Source in USA for Leather Liners for Pickelhaubes, Copy Chinstraps, Stahlhelme Pads and more

ww1czechlegion

ww1czechlegion

Well-known member
"Prairie Flower Leather Company." Give this guy a call or send him an email. It's my understanding from reading his web site, that he makes replacement leather liners for pickelhaubes, and sews them into the helmet using an original German WW1 era sewing machine. So I would presume he could make a leather liner for a JzP or a Kurassier enlisted helmet. He's located at Ord, Nebraska.

Click on this link below to access his web site:

https://www.pflco.com/military-reproductions/German-c95596098

He makes M16, M17, & M18 replacement pads for Stahlhelme. He also makes repro chinstraps for Pickelhaubes, and for M16/M17 & M18 Stahlhelme. I haven't purchased anything from him. His products seem to look very good from the photos I have seen on his web site.

Best Wishes,

Alan
 
Excellent, good to know that there is once again a company producing them on a commercial basis. (y)
 
I have dealt with the guy from Prairie Flower Leather Co. before, nice guy but I can't remember his name!

He makes some pretty decent products, I bought a few m16 liners from him and I was pleased.

During one of our conversations I told him I restore pickelhaubes and he, like on his website, offered to sew in the liner. I was intrigued at first but declined. I believe liners should ALWAYS be sewn in by hand as the aged leather shell is delicate and requires a certain amount of finesse.

In regards to Jpz liners, the finger portion are essentially almost the same pattern as a regular pickelhaube except they dip in a bit on each side around the ears. Then the the finger potion is sewn onto a leather band. If the finger portion and leather band are not cut correctly it won't contour properly around the ears.

Adam
 
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b.loree said:
I totally agree Adam, you can not machine stitch a 100+ year old helmet .
Click to expand...

I agree totally as well. I'm not sure how someone could use a treadle sewing machine to line up all the stitch holes. I cannot picture someone being able to re-stitch anything on an enlisted version helmet other than by hand stitching.
 
Allan:

Thanks for this link. I've been looking for someone who can supply an acceptable quality reproduction chinstrap. Now, if we can convince him to offer a silver/nickel fitted strap for Pioneers etc. It's an obviously more expensive item but I think there's a pent up market that would pay a reasonable price.

I'll pitch this to him as I have to see if he'll ship outside the USA. (His site seems to infer that he won't)
 
In my early years of collecting, I had a local shoe repair person machine stitch a visor on an M15. He did the job but all of the shellac finish along the stitch line flaked off! It looked terrible. Even with careful hand stitching there will be some finish loss but this occurs along the rim of the shell and is hidden once the visor is back on. If you look on the inside of the shell on any OR’s haube you will see the track marks made by the original stitching machine. Of course the leather and finish were new at this time and much more flexible. It would be very interesting to see a photo of one of these machines if anyone has one. There must be modern ones as well??
 
Thank you Alan.

I had heard of this company when I took my son out to a militaria show that had some re-enactors wandering about. I saw the liner on one of their helmets and they said they purchased them from Prairie Flower. The quality did impress me.

Has anyone had any experience with Prussian Glory for repro parts and whatnot? Are their products good? I was thinking about ordering four feldzeichen (spelling?) for some enlisted helmets. If there is a higher quality source, please let me know.

Bryan.
 
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