Glued Visors

[Lars13]

After reading Brian's comment on glued visors in http://www.pickelhaubes.com/bb/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=7753 I thought it could be interesting to show some visors that were quite obviously glued, and the glue was then covered in black lacquer for good measure :lol:
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The top of the visors had also been lacquered on the outside, this time transparent.
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I had bought the Pickelhaube (fortunately quite cheap) for its regimental association (I.R. 13), but this turned out to be I.R. 131. The condition of the helmet was rather poor, so it made a great subject to try some cleaning/repairing methods on.

The glue turned out to be a gooey rubber-like substance, impervious to most house-hold solvents so I had to remove it mechanically. It came off ok from the visors, but took the top layer of the liner leather. I performed small staining tests on the leather skull with the solvents before trying it on the black lacquer, and none of the non-staining solvents worked so I removed that mechanically too, with good success. The transparent lacquer had already loosened from the skull in most places and removed a bit of the shellac.

For the re-stitching I've used modern black cotton thread, of the available yarns this looked the most like the thread that came off the visors (what I would have liked was a dark brown non-stretching cotton, but no shop in town had it ). After placing the visor on the skull correctly I put the thread through one set of corresponding original holes, and simply counted all the other holes to make sure the other threads were going through correctly. Not all holes were usable, and the edges of the visor were very hard and brittle so I didn't want to put any strain on that (the skull however is amazingly resilient). The threads weren't tightened very much, as I still want to block the helmet into shape so I want the visors to be able to move a little bit.


The Wappen I plan to use on this helmet was purchased seperately, it was missing the loops on the backside and had big blobs of glue on the back. After removing the glue with solvent almost all the lacquer had disappeared from both sides of the Wappen and the bright Aluminiumbronze colour came through. I soldered on new loops, and now have a Wappen that looks very bright and new

 

[poniatowski]

Good restoration / practice project there! SOOOOO Nice of them to paint the liner as well. The kindness of some people in this respect is immeasurable. :wink: Enjoy the project!

Ron

 

[b.loree]

Hi Lars: Have never seen a helme glued and shellacked before. You must have had great fun removing everything. Regarding the restitch, if you ever do it again, use bees wax on your thread. It comes in a small bar shape usually. This is the traditional application of leather workers to their thread. Always wax your thread before and during your restitch. The wax helps to make the thread slippery to go through the holes, it cuts down on friction. It also helps the threads grip the leather when pulled tight and lastly cuts down on thread fraying and breakage. Nothing more frustrating than to have your thread break half way along a visor. All restitching has to be done by hand. As to the tightness of the stitches, I always pause every so often as I am stitching and let the helmet hang from the thread. This lets the weight of the helme pull and tighten everything up. There is still some "give" to your stitches. Finding suitable thread is always an issue....not meaning to criticize but yours seems very thick compared to the original. M15 helmets usually have natural coloured cotton thread, the M95s and earlier helmets black thread. I would have blocked the helme into correct shape before stitching the visors back on. Nice project though and you have definitely helped improve this old piece of history. Well done.

 

[Terry Rockhold]

Hi Guys!
With regards to re-stitching, is there an acceptable stitching pattern? I haven't yet run across a loose visor, but I imagine that I will at some point on a future aquisition. Is a standard saddle stitch using two needles appropriate, or would the use of an awl for awl tool be more acceptable? Both modes of stiching are quite secure, but surely, there must be a "right" way to do it. Your thoughts?..... :-k

 

[Lars13]

Hi Brian,
Thanks for the good advice, much appreciated. I went to the store(s) with a bit of the original thread that came off the helmet, and this thread was the closest I could find. Our shops don't stock a lot of different threads . Not only might it be a bit too thick, the thread is also a modern "fluffy" kind (not very Prussian :wink: ). I actually had some waxed black cotton thread in my hands but chose against it as the original thread didn't seem waxed; at least now I know where to get the thread for the next project.

Hi Terry,
This is the stitch that I used (no idea what it's called), and I ended with a double knot on the inside of the skull; please note that this is my first restitching project, so there are probably better ways of doing it.

 

[poniatowski]

That's a form of 'baste stitch', which is a simple straight stitch (yeah, along with metals, I teach fiber art... which is quite fun). It looks as if you've a single thread with needles at both ends (thread length's middle in the starting hole), correct? If so, that's very effective, because I think it replicates machine sewing the best. A machine will 'loop' the stitch and there are a wide variety of stitches a machine can do, but by hand, the one you're suggesting looks great.
If the holes seem tight and you're worried about breaking the leather, then I would suggest going in from just one side and making a true baste stitch in which the thread shows between alternate holes. The reason for this is that with the stitch shown above, you have to pass up to three diameters or thicknesses of thread through each hole, to end up with two in each hole and a thread on each side of the visor and shell. With the simple baste, you're passing two thread diameters through the hole to end up with one.... make sense?

Ron

 

[b.loree]

I do not advise stitching with 2 needles. This is too cumbersome in the confined space of the inside of a helmet shell plus the liner. Its bad enough with one needle and thread getting caught in the liner tongues and wrapping around the fittings. Restitching is stressful on all liners. If the liner is already in rough shape, you must be very careful. This is one time where it pays to have smaller hands! Regarding the stitch, you start at one end of the visor stitch across every other hole, then stitch back again to where you started. You must start from the inside of the shell. Stitching back fills in the empty hole from the first pass across. The result looks the same as machine stitching. It takes approx 45 inches of thread to do a visor.
I do not believe that bees wax was used on thread when these helmets were originally made nor is it used in "new" shoe making today. I obviously, I have done many and never have found evidence of bees wax. However, it is used in some shoe repair shops. My local shop has a stitching machine which adds wax to the thread as it passes through the machine. Saddle makers, anybody working by hand with leather ie belts, purses, hobbyists etc do use wax when hand stitching. One last thing regarding wax.....the degradation of original cotton thread on these hauben is due to the weight of the helme (left sitting on the visors) and dust mites. Mites eat the natural cotton thread. I believe that wax would help to retard the work of the mites. I also always apply black shoe polish to the out side of the new stitching to seal the holes and coat the new thread again hoping to stop the mites from going after the new cotton thread.

 

[Lars13]

Out of pure luck (no knowledge involved :wink: ) I have followed Brian's way of stitching, only doing sets of four holes. I'll be using waxed thread next time. With regards to the double or triple thread-thicknesses, I have to admit that to be able to get the thread through the eye of the needle, I end up with a needle where the eye's outher diameter is around 3 to 4 thread thicknesses, so I stretch the holes in the leather anyway. Didn't get any leather breakage though.

Lars