Oh great pickelhaube-repair guru Brian!!
How do you go about re-attaching a visor that has detached when the weight of the helmet over the years has caused the stitching to fail. I have a beautiful untouched M1871 3rd Garde Regiment zu Fusse helmet with a detached rear visor. The stitching is still in the holes and the stitching line through the leather is intact, the stitches themselves have just separated.
Some of the challenges I perceive so far:
-The original stitching is a thick natural cotton. The stuff you buy today is inherently stronger but contains synthetic fibres, so it will never look quite right.
-it will be easy enough to stitch through the original holes in the helmet and visor when they are apart and you can clearly see the holes, but when they are tight up against each other there is the potential to be poking the needle through the leather rather than through the original stitching hole
-how do you tie-off the loose ends so they can't be seen?
-do you re-stitch the entire visor or just tack it at regular intervals while leaving the stubs of the original stitching in place?
Mike
How do you go about re-attaching a visor that has detached when the weight of the helmet over the years has caused the stitching to fail. I have a beautiful untouched M1871 3rd Garde Regiment zu Fusse helmet with a detached rear visor. The stitching is still in the holes and the stitching line through the leather is intact, the stitches themselves have just separated.
Some of the challenges I perceive so far:
-The original stitching is a thick natural cotton. The stuff you buy today is inherently stronger but contains synthetic fibres, so it will never look quite right.
-it will be easy enough to stitch through the original holes in the helmet and visor when they are apart and you can clearly see the holes, but when they are tight up against each other there is the potential to be poking the needle through the leather rather than through the original stitching hole
-how do you tie-off the loose ends so they can't be seen?
-do you re-stitch the entire visor or just tack it at regular intervals while leaving the stubs of the original stitching in place?
Mike