Large Baden M15

b.loree

b.loree

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I bought this helmet off a US dealer after we got home from Fla. I have never seen such a large M15 (58 cm) in all my years of collecting/restoring. If anyone else has an 58 cm M15 please post some photos. Both visors needed a restitch on the piece.
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Hilde went a bit off course with the sewing machine here...never seen this before either! :)
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The wappen wedges have never been removed on this clearly marked 58.
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Ready for stitching. You can see how large the visors are and the grey front trim.
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Rear visor pinned.
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An inside view....a very prickly situation! :-?
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Front visor done...Hilde's misstep can clearly be seen. :( Still, I am glad that quality control did not reject this helmet!
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The front trim was put in place then the end holes were punched in. The "punched" metal helped lock the trim to the tips of the visor.
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Rear spine with stamped markings number 1 and FK. Rarely are these spines size stamped and I have never seen a #1 before nor with any initials. I have seen spines marked 2,3 and these were on smaller helmets.
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Rear visor finished. Note the original finish under the spine while the rest of the helmet shows 100+ years of exposure.
 
Thanks for posting, particularly the spine markings. I'm still collecting info on spine sizes. I don't have enough data to make a from conclusion about their system. I have in my collection a size 60, 2 size 59, and 2 size 58.
 
Aicusv, thanks for the information on larger helmets in your collection. Regarding spines, I am going to post this spine picture and 2 other comparisons in our thread about spine sizing. I have #’s 2,3,5 and this #1 for comparison. I remove lots of spines, I would say that less than 5% are size stamped if that. I did encounter one recently where the lower tang was number stamped ie. the one which curves under the visor edge. I will try and track down that photo.
 
I've found the stamp on either the upper tang or lower tang. Numbers I've recorded so far are: 1 (yours),2,3,4, and 7 . The 7 was on a size 61 fiber M'15 helmet and located on the lower tang. This one threw me a curve ball (American Baseball expression, meaning not going as expected). Until that showed up I was beginning to think the lower the number the bigger the helmet size. Basically I thought it was something like this; 1=XXL, 2=XL, 3= L, 4=M, and so on
)
 
It just amaizes me how you can make sutch a end result on those old and fragile helmets i have started a project but somehow ended it halve way and for some reason i cant find the guts and patience to go on with it .think i am afraid doing more wrong than good on it so i set it aside to another try comes along
 
Kaiser, just keep at it and don't rush. Took me 4 months to restitch a rear visor. Of course I only work on helmets that no matter what I do can't make it worse.
 
Well, I just bought 2 Sachsen helmets, an M95, and an M15. The M15 is absolutely huge compared to my other helmets.
And I thought the Baden M15 I have was large.. But the strange thing is, it is size marked 57,5. I never saw markings in that way, alway's 52, 53, 54,
but never in halfs.

I just got them in, so have no pictures yet, (they arrived 1 hour ago) but I will be posting the marking here, and the helmet itself in the new addition section here on the forum.

Greetings, Coert. :)
 
Hey Coert congrats, I have seen half sizes on officer helmets and OR's. They are rare but they do exist.
 


Here the marking on my Sachsen M15.
The rest of my pictures are in the Latest find part on the board.

Greetings, Coert.
 
One of the most common problems that I find when I take these helmets apart for restoration is that the split brad soldered to the rear spine is either missing or has become "unsoldered" from the spine. This happens when the shell shrinks inwards and the metal spine does not. The spine will flatten or bend also with shell shrinkage. Such was the case with this Baden M15 but fortunately the original split pin was still there fastened to the shell. This pin was very unusual and something I had never seen before:
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The pin as you can see has an extra anchor added so that it will be more secure when soldered.
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This pic shows the direction in which the "anchor" was soldered. As we have discussed previously, this shot also seems to confirm that these M15 spines were soldered first then painted. So, how do you resolder a 100+ year old anchor pin to the spine?? :? First, using a dremel tool with small steel brush attached you clean all the old paint off the solder both on the spine "solder blob" and the anchor pin. Next dip the anchor in flux paste put it back in place and apply heat. As I said, I use a small butane torch for heat. In my experience, that hundred year old lead solder when cleaned of all paint and corrosion will still hold. :)
 
Thanks for the "how too" on the re-solder, I guess the same method will work to redo Wappen loops.
 
Yes, this works on loops or screw posts. I also use a small Dremel bit to clean out the “hole” in the solder. I want the hole cleaned out but just enough so that I can resolder into the exact original position.
 
Sorry Kaiser, I didn’t reply to your comment. You can finish your restitch just go over some of my many restoration posts and photos. I have tried to give a careful step by step guide to how to do this. If you want, email me some pictures and I will gladly help out. :thumb up:
 
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