Yea...James's projects keep me in beer! :lol: . Honestly though, you learn from experience and actually doing these restorations, trying to figure out ways of solving problems. James, Bruno, Eric B., Mark and many others have given me opportunities by trusting me with their helmets and I really thank them for that. There have been mistakes in the learning curve.....I almost destroyed a Hessen officer helme of James ( I really learned a lesson!!!) and the last Garde officer helme he sent me (size 54) had a twisted vulcan fibre rear visor that I could not get back into shape. How this guy with a size 54 mellon ever got into the Gardes is beyond me! I am a perfectionist and I hate being beat by a helmet :x .
Another case in point.....I am working right now on a nice Prussian M95 arty helme that needed the shell and rear visor reshaped, this should be an easy fix.....add some moisture to the leather, block back into shape and stitch it back on the shell. Unfortunately, I find that someone has applied Pecards Leather treatment, Dubbin or maybe Vaseline to the rear visor. It was even on the stitching around the M91 posts. It had been applied on the outside, then wiped off. Consequently, I can not reshape the visor, it wont hold moisture so it can be blocked. It has to be put back on all bent out of shape. There is nothing I can do. These treatments will also penetrate the helmet finish over time, do not use them.
When I first started collecting back in the late 80's I connected with a more experienced collector who lived in Toronto. He invited me to his house to see the collection.....for some reason he thought that coating the exteriors with Vaseline, would preserve them!!!! Even I as a young collector, thought....Oh My GOD! I never did that.
I mention this with a purpose, be extremely careful when applying modern so called leather treatments to pickelhauben. This leather is 100+ years old, it is tanned skin from a cow, most of the natural oils that it contained when new are now gone. It is dry and sucks in any of these modern chemical concoctions, right into the interior fibres. Once applied, there is nothing that can be done.
This is why maintaining humidity (40-50%) or decreasing it in your collection room or wherever you keep them is so important. This stuff breathes, it expands with humidity and shrinks when it dries. I am a slave to my humidifier here in Canada during the winter months. I am in my "rest period" now that summer is here and I can use natures' humidity to keep the collection stable.
One last thing regarding this M95 Prussian Arty helme, and this problem is typical of many helmets, the underside of the front visor trim has buckled, an easy fix to straighten it out. However, it has buckled because the visor and helme have shrunk over time. If I straighten it...it won't fit when I try to put it back on, I have to leave it as is. The shape of shell and visors have changed due to dry conditions.
My apologies for the length of this post.
Coming soon.....a summary of a very interesting article on pickelhauben published in 1972! It gives great insight as to what was known back then. Written long before some of you were born! 
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