After the war, there were obviously thousands of hauben in warehouses that were not captured by the Allies and sent back to N America as War Bond prizes. Many of these, were repaired and converted to fireman helmets after the war. Some of them as we have seen in a recent post from a member in Germany have been reconverted to pickelhauben with reproduction hardware so they can be sold as authentic helmets. The following study, examines an original 1920's converted fireman haube and should reveal what to look for:
The main revelation occurs in the number of filled holes that you will see in the helmet shell. All holes which could not be used by the fireman fittings were filled in. Those that could be used, were often enlarged for the new fittings. So lets look at some pictures:
Here is a front shot which shows the new wappen holes and the old which have been filled in.
I believe that the helmets were also refinished as part of the "conversion" process because we see no old wappen marks, only the new ones from the fire wappen. It makes sense really...plug up the old holes and then refinish! Of note here also, the weight of the fireman comb (upper fitting) creates a depression and marks in the shell...hard for a faker to remove these entirely. The depressions (lines) probably could be pushed out if the leather was wet but, there will still be some telltale marks IF you know what to look for.
In this pic we can see one rear spine hole has been enlarged, and another filled in.
The top..again you can see fill ins, new holes and enlargements.
The reconditioning with fill ins and new holes can most easily be seen on the inside of the shell. Outer appearances were what counted so no attempts at concealment were made on the inside.
Obviously, the back of the shell because we can see all the fill ins for the rear spine and spike base holes.
The front of the shell with numerous holes filled in. The ones with the grommet marks suggest to me, that this was either a Saxon or Bavarian helmet during the war. I would lean toward Bavarian due to the short distance between the holes. The reconditioning process did not just involve filling in holes and punching out new ones, repairs were also made to other parts of the shell:
One side of the helmet needed some extra reconditioning.
The Fireman Comb which was put on this helmet post war.
The main revelation occurs in the number of filled holes that you will see in the helmet shell. All holes which could not be used by the fireman fittings were filled in. Those that could be used, were often enlarged for the new fittings. So lets look at some pictures:
Here is a front shot which shows the new wappen holes and the old which have been filled in.
I believe that the helmets were also refinished as part of the "conversion" process because we see no old wappen marks, only the new ones from the fire wappen. It makes sense really...plug up the old holes and then refinish! Of note here also, the weight of the fireman comb (upper fitting) creates a depression and marks in the shell...hard for a faker to remove these entirely. The depressions (lines) probably could be pushed out if the leather was wet but, there will still be some telltale marks IF you know what to look for.
In this pic we can see one rear spine hole has been enlarged, and another filled in.
The top..again you can see fill ins, new holes and enlargements.
The reconditioning with fill ins and new holes can most easily be seen on the inside of the shell. Outer appearances were what counted so no attempts at concealment were made on the inside.
Obviously, the back of the shell because we can see all the fill ins for the rear spine and spike base holes.
The front of the shell with numerous holes filled in. The ones with the grommet marks suggest to me, that this was either a Saxon or Bavarian helmet during the war. I would lean toward Bavarian due to the short distance between the holes. The reconditioning process did not just involve filling in holes and punching out new ones, repairs were also made to other parts of the shell:
One side of the helmet needed some extra reconditioning.
The Fireman Comb which was put on this helmet post war.
Ron
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