I have spent most of my summer restitching haube visors and I am well paid do so. Why is this such a common problem with pickelhauben? First, we are dealing with 100 year old pure cotton thread which does not age well. Second and most importantly, shrinkage due to dry environmental conditions. If you want visuals/pics of this go to my thread 1st Garde Dragoner restoration and you will see a prime example. So this leads me to a first scenario.......shell shrinks dramatically, all visor stitches break and soldered spine prongs pop off. In other cases, the shell collapses inward, like a deflated football, front trim snaps, stitching breaks, and rear spine prongs again pop off. Third scenario, front trim holds front visor in place, rear spine holds its visor in position but threads break so it moves freely. Each haube can be different...both visors loose or only one. The front trim on one haube is good while the other has broken on a second example. Why do we see so many rear spines with flattened sections on them and prongs pulled out of their solder? The best answer in my opinion, is shrinkage of the leather due to dry conditions, over time. Thus friends, if you have thousands of dollars sitting on shelves in cold snowy winter conditions or dry desert ones, you must humidify your collection. You literally can not afford to let your hauben dry out!
