Ulanen Regt No. 11 Officer Tschapka

b.loree

b.loree

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The "before" pictures of an officer tschapka restoration from the 11th Ulanen Graf Haeseler, formed in 1860, based at Saarburg, XXIAK. :

The tschapka is truly a unique "beast" as to how it is constructed.The first thing to notice here is, that the holes in the shell tell us that the visor is tack stitched onto the shell. The visor is stitched on vertically, then folded down into place. The sweatband is also stitched on totally different from a haube. We can see the sweatband here on the front which is the same as the haube but then it disappears around the sides. I will show you some interior pics of the sweatband later.


The usual white metal hook for the officer cords. The owner does have these but is missing the officer feldzeichen....a tough find but not impossible. You can also see the split in the rim of the shell.




An interior photo, showing how a very thin, circular piece of leather is glued over the area where the stem of the mortarboard joins the shell. You do not see this on OR tschapka. The split in the shell rim is also shown.




We know for certain, that this is Ulanen #11 from the colour of the parade rabatte.



Problems: visor needs restitching (we do have it). chin scales need to be rebuilt, there is a split in the rim of the shell, left side where the split brad for the visor trim has pulled through, the same area on the other side of the shell also needs reinforcement.The original visor trim is missing but an original replacement has been provided by the owner. This fits well but will have to be cut at both ends and new holes drilled. A reproduction officer cloth liner will be purchased from Poland. All fittings are to be cleaned. More to follow....
 
The visor:


The visor, is unique and from what I can see, there are 3 pieces to it's construction and this applies to OR's as well. There is an outer layer of very thin finished leather, an inner core of thicker leather and then a thin black lining. I have only owned one Tschapka, a pre war brass OR's example. It had the same 3 piece construction but the inner layer was like a black paper. Note Bene...the tschapka no matter officer or OR (pre M15) always has a visor lined in black not green as per the officer pickelhaube. This one is going to need some reinforcement along that stitch line.
 
Ok, this is a step by step process as all restorations are. So the first problem that has to be dealt with, is the split in the shell rim and the other potential split which is just waiting to happen on the opposite side. These are areas of weakness because, the shell is "officer thin" for lightness and we have the 2 holes punched in for the visor trim split brads and these obviously have been ripped off at some time in the last 100 years. We can not restitch the visor on to the helmet as it is now. Here is the split in the shell:



So the only way for us to fix this is to glue in some small thin leather supports, which we see here. Holes are pre punched in these before gluing, because trying to punch them in after would be much harder. However, I will not apply the glue to this side which is the smooth "hair" side, we want the rough flesh side which will give us better adhesion. I use a leather contact cement which is called PlioBond. This is preferred, because unlike other contact cements, it remains "pliable" after curing, it will not crack when flexed. There is another problem though.....I have to clamp these 2 areas after gluing and we have to fold the sweatband back down inside the shell to it's proper place. However, there is excess glue there and we could glue the sweatband to the shell. Solution...cut up some plastic bag strips and shove them up between the folded sweatband and the glued shell area. So, no problem.


Here is where we are at right now, the 2 weak spots are glued and clamped for 24 hrs. Note that unique tschapka sweatband, how it curves around that weird shell rim. Quite stylish really...... very elegant. More to come.....
 
Amazing the officers Rabatte is still on the helmet .
In my collecting days
I have seen collectors who needed a certain Rabatte
to complete their officer helmet
have paid $ 1,000 for one that is correct and fits

Steve
 
Again a helmet that is in the right hands of the doctor

I sure it will shine when it is finished

Jonas
 
Very interesting and looking forward to seeing more. At one time I owned an uniform and Tschapka (with cords) for an NCO from the 11UR, but had to sell it :sad10:
 
Completed the visor stitch and put the trim back on today. Stitching was very tricky as you will see and had to be done with curved needle. Both ends of the brass officer trim had to be cut to fit and new hole drilled for the split brads. This was the major part of the restoration and the most intense! The pictures:


The stitching on a tschapka is very different from the haube. Originally, the visor is tack stitched in the vertical position along the shell then folded down into place. This creates unique problems for the restorer....you must use a curved needle and you must leave the stitches loose as you go along the shell. It is only at the end, that you go back and pull all the thread tight. On this piece, I had splits in certain stitch holes and thus, linen was glued over these so the thread would hold. To complicate matters, I had to make sure that the linen was only glued to the "flap" not to the visor as well. Cut up pieces of credit card were used to prevent this. This had to be done before any stitching could start.




Threads have been pulled tight from the inside and the visor now fits snugly against the shell.





An inside view of the completed stitching.


Visor trim is now installed:





Done! :) What is left? Chin scales have to be rebuilt, fortunately, I have the missing parts for the one side (Thanks James). Those small areas of missing finish will be filled in with black shoe polish and the entire shell will be polished. The wappen has already been cleaned up. I have ordered a repro cloth liner from Poland but I will be looking for an original at the SOS plus a feldzeichen. So, the end is in sight.
 
That is very kind Matt, thank you very much! I know you also do restoration work on your helmets, so that means a great deal to me. I try to post pictures with description on these restorations so that others can see how it is done. I am 65, in good health and intend on living for a few decades yet but, why not help the next generation of restorers? Finally, I had a lot of help from Mr. George Birringer and Tony Schnurr when I started this journey. I am very lucky, that people trust me to work on their helmets, tschapkas, holsters etc :D B
 
Brian
I've greatly enjoyed following the restoration of the Tschapka. When I found this piece last summer one could see the potential given it was nearly complete in terms of all it's components, but would require the skills and passion of an expert and artist who could bring her back to her original glory. Needless to say, you have done an outstanding job and I look forward to seeing and hearing about the next steps in the weeks ahead. I hope that others will not only enjoy seeing the restoration work come alive through your photographs and documentation, but will serve to help someone else who is facing a similar project. Thank you.
 
We all need someone to lead us in the right direction we just have to find the right person to folow
In the case of restoring helmets there is as of this moment only one person that sticks out and that you mister brian loree
Thanks for passing on your knodledge :thumb up:

Jonas
 
Cleaned the wappen, which came out very nicely and placed it loosely on the shell so members can take a look. Obviously, things are coming together slowly, but surely.





Next....rebuild the chin scales.
 
Thanks Max, it is very cool to be working on this old beauty. Not quite James, those pics were taken just before we left. I will be rebuilding the chin scales though as I brought them with me along with Steve's helme and another M95 project of my own. No rest for the wicked ! :)
 
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