I finally found one!

SkipperJohn

SkipperJohn

Well-known member
I have been looking for a Prussian Artillery Model 1915 for years. It is not an uncommon helmet, but it seems that every one that I would look at either had replacement cockades and chinstrap, or it was marked with infantry unit numbers (someone replaced the Pickel with a Plum as it were), or it was excessively overpriced, or it was just plain shot. I finally came across this beauty and could not resist. Farm fresh and the price was right.



I hope to ad to this post as I go through the cleaning process, and finally, the end result. I know that some will say that I should just leave it alone, but it has dried spider egg bags in the liner, about 1/2 inch of gunk behind the Wappen, and it's pretty dried out, so I have to do the minimum to save it. I'll keep you posted.



John \:D/
 
I like to leave a little "dirt or dust "
behind the eagle even if I do clean it .
that way the next to look at it
will know that the plate has always been there.
Nice and difficult to find one these days untouched .
Steve
 
Nice find! One of the first M15's I bought was marked to an artillery unit and had an infantry spike. A few years ago it bugged me enough to find a Kugel and funny thing was, the paint on the Kugel matched the base plate almost exactly. It is indeed difficult to find a complete M15.

I would get rid of the spider eggs and dust off the liner, but wouldn't mess behind the wappen. I think a wiping down with a soft cloth will net you a nice looking piece indeed. Not much you can do about it being a bit dried out other than to keep it in a good atmosphere now. No oils, no saddle soaps, no miracle cures will work. They'll only damage it.

Thanks for sharing!

:D Ron
 
I will probably clean this the same way I have with other M15's. I'll pull it apart and see what I'm dealing with. I never take off the spike base or rear spine, so I'll just carefully remove the chinstrap, cockades, and Wappen. I'll clean the metal parts with a mild detergent and water, and then put a light coat of machine oil on them. I will clean the leather with a soft rag and water ONLY. Then I will put a light coat of Kiwi shoe polish on the leather and buff it out. I don't get excessive with the shoe polish, but it preserves the leather and makes the helmet display better. I have learned in the past, the hard way, that absolutely nothing can be done to an original chinstrap. You don't dare get it wet or use anything on it. I had one M15 many years ago that I tried to preserve the chinstrap on and it ended up crumbling to dust.
John
 
Hi John,

Personally I would leave it as it is but I know how tempting it is to get it clean and shiny...
Referring to your tactics I would:
- Agree with mild detergent and water for metal parts (being very careful not to put any on the light tan liner, where water can leave definitive stains)
- Rather avoid Kiwi polish (remember that you are not treating leather but shellac, therefore it will not "preserve" the leather, unless you want to spread it on inner parts). Kiwi is probably okay though, but once clean and if in a good condition the shellac usually gets back to a high gloss by just polishing with a soft cloth
- Definitively stay away of machine oil on metal parts!!!! (what for??....)

This is just me though. I am sure you'll do a great job eventually.
 
it is good as it is now but dry cleaning is still my first thinking
its probably been like this for years now so ,i would not do to mutch
when i was living at my parents home i had a garde helmet (my first helmet)that had uh mould (hopefully i write it correctly) anyway when i moved out my entire collection came into a dry inviroment and now i do not have anything on my garde helmet
for al my helmets when i buy them i clean them dry and thats it

its twice as hard to find a kugel helmet than spike one
congrats on your find

jonas
 
I agree with 911'. I never have and never will oil a helmet or any of its parts. There's no good reason to do it and you risk contaminating the rest of the helmet with what is essentially a poison to organic products such as leather and may, in time, damage or dis-adhere the lacquer as well. Not to mention damaging its value when you decide to part with it.

Ron
 
I appreciate the tips on cleaning, and I'll take them under advisement. I have had pretty good luck with my method in the past, and I will only do the minimum necessary. Here are a couple of examples of M15's that I cleaned in a similar way. Both of these were in far worse shape than the artillery helmet.



If I find rust I will usually put a thin coat of 3 in 1 oil on the part. I prefer 3 in 1 because it dries out without leaving any residue but it seems to continue to protect. I use it on my JzP and Kurassier helmets as well. I do not like CLP for storage. I used a lot of CLP in the military and it is good for what it does, but in storage it gets sticky. If you want to run a test put some CLP in a clear bottle and let it set for a month. You can see the separation. Pour off the thinner top liquid and feel the portion that gathered in the bottom. This is the sticky residue that is left on your firearms or helmets. I'm also not a big fan of WD40.
John
 
I have taken the artillery helmet apart, at least as far as I am going to, and I had some "discovery learning". The Wappen plate had a perfect copy, in dried mud, on the reverse, and there is a little rust on the back. It's a dark colored rust, so it's probably stagnant and likely will not continue to eat at the metal. The entire helmet feels sticky and the Kugel and Wappen appear to be coated in old grease, or possibly an accumulation of tractor exhaust. These parts are filthy. The helmet shell has some degradation behind the Wappen plate, probably due to the mud holding moisture off and on for the last hundred years. It is entirely salvageable but I will have to get some of the residue off. I am all in favor of leaving a "ghost" behind the Wappen, but a rotting corpse is a different matter.





The leather wedges that would normally hold the Wappen on are gone and in their place are two twigs. This is sort of neat so I will use the twigs when I put the helmet back together. These are probably pieces of whatever tree was growing in the area in 1914. The Kokarden are basically flawless, so I will leave those alone. The chinstrap is very fragile, so I plan on having it off once and only once. The liner has two tongues ripped off (I knew this when I bought it, so it's not a surprise) but otherwise the leather is soft and still pliable. The liner is extremely thin leather so I will dry vacuum it only. I have already removed the dead bugs and spider eggs.



All in all I am very pleased with this helmet and it should clean up nicely.

John
 
It looks like the front and rear visors could be fiber, rather than leather. Is that true or just the photos?

:D Ron
 
Do I see A K stamp in white on the rear visor ?
I like to see all the dust / dirt behind that plate .
You know it has not been the helmet in years
Steve
 
Ron,
All of the leather on this helmet is very thin, thinner than any of my other M15's. It appears that the front visor is leather but the rear visor could be fiber. The interior of both visors is black and there is a white BKA stamp on the rear visor, can't make out the number yet. There is some wear at the lower edge of the rear visor that is different than what one would see with leather. It likely is fiber, but instead of being held on with studs it is sewn.
John
 
Great looking m15 kugelhelmet, these are my favorites. These are indeed a rare find if you want one in an unmessed but good condition.
It took me a while also to find a m15 prussian kugelhelmet.

Pickelhaube
 
SkipperJohn said:
Ron,
All of the leather on this helmet is very thin, thinner than any of my other M15's. It appears that the front visor is leather but the rear visor could be fiber. The interior of both visors is black and there is a white BKA stamp on the rear visor, can't make out the number yet. There is some wear at the lower edge of the rear visor that is different than what one would see with leather. It likely is fiber, but instead of being held on with studs it is sewn.
John
Click to expand...

Thanks! This is what makes M15's an interesting lot.

:D Ron
 
I have had some time to work (okay play) on this helmet and I've managed to get most of the cleaning accomplished. As you can see I did not get too invasive with the cleaning. I started with the Wappen which was caked in dirt and rusted on the reverse. I soaked it in water with a mild detergent and that floated off most of the grease residue. I used a soft toothbrush on the reverse only to remove dirt and some of the rust. You can see there is very little difference.
BEFORE:



AFTER:



I did the same with the Kugel, with the same minimal results. Again I did not use a brush, only a soft cloth. As mentioned earlier I did not touch the Kokarden or the chinstrap at all.
I then set out to clean the shell. I had let it dry out for a day after removing the Wappen to ensure that it was completely dry. I then used a soft cloth damp with water only and started the task. I again had some discovery learning when I found out that the front visor and the rear neck guard were made of fiber and not leather. The ear pieces are also made of fiber and one is not cut correctly.
LOOK AT THE FRONT OF THE EARPIECE:



With the damp cloth I managed to remove all of the sticky stuff on the shell, so I got my set of soft paint brushes and Q-tips and began cleaning around the stitches and seams. This went pretty well, causing no damage. The helmet shell behind the Wappen was in bad repair and some of the leather (it might actually be fiber too) was worn and raw. I used a dab of Kiwi shoe polish in these areas and around the holes that are worn by the grommets primarily to seal against future moisture. I then took a soft shoe brush and began buffing out the helmet shell, applying no pressure. I am very pleased with the results:





As you can see I did not try to make it shiny and new, just clean and presentable.
I was asked a question about the issue marks on the rear neck guard, and I can now read them. The marks are "BJA XI w" and next to that is an "f" or possibly an upside down "J". As near as I can figure these marks would belong to "Bekleidungsamt XI Armee-Korps (Cassel), J for Instandsetzungsamt (Repair Depot)". I will try to research these marks further.



I have no idea what the "w" would be. BKA XI would have handled FAR 11, 18, 19, 47, and 55. I can find no Fuss Artillery that came under BKA XI. I found a sample of this issue mark on Colonel J's website "BJA XI w" and it is possible the the upside down "J" is actually what is left of a "ga", but I don't know what that indicates.

So far so good. The next post should show the completed project.
John ](*,)
 
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