My restoration of a torn Chin Scale

[Sandmann]

This is my 1st restoration project and I oriented to Brian's very good and informative post "Anatomy of a Chin Scale #2".

The repair was necessary because a Chin Scale of one of my Helmets was torn into 2 pieces and the previous owner „repaired“ it with Duct-Tape. Unfortunately Duct-Tape is very bad for nearly all materials and damages it in the long run. So I had to repair the Chin Scale in a better way.
It was a good opportunity for me to test my skills on a relatively small project...

About the Adhesive:
Before I started with the repair, I tried to find informations about leather adhesives using around 1900, because I wanted to work as authentically as possible and use an adhesive of the time. I spent several hours online and researched in countless books of the 19th century in Google Books and tested different adhesives with my leather.
Ultimately, I chosed Fish-glue.
Fish-glue is an animal glutin glue which was probably not used for the Chin Scales, but which seemed very suitable for me.
As a natural glutin adhesive, Fish-glue has the great advantage that a gluing can be opened again by heating it with a hot air dryer and then simply can be glued again with the same adhesive. I also found an entry in a Manual for Prussian artillery officers that said Bone-glue would give a good adhesive for leather.

Bone-glue is also a glutin-adhesive but it can only be used only warmed up. Fish-glue has a slightly lower adhesive strength but it can be used like normal liquid adhesives. Further the adhesive strength is still so good that the leather of my sample has been torned when I tried to tear it open. Because the adhesive is also elastic and resistant to aging it was the perfect choice for me.

About the leather:
Around 1900 Morocco-Leather (Saffian-Leather) was often used for some uniform-parts, fine leather Gloves or Bookbindings. It is a particularly soft goat or sheep leather and can be easily recognized by the special grain looking (a bit like cross hatching, see example picture). This grain is created by a special treatment, the crunching, which unfortunately is hardly used today.
So I remembered Brian's tipp and bought old women's gloves. Fortunately I found matching black gloves. But long white women's gloves from the 20s also often have a good leather and can be dyed relatively easily.

 

[Sandmann]

I wanted to make a minimal restoration and luckily all I had to do was to replace the cardboard and the leather. Because the Chin Scale is no longer completely original, I described the repair in an illustrated text-file and attached it to my collection documents.

Then I started with the repair:
First, I carefully disassembled the torned Chin Scale and numbered the scales.

As described in Brian's post, a cardboard has been used as backing material. I chosed an acid-free cardboard with a thickness of 1.5mm to replace it, as this will not have a negative effect on the Pickelhaube. I used the old cardboard as a template to get the contour of the new one and transferred the holes with a small needle, whereby I proceeded very carefully.

Unfortunately I couldn’t use the antique leather as a template, because of the poor condition. Therefore I drew the outline of the cardboard in pencil on the inner side of my glove leather and attached it again to the left and right side. So I had a generous template to cut out the leather.

 

[Sandmann]

Then I finalized the size of the leather, whereby I took special emphasis on a clean cut of the leather edge that will be visible after gluing. For a used look I folded the leather around the cardboard and sanded the edges a little bit with very fine sandpaper that the Chin Scale doesn‘t look like new when it is re-assembled on the Helmet later.

Next I glued the cardboard to the leather and after drying I punched the marked holes for the steel brackets of the scales with a size 2 punch. For the big hole I used a punch with size 4.

 

[Sandmann]

Now I could reassemble the Chin Scale and after doing it I covered the brackets with a Oil-cloth as described in Brian‘s post and then I closed the Chin Scales again by glueing it.

At last, I punched the size 4 hole again to get a clean hole threw all leather layers.

I am very happy with the result and it was fun working on it.
Thank you very much for your attention

 

[Lars13]

Wow Sandy,
Very nicely done
Congratulations with the result.
Lars

 

[coert65]

It looks very good Sandy!
You did very well with your restoration of the chinscales.

Congratulations, Coert :thumb up:

 

[badener]

Great job Sandmann!

 

[b.loree]

You have done well my apprentice! :thumb up: . The only change I would recommend as I wrote to you in a recent PM...do not punch all the holes in the backing strip at the same time. This requires a great deal of precise measuring and layout and it can be done. However, even when cleaned original chin scales will each have the "shadow" for lack of a better word left on it from the chin scale above. Once you have the male/female end fitting on the backing strip you simply match the scale shadows punch out the holes and staple each scale one by one up to the largest end scale where the split prong boss locks everything to the shell. When I first started rebuilding scales, I did exactly as you have done but I found it easier at least for me, to staple each scale one by one using the "shadow" to line them up. An excellent job Sandy, well done! :bravo: Perhaps Sergei has a different method?

 

[Sandmann]

Thank you Gentlemen, I‘m glad that you like it.

@Brian: Once again a special thanks for your support :bravo:
Your Tipp with the Shadows is very good. Unfortunately I had already finished the work before I‘ve read your PM. Anyway, this time I‘ve had much luck because the Shadows look very similar to the other Side of the Chin Scale. I put a lot of effort into transferring the holes nicely and checked it several times. But I will get your tipps in my mind for any further restoration

 

[aicusv]

well done

 

[Sandmann]

Thank you very much

 

[kaiser]

Would not even know how to start this project great result at the end

Jonas

 

[Sandmann]

Thanks Jonas, it was the same with me. I wouldn‘t have tried it without the Post „Anatomy of a Chin Scale“.
But my Chin Scale was torned, so I had nothing to lose. If I would have been failed I had asked Brian for rescue