I am going to share with you all one of the most difficult and frustrating restorations that I have ever undertaken....a Prussian Garde Officer Helmet. This was sent to me by one of our members and it had some unique problems. Every stitched piece of leather on the helmet had to be restitched including both visors, the side re enforcements for the chin scales, the sweat band and the silk liner. As you can see in the pics, there was also a problem along the front sitch line where a piece of the rim of the shell had broken off. The top of the shell was also heavily crazed with chips out of the finish. The visor trim had bent out of its true shape and there was one screw post that needed resoldering. Fortunately, the screw post itself was still with the helmet. The shell needed reblocking to get it back into proper shape. Obviously, there was a great deal of work to be done.
I first tackled the side re enforcement pieces cutting them off the shell, cleaning out the stitch holes on both the shell and the side pieces then re stitching everything. Next, I went after the finish problems on the top of the shell and various other parts of the shell. Filling in finish takes a long time as you have to apply the shellac, then let it dry for days, sand it smooth and then apply another coat. You have to build up layers of shellac in order to fill things in and smooth evrything out. After some months of this work, I was ready to tackle the little piece of "shell rim" that had broken off.
Again, I was lucky that this little piece was still with the helmet. The piece was backed with a larger thin piece of leather glued to it. Next using more contact cement, I glued the backing strip to the shell. to make sure that these pieces were secure, I put some stitches through the shell and backing strip. These would be hidden by the front visor when it was stitched on.
Before restitching the visors, I had to deal with the sweat band and silk liner which was in tatters. I had taken these two pieces out early on. I was confident that I could re stitch the sweat band to the rim of the shell...WRONG!! This was a mid war helmet and the sweat band was extremely thin to begin with. It would not hold a stitch as the leather was too far gone!! Fortunately, I know a source for repro sweat bands so I got a replacement and stitched it in. BUT my source had neglected to tell me that the repro sweat band was wider than normal...SO I had to cut out the repro liner and trim about a half inch off its width then stitch it back on again.... ARGHHHH!!! Very Frustrating.
The front visor was the next part of the project. The tail of the wappen had pushed it in along the stitch line so I had to get some moisture into the leather then block it back into the correct shape. The visor trim was then straightened out by hand...simply using the right amount of force to bend it back into shape. The front visor was then restitched after cleaning out all stitch holes. The rear visor restitch was easy but always be careful when removing the rear spine on an officer helmet!
OK, so now the sweatband has been replaced and both visors are back on.
The silk liner is next...ever try sewing tatered 100 year old silk? Those of you who have officer helmets, take a look at your silk liners, they are tacked stitched to each scallop around the edge of the sweat band...Lots of fun!!
The last problem was the wappen screw post. The wappen and all brass fittings on this helme were exquisite, all of the original mercury gilding was present and of pre war quality. I cleaned the spike, stars and wappen using Haggerty's silver foam. I did not touch the chin scales for fear of doing damage to them. In regard to the screw post resolder, I chickened out and had a professional metal working friend of mine resolder the post using old lead solder and even an antique soldering iron! He did a fantastic job and the wappen fit perfectly on the helmet.
The one thing that I regret about this entire operation is that I was unable to save the original sweat band. I hope that you all will get something out of this, I will try to post the "after pics" shortly. My special thanks to George B. the Master Restorer for mentoring me through this project. So, that is my restoration tale and here are the "Before " pics:
I first tackled the side re enforcement pieces cutting them off the shell, cleaning out the stitch holes on both the shell and the side pieces then re stitching everything. Next, I went after the finish problems on the top of the shell and various other parts of the shell. Filling in finish takes a long time as you have to apply the shellac, then let it dry for days, sand it smooth and then apply another coat. You have to build up layers of shellac in order to fill things in and smooth evrything out. After some months of this work, I was ready to tackle the little piece of "shell rim" that had broken off.
Again, I was lucky that this little piece was still with the helmet. The piece was backed with a larger thin piece of leather glued to it. Next using more contact cement, I glued the backing strip to the shell. to make sure that these pieces were secure, I put some stitches through the shell and backing strip. These would be hidden by the front visor when it was stitched on.
Before restitching the visors, I had to deal with the sweat band and silk liner which was in tatters. I had taken these two pieces out early on. I was confident that I could re stitch the sweat band to the rim of the shell...WRONG!! This was a mid war helmet and the sweat band was extremely thin to begin with. It would not hold a stitch as the leather was too far gone!! Fortunately, I know a source for repro sweat bands so I got a replacement and stitched it in. BUT my source had neglected to tell me that the repro sweat band was wider than normal...SO I had to cut out the repro liner and trim about a half inch off its width then stitch it back on again.... ARGHHHH!!! Very Frustrating.
The front visor was the next part of the project. The tail of the wappen had pushed it in along the stitch line so I had to get some moisture into the leather then block it back into the correct shape. The visor trim was then straightened out by hand...simply using the right amount of force to bend it back into shape. The front visor was then restitched after cleaning out all stitch holes. The rear visor restitch was easy but always be careful when removing the rear spine on an officer helmet!
OK, so now the sweatband has been replaced and both visors are back on.
The silk liner is next...ever try sewing tatered 100 year old silk? Those of you who have officer helmets, take a look at your silk liners, they are tacked stitched to each scallop around the edge of the sweat band...Lots of fun!!
The last problem was the wappen screw post. The wappen and all brass fittings on this helme were exquisite, all of the original mercury gilding was present and of pre war quality. I cleaned the spike, stars and wappen using Haggerty's silver foam. I did not touch the chin scales for fear of doing damage to them. In regard to the screw post resolder, I chickened out and had a professional metal working friend of mine resolder the post using old lead solder and even an antique soldering iron! He did a fantastic job and the wappen fit perfectly on the helmet.
The one thing that I regret about this entire operation is that I was unable to save the original sweat band. I hope that you all will get something out of this, I will try to post the "after pics" shortly. My special thanks to George B. the Master Restorer for mentoring me through this project. So, that is my restoration tale and here are the "Before " pics:
