Pickelhaube Wappen Metalurgy

b.loree

b.loree

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One last posting for tonight. A picture of 3 reservist wappen that I own: Bavarian and Prussian OR's plus a rare Wurttemberg officer wappen. Note the colour of the Bavarian. This is one of the cupro aluminum wappen that Lacarde mentions in his volume on Infantry. The other two are the usual brass. The officer unfortunately, has been ploished so that there is no gilding left on it. The central cross is white metal as it should be. Brian

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b.loree said:
Note the colour of the Bavarian. This is one of the cupro aluminum wappen that Lacarde mentions in his volume on Infantry.
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What is the height of that Wurt Wappen? Infantry Wurt Line Wappen are 125mm. Looks a little small next to that Line Preußen Wappen which should only be 115mm?
 
This is one of the cupro aluminum wappen
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Brian how do you know? I mean how can you tell? I'm back on my metalurgy for dummies box. Is it real light weight? How do you tell the difference between cupro alumoinum and brass? Then how do you tell the difference between those two and Tomback? You know me I want an easy 2 second, objective, fool-proof test. :D
 
T: I will respond with measurements to test this out tomorrow. Joe....it is just the colour of the metal. Even from these pictures, you can see the rich reddish colour of the Bavarian wappen when compared to the usual gold brass colour of the Prussian OR reservist.
My entire description here is based on Larcade vol 1. He describes these cupro aluminium wappen and due to the colour, I simply assumed that this must be the correct description. As I emailed Tony, I have never read that any sort of OR wappen were made from tombak, only GdK helmet shells. I will post a pic of the Prussian M95 wappen that I also have tomorrow. Sigh.... (a la Schnurr) I also have an interesting Baden wappen in silver to reveal tomorrow. I love this hobby!!! Brian
 
Hey Joe, I would think that the easiest way to tell the difference besteen brass and cupro aluminum would be the hardness. Years ago, I had a machine shop manufacture several bushings for me, I had ordered brass, but when I picked them up, the machineist told me that he had used cupro aluminum as it was harder and would wear longer, now I do not think you want to strike the wappen with a cold chisel, but if the hardness is different, then there should be a tone difference when the wappen is struck with a fingernail.
Gus
 
Joe: The terminoligy used in different countries to describe copper based alloys does make life confusing. To keep things simple we are essentially talking about varous types of brass. Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc. In its most common form brass is about 50% copper and between 5 and 20% zinc. Tombac is also a brass type alloy but the copper content is much higher, generally 85 - 90%, hence the very reddish color. The term Cupro aluminium seems to appear most often in French language texts(in English it is referred to Aluminium bronze) and is a copper/zinc alloy with aluminum added to increase corrosion and wear resistance. I don't think there is a way to visually distinguish common brass from cupro aluminium. In terms of front plates and other helmet parts I don't think there would be any appreciable difference in weight.
 
I e-mailed this to Brian, but I'll repeat it here as it adds nicely to R1's info above.

The Preußen issued Wappen in 1895 were supposed to be made out of Tombak as but it seems that this was a poor decision and they were soon replaced with Aluminiumbronze Wappen, which actually looks like a very bright brass. Typically, they do not tone and tarnish like the brass Wappen. Preußen Wappen in the initial 1895 Tombak are not common. I only have one, a Tombak Reserve Wappen. The Tombak is almost copper, like a penny.

The top left is a M91 brass, top right 1895 Tombak and bottom, M95 Aluminiumbronze. Not the best photo I am afraid, but in-hand there is a big difference.

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Arg! Click to enlarge the photo. I STILL say 450 pixels is too small!
 
Great information Tony. I believe the reason Tombak was dropped as a material for front plates probably deals with the material being very soft due to the high copper content. Tombak front plates were likely prone to damage.
 
T:
The height measurement of the Wurttemburg reserve officer wappen is 102mm from the top of the central crown to the tip of the scroll under the word "und". The width is 114mm from scroll tip to scroll tip along the base of the wappen (where the motto is). From the information given in this thread, I feel that my Bavarian reservist OR wappen is tombac. Brian
 
As I am getting to a few things today, I took a look at some pages from the Bekleidungsordnung that Glenn found. Late 1890s. This might put some sand in your cornflakes.
BeklOrd2_1.jpg

The quote above is from page 88 and describes leather helmets in general.

The quote below is from page 90 and describes the differences in Field artillery helmets.
BeklOrd4_1.jpg


For those who have not followed the questions closely on this issue -- the question is were there differences between the artillery helmets and the infantry helmets? We found a difference in the rear spine in a 1903 Bekleidungsordnung. Now perhaps a difference in materials??
 
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