Hey Brian, this ones for you!

Pontiac9999

Active member
Hi Brian, I saw a tiny clip of this before, but I found a longer segment. It's a BBC episode of a guy restoring a Kurassier pickelhaube, and he is working on the chinstrap/scales like how you posted!

I just found it really neat. I don't know if you have seen this clip, but here it is!

 
I saw this complete episode of The Repairshop 2 or 3 years ago. They did a great job on the helmet.
Only thing that wasn't correct, is that they fitted the kokarden in front of the chinstrap.
But that can be corrected easily.
 
I had not seen this, thanks for posting the link. They basically got it correct from what I see. However, she does appear to have made the thin leather chin strap integral to the rest of the staple strip. In my experience this thin leather piece is added separately and held in place by the first two staples. The scales themselves were cut out using a jeweller’s saw….a very tedious business! Fortunately for me, and thanks to James and Randy I have originals to play with. 😊
 
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Modern brass has a different chemical composition than the original German.It lacks lead and ages differently.

I wasn't aware of the changed metallurgical composition of brass. I assume this is due to the imposition of ROHS (reduction of hazardous substances) legislation in the European marketplace? Probably also reduces it's bending characteristics.

They've done the same thing with solder although I think there still is an exemption for military applications.

Thanks for pointing this out.
 
I had not seen this, thanks for posting the link. They basically got it correct from what I see. However, she does appear to have made the thin leather chin strap integral to the rest of the staple strip. In my experience this thin leather piece added separately and held in place by the first two staples. The scales themselves were cut out using a jeweller’s saw….a very tedious business! Fortunately for me, and thanks to James and Randy I have originals to play with. 😊
I believe there is a whole episode where they restore the entire helmet...I will try to dig it up...
 
I watched the whole thing months ago and was not too happy. For some reason - not stated- he punched out the rivets on each scale of the neck guard to remove it completely, before putting it back on again ?? Also, when putting the spike back on he rotated it 45 degrees so that the ventilation crosses faced fore and aft. The new liner looked very nicely made but not sure if it was properly installed. All in all he is very skilled and a nice guy but I could have wished he'd had some prior experience of Haubes before jumping in at the deep end.
 
I would agree with Seagull's comment, why not take a little time to research and ideally examine one closely in hand?
 
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