seagull
Well-known member
15th Lancashire Artillery Volunteers 1860-1880
I finally got round to constructing a new leather liner for the chin chains of the helmet I acquired some time ago and here are the results - with the help of several other people, many of them here.
The chains were completely bare when I found it so not even the remnants of the original leather liner were there to help me in the fix, but Peter B had given me a lesson in how to approach the task when he did the same job so, thanks to Peter. I worked from the known premise that the Officers of this unit were all "Volunteer Gentlemen" whose attitude to equipment regulations was perhaps a little coloured by their predeliction for comfort rather than uniformity, so planned to line it with a strip of faded 100 year old dark blue velvet - thanks to my Wife. I cut the strip and attempted to use the craft glue shown here as a consolidator for the new 'raw' edge - thanks to my Wife and Amy who both recommended it - but unfortunately it was too far gone and would not firm up enough to handle being sewn. I then switched to thin 'glove' leather - thanks to Brian- but that on it's own turned out to be too 'stretchy' to form a solid base to stitch the chains on to.
At this point I take the credit for following the general pattern of Haube chinstrap construction and using a slightly thicker strip of tanned hide from an old belt as an 'inner core', with the glove leather sewn to and enclosing it, so forming a strong non-stretchy basis for the chains to be fixed to. 1880's Waxed thread courtesy of my Great Grandmother. The thicker strip was first pierced with the awl to give a matrix of holes, temporarily glued to the glove leather, then sewn through both thicknesses of leather and the chains- which took about six hours of sore fingers, eyestrain and development of a new talent : juggling! This entire strap, chains, leather, core, even the thread used, is at all stages determined to unravel and twist itself in every way possible - other than the way YOU want. . I agree with Peter that whoever had to do this for a living must have been very good at it or else needed the money a lot more than me. I concluded you do a job like this because you NEED to, its really not something you would do for fun!
Having got the thing together in a unit I then used another strip of the glove leather to line the inside, sewing the edges together rather like a sandwich with a blanket stitch : this was in imitation of the chinstrap of my 12th Lancers Czapska (EM but similar enough) and the end result was very satisfactory. (I enclosed within a small note that I had made the leathers in this year, to avoid future confusion about originality) I think the "Gentleman" who originally wore it would not find it at all uncomfortable, it displays very nicely now and I am very happy with this "group effort".
Thanks to everyone who contributed.
Steve
I finally got round to constructing a new leather liner for the chin chains of the helmet I acquired some time ago and here are the results - with the help of several other people, many of them here.
The chains were completely bare when I found it so not even the remnants of the original leather liner were there to help me in the fix, but Peter B had given me a lesson in how to approach the task when he did the same job so, thanks to Peter. I worked from the known premise that the Officers of this unit were all "Volunteer Gentlemen" whose attitude to equipment regulations was perhaps a little coloured by their predeliction for comfort rather than uniformity, so planned to line it with a strip of faded 100 year old dark blue velvet - thanks to my Wife. I cut the strip and attempted to use the craft glue shown here as a consolidator for the new 'raw' edge - thanks to my Wife and Amy who both recommended it - but unfortunately it was too far gone and would not firm up enough to handle being sewn. I then switched to thin 'glove' leather - thanks to Brian- but that on it's own turned out to be too 'stretchy' to form a solid base to stitch the chains on to.
At this point I take the credit for following the general pattern of Haube chinstrap construction and using a slightly thicker strip of tanned hide from an old belt as an 'inner core', with the glove leather sewn to and enclosing it, so forming a strong non-stretchy basis for the chains to be fixed to. 1880's Waxed thread courtesy of my Great Grandmother. The thicker strip was first pierced with the awl to give a matrix of holes, temporarily glued to the glove leather, then sewn through both thicknesses of leather and the chains- which took about six hours of sore fingers, eyestrain and development of a new talent : juggling! This entire strap, chains, leather, core, even the thread used, is at all stages determined to unravel and twist itself in every way possible - other than the way YOU want. . I agree with Peter that whoever had to do this for a living must have been very good at it or else needed the money a lot more than me. I concluded you do a job like this because you NEED to, its really not something you would do for fun!
Having got the thing together in a unit I then used another strip of the glove leather to line the inside, sewing the edges together rather like a sandwich with a blanket stitch : this was in imitation of the chinstrap of my 12th Lancers Czapska (EM but similar enough) and the end result was very satisfactory. (I enclosed within a small note that I had made the leathers in this year, to avoid future confusion about originality) I think the "Gentleman" who originally wore it would not find it at all uncomfortable, it displays very nicely now and I am very happy with this "group effort".
Thanks to everyone who contributed.
Steve
