Saxe Artillery Officer Restoration

b.loree

b.loree

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Along with the Nambu holster, came this vulcan fibre Saxe officer helmet (same owner) and a new set of problems. Here are the "before pics". Originally, this was supposed to be a simple srestitch of a rear haube visor...simple but not quite :eek:
The "before" pics:

FRONTAL

SIDE.....love that kokarde! You can see where the stitching needs to be done and a chip in the vulcan fibre above the kokarde. Looks like some glue residue along the corner of the visor...a bit of a pain but an easy fix.

REAR VIEW, typical vulcan helme!

Reichs side and again a great Saxe style Reichs kokarde! Chin scales are excellent as well.


What I like to call the "executive" style liner high quality with the ribbon through the sweat band. Can't see any major problem here and the helmet looks good, excellent fittings. However, you never really know until you begin to take things apart....... The rear visor and spine obviously, have got to come off.....been there done that and have the T shirt!

The spine came off easily and had the usual number of prongs and screw post. Chin scales are off and now, the visor has to be cut off. Hmm...looks like a crack in the shell now that the kokarde is off, not good.......

Oh my God!!! :eek: Now what do I do???? :-?


The stitch line is broken half way across the back of the shell.


The shell has a crack in it which extends down right to the edge of the shell and the stitch line for the side reinforcement is broken away completely! All of this was hidden by the kokarde and scales. It's like someone stepped on the side of the helmet! I now find I have.....a 100 year old plastic helmet with a cracked shell and 2 broken stitch lines! This HOUSTON, is a Restoration Nightmare!!! To be continued....... :(
 
One would say what is lost is lost but in your hands one could expect a miracle
im lost in how you can fix that open seem

Im curius on what the result will be when it is done

Jonas
 
Glueing a patch on the inside that covers the crack and then sewing thrue the patch to bring that visor back in place
That is how i would do it, i cant find any other solution to do so

Either way ,i 'm cuirious to see this one in difrent steps

Jonas
 
You are on the right track Jonas, but the patch has to be on the outside:


The patch can not be on the inside because it would be visible, anyone could just pull up the sweat band and see it. However, on the outside, it will be hidden under the edge of the visor and thus, invisible. A linen strip has been expoxyed to the split seam, it will be trimmed after drying and painted black. The area was first lightly sanded before applying the glue to aid in adhesion. The linen must be added to give the thread something to hold on to and strength to the glued seam. There is another reason why we must go outside, there is a thin leather strip glued all around the edge of the shell. I have seen this before, even on leather officer helmets, I believe it was intended to give thickness along the rim of the shell and a better grip for the visor stitches. The shell itself could be made very thin and light but they had to strengthen the stitched areas along the rim.....a very smart idea.

In the pic above you can see the strip, the top row of stitches is for the sweat band and the bottom is for the visors. Finally, the split in the side of the helmet was first crazy glued back into position then epoxy was placed into and on the crack. It is now filled in and stable, the epoxy will dry like clear nail polish..
This repair will be mostly invisible when completed and in restoration, that is the ideal goal.
 
That's excellent. Are you using a two-part clear epoxy like the stuff that comes in pair syringe-like devices?
 
That is exactly what was used. Here are a few pics of the finished product:

As mentioned before, the linen was dyed black and trimmed so that it would not show above the edge of the visor. The visor is in perfect condition which is hard to believe considering the "trauma" that occurred on the shell.

The shell and visor after the first stitch pass, focusing on the repaired area.


Complete! :)
 
That is nice covered by the visor
one could not tell what was wrong if they did not see the before pics

Nice nice
again something i have learned by looking at those two last pics that there is a double line to stitch those visors ,that explains the amount of thread in those holes

Dam'n i have to stitch a double one on my 'little restauration

Now i know what to do on a sunday afternoon

Brain you nailed it again with this one

Jonas
 
Yes Jonas...you have to stitch across one time and then go back across the visor again filling in the empty holes with thread. It takes a little bit more than 1 metre (1.25) of thread to stitch one visor. You would not think that by looking at a visor but this is a fact. On this one I actually misjudged the amount of thread and ran out 3/4 of the way back on the second pass going back. However, from experience, I know how to fix this without it showing. You could do a restitch in one pass with 2 needles and thread but there is not enough room in a helmet to use this method. In addition, you must always wax (bees wax) the thread before and during the stitch. Good luck on your restoration.
 
Yesterday i did one time becose i did not know it had to be done twice
so today i did the second row it took about half hour to finnish the second row
second time is always easyer than the first :D
it is now back in my collection with the rest of my helmets

Jonas
 
Thanks T, the same method can be used if the stitch line on the visor is broken as well. The linen strip is dyed then glued to the back of the broken stitch line on the visor. There is no way to repair the broken bits between the stitch holes but the new thread grips to the linen and thus holds the visor firmly to the shell. In the case of a leather visor you would use contact leather cement not epoxy.
 
I need to try the epoxy-and-linen method for repairing a split in the dome of Vulkanfibre helmet.
Thanks for the tip.
 
Magic! Great job!
Reminds me to remind Missus Boss that there are still some FAR Hauben missing in my collection. Saxon, Wurt...
:D
Francis
 
A last pic showing the restored helmet with fittings put back on. Both the nambu holster and this helme were shipped out to Minnesota yesterday.
 
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