Ulan Regt. 1,2,3 Officer Tschapka
- Thread starter b.loree
- Start date
argonne
Well-known member
Sandmann said:Thank you for the tipp. Do you know where I can find this list for all years? I only found a prussian one from 1879, the rest is blocked in Google-Books
A list for all years is not existing....Each year a book....
You can sometimes find those books on ebay.de
A normal price is between 15-25 EURO. That´s what I have paid for each of my 5 books. You have to wait for such an auction. Here is one:
http://www.ebay.de/itm/320-Rangliste-der-Koniglich-Preusischen-Armee-fur-das-Jahr-1904-/122734028759?hash=item1c9384a7d7:g:rtsAAOSwa8dZwlid" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
But there are some more expensive "buy it now" auctions.
http://www.ebay.de/itm/Rangliste-Preussische-Armee-und-wurttembergisches-Armeekorps-1906-/272842355980?hash=item3f86abf50c:g:YXQAAOSw241YWQ17" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.ebay.de/itm/Rangliste-der-Koniglich-Preusischen-Armee-fur-1911-/232063045153?hash=item3608090e21:g:GAUAAOSwOdpXwvMB" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.ebay.de/itm/Rangliste-der-Koniglich-Preusischen-Armee-Und-Des-8-Koniglich-Wurt-Ar-Original-/302475010111?hash=item466cea603f:g:hrMAAOSw-kdX1DuS" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Philippe
:wink:
Well the quest to determine exactly which "Gothic" letter we are dealing with here continues. Here are some pics of a period German Elementary School primer which illustrates the letters of the alphabet. My thanks to Scout17 for this. To me our cypher appears to be a Gothic capital "D".
The Gothic I and J are the same but are not closed in like our cypher. The horizontal and vertical parts of the Gothic D touch as does our Cypher.
The Gothic I and J are the same but are not closed in like our cypher. The horizontal and vertical parts of the Gothic D touch as does our Cypher.
An update regarding the wrinkle problem on this piece. I have to admit defeat on this issue for the first time.... This helmet is made up of 2 thin layers of leather stitched together in sections. I have tried 2 methods both involving wetting the leather with water...clamping and second pushing the dents out over a hair dryer with my fingers. No success to limited success!! One is also limited as to how many times you can wet thin 100 year old leather. Why has this post taken a significant length of time? With difficult or new challenges I often have to just keep looking at the problem and thinking about it for several weeks before taking action. As I tell my customers..... the helmet took 100+ years of abuse in order to be in this condition and we have to be patient when taking action to "turn back time" and improve things. There will be further posts and pictures concerning this tschapka. Believe me gentlemen, I do not enjoy the taste of defeat.
This helmet is made up of 2 thin layers of leather stitched together in sections. I have tried 2 methods both involving wetting the leather with water...clamping and second pushing the dents out over a hair dryer with my fingers. No success to limited success!! One is also limited as to how many times you can wet thin 100 year old leather. Why has this post taken a significant length of time? With difficult or new challenges I often have to just keep looking at the problem and thinking about it for several weeks before taking action. As I tell my customers..... the helmet took 100+ years of abuse in order to be in this condition and we have to be patient when taking action to "turn back time" and improve things. There will be further posts and pictures concerning this tschapka. Believe me gentlemen, I do not enjoy the taste of defeat.
USMC-EOD
Active member
Hey Brian,
Have you thought about supporting the crown with the mortar board hanging free, wetting the leather, inserting a plastic bag into the shell, and filling the bag with hot silica sand warmed to a specific temperature from your stove? Seems like that might work and slowly allow the heat and moisture to slowly push the form back into shape. Remove bag of sand, reheat and reapply as needed.
If worried about the outer shell splitting, perhaps form a cofferdam made out of plaster of Paris form to support the whole thing from the outside? Make it like Tony showed with his plaster cast helmet shells for displaying helmet covers, but split the back of the casting and support the entire thing with duct tape around the outside to firm it up.
That's what I would try; it would press the entire thing in between a formed and a flexible solid which would allow you to control the temperature and weight while it slowly pushes back to true.
Have you thought about supporting the crown with the mortar board hanging free, wetting the leather, inserting a plastic bag into the shell, and filling the bag with hot silica sand warmed to a specific temperature from your stove? Seems like that might work and slowly allow the heat and moisture to slowly push the form back into shape. Remove bag of sand, reheat and reapply as needed.
If worried about the outer shell splitting, perhaps form a cofferdam made out of plaster of Paris form to support the whole thing from the outside? Make it like Tony showed with his plaster cast helmet shells for displaying helmet covers, but split the back of the casting and support the entire thing with duct tape around the outside to firm it up.
That's what I would try; it would press the entire thing in between a formed and a flexible solid which would allow you to control the temperature and weight while it slowly pushes back to true.
I really appreciate your suggestion Ryan and that might work. However, I can't chance wetting the inside of the shell anymore.The stem of the mortar board is actually partially glued to the top of the shell. If you look at the inside pictures you can see a ring of very fine leather at the top of the shell....glued on with hide glue. My two attempts at wetting things on this piece have not helped whatsoever.
Preparing to stitch the front visor on this piece. However, the visor itself has to be prepped before stitching can be done. You may have noted that sections of the very thin leather outer layer are either missing or cracked and loose. These have to be glued into position and a split in the inner linen layer has to be patched with a small piece of linen cloth. Visor trim has been cleaned.
The linen patch was glued on the underside of the cloth fold so that it can not be seen. These paper clips come in very handy as clamping devices in restoration. The pieces of thin fold leather were glued on and a thin application of shellac was added to the cracks.
The area as it looked prior to being restored, you can see the cracked thin leather and missing pieces. Without the linen backing, this visor could not be restitched.
The leather pieces which had to be glued back into position....tweezers come in handy for this.
The linen patch was glued on the underside of the cloth fold so that it can not be seen. These paper clips come in very handy as clamping devices in restoration. The pieces of thin fold leather were glued on and a thin application of shellac was added to the cracks.
The area as it looked prior to being restored, you can see the cracked thin leather and missing pieces. Without the linen backing, this visor could not be restitched.
The leather pieces which had to be glued back into position....tweezers come in handy for this.
As promised, I completed the restitch of the visor with the help of my wife Caron today. She helped on the last tschapka officer visor restitch and it truly is a 2 person job because of how it has to be done in modern times. Originally, as I have said, the linen and leather were stitched vertically to the shell and then folded down to give that typical tschapka visor rounded edge with hidden stitch line. Obviously, we can't do that so this is how it has to be done:
This is the only method that I can think of and it places a lot of stress on that thin fold strip of leather and linen as you can see. This why I spent yesterday gluing linen patches on that cloth strip.
We almost have the visor restitched in this pic and are about to begin tightening up the thread starting from to side we began with. You have to heavily wax your thread before you begin because in the end, you are using it to pull the visor to the shell and tighten everything up as it was originally.
Finished.
I have not put the 2 trim split brads in yet. I was just happy that we got this done without the thread breaking as it was pulled through the shell and thin visor strip. This is not an easy restoration.
This is the only method that I can think of and it places a lot of stress on that thin fold strip of leather and linen as you can see. This why I spent yesterday gluing linen patches on that cloth strip.
We almost have the visor restitched in this pic and are about to begin tightening up the thread starting from to side we began with. You have to heavily wax your thread before you begin because in the end, you are using it to pull the visor to the shell and tighten everything up as it was originally.
Finished.
I have not put the 2 trim split brads in yet. I was just happy that we got this done without the thread breaking as it was pulled through the shell and thin visor strip. This is not an easy restoration.
Neil Young
Active member
You obviously have infinite patience and a great deal of skill. Fantastic job. I'm sure that your wife's assistance was invaluable.
Thanks for the comments. I actually said jokingly to Caron that it is like we were performing surgery as I was holding the “patient “ and shining a flashlight on the stitch line, while she was using tweezers to pull the thread through the holes in the shell. We were both praying that the thread did not break or pull through that thin strip of visor material. I also teased her by saying I bet you never in your life thought that one day you would be pulling waxed thread from the 1950’s through a hundred year old hat!
Some pictures of the completed Officer Tschapka. I could not solve the "wrinkle" problem but the piece still looks pretty good now that everything has been cleaned, rebuilt and restitched.
The silk liner was stitched back in as well as the metal cypher "D". It still would be very nice if some member could provide a name which matches this cypher and corresponds to one of the 3 Regts which wore this wappen.
The silk liner was stitched back in as well as the metal cypher "D". It still would be very nice if some member could provide a name which matches this cypher and corresponds to one of the 3 Regts which wore this wappen.
Brian: Restored helmet arrived today and I cannot begin to tell you how pleased I am with the results. I was reluctant to originally acquire this helmet as it was so tired looking and the condition of the chinstrap made it look even worse. I found this sight and posted a few pictures and was recommended to send it to you for restoration. I am always a little reluctant to restore most things but this helmet definitely needed some work and a light cleaning. From the exterior leather, lightly cleaned metal surfaces, rebuilt chinstrap and re-sewn liner, It looks great! Yes it still has some lumps and wear spots but these add character to a fragile leather helmet that is close to 120 years old. If any of your fellow members have any thoughts on who the cypher D might be attributed to I would greatly appreciate any info. If there is no D candidate than I will assume it is likely a J and belonged to one of the two candidates a member had previously posted. Again many thanks to you and your wife!