JzP Officer's Restored Helmet

S

skelts1974

New member
All,

I have been waiting for this one for about six months. I purchased it from weitz and it was in pretty bad shape. Holes rusted through the shell. Gold plate worn off the kokardes. Despite this it was still a beautiful helmet and worth saving. It has since been stripped back. Re-plated and given a general clean. There are still a few spots of rust and pitting but I am very happy with the result.

Take a look at the results. Sorry for the rushed photos but I had to sneak it into the house past the wife and I am doing this while she is out. Who said I was the man of the house! Haha

Regards

Steve
 
The restoration was done by Cameron Laughlin from Turner, Laughlin and Co. He has a plater that he uses in Tucson. Sorry I don't have specific company details for the plater.

The helmet was stripped and replated using nickel plating. They focused only on the major holes and areas of rust which had to be totally stripped back and filled before replating.
 
That turned out very nice indeed. Do you have any before pics to add so we can see what the original condition was?
 
Brian,

Sure. These were taken from the weitz web site when I purchased the helmet. These clearly show the extensive areas of pitting that could be found across the helmet - particularly the right rear, the visor and near the base of the lobstertail.

Another concern was the spike which no longer sat in the tetra foil base properly - in the photos it slants forwards. Once removed it could not be put back in. Also the silvering on the kokarde rings was gone and the kleeblatten totally devoid of their gold plating. The set on the helmet now are actually an ebay purchase from a couple of years ago and match a set on one of my other helmets (so are 100% original) and retain their original gilt. I have the original kokardes here as well for use on a future project.

Sorry about the quality of the picture resolution. They are the only before that I have.

Regards

Steve
 
Really very nice Steve. You mentioned you purchased it from weitz... do you mean Weitze, in Hamburg?
 
Yes, it was purchased from Weitze in Hamburg. They let me lay-buy it for a month or two while I made the required payments. Then it went to Arizona for restoration. Sorry for the spelling error. All written in a bit of a rush.
 
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