I purchased an m15 Prussian officer haube several years ago that had one partial chinstrap attachment female lug with 5 or 6 scales attached. Made from plated zinc. I was never able to find a complete chinstrap set or the other special lug to assemble together a set. One of our respected restoration experts kindly sold the end to me that I needed. Thank you!!! It was brass rather than zinc, but given the rarity, I was overjoyed to get it. And, these straps were commonly assembled using a mixture of zinc and brass components, so not a far stretch. I had a pair of zinc straps, so all I needed to do was remove the staples and the largest scale end with the rosette hole to allow the scales to fit into the m15 lug. A small portion of the strap material on the end had to be clipped off. It was interesting in that there was a thin aluminum full length strip at the core of the strap material which was wrapped in oil cloth rather than leather. Never seen the aluminum before. It’s usually a coarse woven cloth in late straps.
I purchased some .093” (3/32”) diameter solid brass round head rivets 5/16” long. I drilled the 3 end holes in each scale set and I installed the rivets. I drilled the center holes in each end first and installed the rivet, followed by drilling and riveting the outer rivets one at a time. When peening the rivet ends, I support the ball head end in an aluminum bar that I have milled a hemisphere indentation. This eliminates having a flat on the ball end of the rivet after hammer peening. I apologize for not providing photos of the procedure. I took them with the wrong camera and wasn’t smart enough to transfer them to this forum. I did attach the final results.
Ron
I purchased some .093” (3/32”) diameter solid brass round head rivets 5/16” long. I drilled the 3 end holes in each scale set and I installed the rivets. I drilled the center holes in each end first and installed the rivet, followed by drilling and riveting the outer rivets one at a time. When peening the rivet ends, I support the ball head end in an aluminum bar that I have milled a hemisphere indentation. This eliminates having a flat on the ball end of the rivet after hammer peening. I apologize for not providing photos of the procedure. I took them with the wrong camera and wasn’t smart enough to transfer them to this forum. I did attach the final results.
Ron
