My response...I bought this product years ago and I still have this "black bar of wax" but I have never used it. To use it as shown in these pictures, you have to heat it because, it is wax. Yes, initially, it is very easy to fill in a puncture in this helmet as Naprawiacz has shown. Think of lighting up a black candle then dripping the wax into this puncture, crack whatever you choose, the wax fills it. Wax is easy to sand/shape, then you coat it with some black shoe polish, even German Army boot polish...also wax based. As long as this helmet stays in your heated house during the winter, no problem but let us say you are me and I use this product on a customer's helmet and ship it during cool or "really cold" temperatures....it will become brittle, crack and flake off. So let us be clear here...this repair looks easy and slick but it is not a permanent repair. It does look good on a small puncture area however, for large sections of missing finish, are you going to melt this wax and paste it thinly on large sections of shell?
Let me bore you briefly as to what I have tried "finish wise" since the 1980's, trying to replace missing original finish......
First, black shoe polish (wax)....layer after layer trying to build up a "bald spot"., getting it right only to have it crack and flake off. Then having flipped the helmet to a dealer, getting a call...about cracks and flaking.
Ok...shoe polish, "NO GOOD" next....EPOXY CEMENT mixed with black paint powder, yea,....sort of??? Try sanding that shit?? :-? NO good, epoxy just does NOT blend in with the original shellac coating!!
Then in my mind, thinking back...there was this old local collector guy who was using liquid shellac from jugs. I guess he dyed it but it was slurped all over the helmets he showed me, like liquid lava, just God awful!!
Then I think Tony, I will blame him, talked to me about using shellac flakes dissolved in shellac thinner. So I started with this adding black aniline dye. That worked...layer after layer but then if subjected to cold....my perfect finish, wrinkled with cold temperatures! :-? :-? Unfortunately both Alan and James have been subjected to my failed experimentation and for some reason, they still send me their helmets for restoration.
Then we move on to forum member Sandy, God bless him....he researches and comes up with an original German 1877 haube shellac finish formula!!!!! :thumb up: :thumb up: :thumb up:. Well, we go on from there and that is what I use now, with no problems. I can ship Jeremy's helmet out to the UK a few months back with major finish rework and no problems. Try shipping that wax based product across the Atlantic at 30K Ft in those temperatures. So my friends, back in the day, Hans/Fritz may have been able to melt a bit of black wax into a scrape or dent in his haube finish but this is not a permanent solution today. In all of the hundreds of helmets I have handled by the way, many of which were period repaired....no black wax! In my humble opinion, if you want to go the "black wax" route wait until Halloween and buy some cheap black wax candles.