the inside disc reads "R 84.1916 II R." I have no idea how to interpret that, IR84 would not match BAII.
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I have tried to figure this out with no success. I would've expected the letter B. at the end but it is clearly the letter R. BA II does not work with either the active or the reserve regiment. I would be very open to any hint. Maybe there is something to what Tony said about same contract .... maybe I will dig in that direction. :eek:
 
Yes Robert, but yours has more rivets!
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Brian, thanks for the covering fire but I think Tony just has an edge on me there, no chance.. :wink:

I tried to make a picture of the inside, a bit dark but perhaps you see what I mean. The rivets of the visor trim have split brads as on usual helmets. The other rivets have round inside discs. Between the rivets there are some additional sewing points that provide additional support for the liner. It seems that a few small holes were punched there and sewn.

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Close-up of the scribing. I had hoped that there might be evidence of an additional dot between the 8 and the 4, making the first part a date (April the 8th, 1916. But there never was a dot there. And I suppose that Gren. Reg. 2 would not be referenced with "II R." Otherwise only RIR Nr. 2 would fit for BAII.

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Hi Robert,

Great looking ersatz. I always enjoy lurking and reading your postings. You normally show up with some pretty neat stuff! I actually had a lengthy email conversation with Tony about this example of ersatz helmet the last time I was in Iraq. The only reference I could find was in the Bowman books, and the pictures were really bad. It left more questions than answers, but Tony was a gentleman and took the time to teach me a few things and graciously posted an example on his web site. He also recommended that I toss the book in the trash.

I figured I would trot mine out as another example to look at. The interior of the front visor and rear neck guard are brown on the interior, and the interior of the shell is black.

The example I have is marked BA IV and has no unit markings. The original wearer/owner lightly stitched his name into the liner on a white linen tag, which is shown in the pics. The rivet set-up appears to be identical to your example. Mine has a thin leather strip around the inside rim which the rivets adhere to.

Two things that I found interesting about this helmet were the maker's mark and the wappen. I tried to get the impression in the leather liner to come out in the picture, but the words "Depahag Patent" just don't seem to show with my camera. I think I butchered the spelling of the manufacturer's name, but it is the same company that makes the officer vulcanfibre helmets. The wappen has a really nice gold plated look to it, almost private purchase OR quality, and is actually fairly heavy and non magnetic. There are two holes drilled into the front of the helmet that the back loops of the wappen fit through. These holes do not have any type of grommet reinforcement.

It came with a really nice two-piece cover with the leather reinforced chinstrap holes that I have since put onto a junker M1915.

Thanks again for showing yours and starting this thread. I really enjoy looking at the variations of the ersatz types and I'm looking forward to seeing your future postings.

Semper Fi,

Bryan.





 
He also recommended that I toss the book in the trash.
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There are other options for instance it is a very good base if you need to start a fire. Conversely, if you are deep in the woods and mother nature calls the pages which show their unique value. :) :) And I thought I was the only one who did the fuzzy pictures!


"Depahag Patent"
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I don't know as much about this company as I would like to I do know that it is an acronym.
 
Depaheg Patent sheds some new light on this helmet, thanks for the info & pictures! This is a well known helmet maker who was open for alternative material even before the war.

The fact that this helmet type was used by different army corps and with varying quality fittings is interesting. This also matches the impression we previously had of other Depaheg Patent helmets. This maker produced many extremely nice helmet, whereas others had obvious flaws in their fittings such as the reversed bavarian diamonds I recall.

The holes for the loops are slotted and evidently have been die cut rather than drilled on my helmet. No maker marks visible on the liner, only the size 56.
 
Robert said:
This maker produced many extremely nice helmet, whereas others had obvious flaws in their fittings such as the reversed bavarian diamonds I recall.
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The Depaheg helmet to which Robert refers is discussed HERE

Lowest-Bidder Admin Help said:
I have moved the remainder of this posting to the thread above.
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That reserve cross looks exactly like the one in the thread. I would assume though that only the really big companies would produce their stamped metal parts themselves. If there just was any more info about Depaheg.

To make a guess I would say they were focused on making helmet shells and bought all the other trim wherever it was available - thus the variations.
 
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