Garde Officer Restoration SOS 2016

[b.loree]

The second officer helme dropped off is Matt's. This piece has the blackest fittings that I have ever seen. Unfortunately, the helme is missing it's spike so even that top is black. This is a mid to late war helme and quite small. The main characteristic used to make this conclusion, is the non silk (satin??) head liner which is disintegrating with age and extremely thin cloth. The second, is the use of steel screw posts on the wappen, which have rusted over the years. Initially, after I got this home, I thought that perhaps the fittings were zinc but cleaning a few spots shows "brass", however, the chin scale bosses are neusilber and the scales are brass. So there is much to be discovered through cleaning here. The wappen is brass as it should be with silber stern.


The helme is very small, marked 52 1/2 . As can be seen, there are 2 stitches through the front of the shell and these are backed on the inside with a thin leather strip glued to the shell. This is a new one for me. I have no clue here :-? .




I cleaned a small patch of the spine just to see what was underneath.....brass.

The bosses though are neusilber.....?


The liner has obvious problems and is late war manufacture.


A foot note, I could be totally wrong here on the fittings.....they could be neusilber which would account for the blackness. We shall have to wait and see.

The wappen:

We can see neusilber if the chest area where the stern has covered it.

 

[chinstrap]

Brian

Great, another one for the Loree treatment! I love seeing the process by which you resurrect these time-worn pieces

Patrick

 

[kaiser]

i wish you and your arm muscles the verry best on cleaning it
the rubbing will keep you bussy for a while

jonas

 

[b.loree]

Thanks Jonas, I do have a real "workout" coming up. However, the more I look at these fittings, the more I think neusilber.....Garde Train??? but the scales should be brass. All sorts of questions which are going to have to wait until Monday. We have family coming for the weekend so I can't be buried in my workshop taking hauben apart like some mad scientist! I would like to though......

 

[kaiser]

you can sneak out of the house when ever you want
the first place the will look for you is underneath your pile of haubes you have to work on

jonas

 

[b.loree]

So true Jonas....when we unpacked after coming home, there were 5 hauben on the kitchen table, probably worth.... $7K US :lol: I never dreamed when I first started, that so many collectors would trust me to restore their pickelhauben. Thank you to all for their trust and business. Brian

 

[kaiser]

Someone has to be brave enough to take the challenge,
or you're doing your job with to much dedication that they eventually all know where to look for the expert

jonas

 

[b.loree]

I took Matt's helmet apart today. The fittings are definitely neusilber as you will see.

]
The ends of the scales have been protected from tarnish by the bosses....so neusilber not brass.


The bottom of the spike base also reveals neusilber as do the bosses. Note the small hole Reichs Kokarde paired with a large hole M15 officer. Not supposed to be that way right? They have been on there for 100 yrs. I have seen this before on a Baden Dragoner helme, private purchase but both kokarden were large hole OR's. The cardboard backings (kokarden) on this helme were stuck to the sides of the helmet but in this case, they pried off without damage.


Mold and seeds stuck beneath the kokarden. No spider's nest though but they usually go for the rear spine. , we shall see when it comes off.


The tip of the spine is untarnished and also shows neusilber.


Another shot of the front of the shell and those mysterious stitches. I finally figured out what is going on here......the shell was cracked from the rim up to the right wappen hole. They stitched the crack together then.....


patched then inside. They even wrote the size on the patch in pencil because it covered the original size mark....German efficiency! The visors were added later because if you look at the patch, it has stitches through it from the visor. This is another sign of late war expediency, I doubt they would have done this without the leather shortage during that period. To be continued.....

 

[b.loree]

I have to admit.....I have no clue what type of Garde helmet this is, all neusilber fittings, convex chin scales, with brass stars. This does not exist in my references. Anyone who has an ID, please make a post here.