Prussian Artillery Officer Restoration

b.loree

b.loree

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Staff member
This helme had a number of problems: Both visors need restitched, plus the calf skin sweat band, which is unusual. Last, the kugel screw post had to be re soldered to the actual ball top. My man, T Schnurr took care of that when I visited him (thanks again T). Regarding finish, there is a section on the top of the helmet that needs filling in as well. As I write this the helmet shell and rear visor are being hydrated so that they can be blocked back into proper shape. There is no sense sewing warped visors back on to a warped shell.
The restitch of a sweat band has unique problems associated with it as will be seen in the following pictures. The officer sweat band unlike the OR liner is tack stitched to the rim of the shell about every 2 inches (+ or -) and there is a continuous thread that runs along the crease of the sweat band from stitch to stitch right around the shell rim. The only way for a restorer to replace this is by using a curved needle, some paper clips and a great deal of patience.

I always take pics of the helme and visors before cutting them off as it is good to have a reference to look back on if needed.

This helme was made by AWES, this company always stamps their name on the underside of their officer bases.


The helme has a unique rear spine, I have never seen one with 5 fastening points on it before...a screw post, 3 prongs and the split brad size button (58.5 cm)! A bit of a nightmare for me who has to carefully bend these all back up to a vertical position so the spine can be taken off!!



A section of finish has to be filled in, one application has been put on.

So now we have to deal with the sweat band issue!! Why do I do this?? Why would any sane person be bothered to try to fix this??

The tack stitch holes for the sweat band appear just below the visor stitch line.



The curved needle in action.
 
Thanks Bungo......I think I just need challenges in my life. A word to members following these threads......I have not had time really to work on my own resto projects picked up at the last SOS, they are on hold right now. The 14th Ulan officer is almost done and is going to look amazing, I am really pleased as to how it has come along.
 
Things have been progressing well on this restoration.....the helmet and rear visor were hydrated then blocked back into the correct shape using the plastic bag and wet newspaper method. The top was put back into position by simply putting wet paper towel on the inside of the shell where the top had caved in left for 90 min then put on a head form (covered in a plastic bag). Why the plastic bag? From experience I know that sometimes wet leather will stick to styrofoam, I can't take any chances. The shell top is pulled down into the proper position, the spike is placed back on top to act as a guide and then T pins are inserted through the chin scale holes to anchor the shell while it dries. 24 hrs later, she is blocked back into the correct shape. Helmets must be blocked back into the original shape and there is a bit of a science to the process. You have to know what you are doing and have the right tools to do the job. There is absolutely no sense to restitching warped visors back on to a warped helmet shell. In this case, the rear visor was warped as were the shell and the shell top. You can see all of these problems in the "before" pics. Here is where we are at present, both visors back on and into the finish fill in process:

There were 110 stitches across the front of this officer visor, the Baden OR had 57. It takes approx 6 hrs to restitch an officer visor (1) including cleaning out all the stitch holes in both visor and shell. It is not an easy task, and I do not recommend amateurs trying it.......220 holes had to be cleaned out and lined up properly. The thread used for an officer restitch also has to be finer than the OR.

As I mentioned, all the stitching has been done and we are now into the process of filling in 2 spots of missing finish:


You will notice that the sweat band and silk bag have been left pulled out despite the fact that all stitching has been completed. The reason for this is that the fittings have to be put back on. The restorer does not want to put any more stress on these delicate parts than is absolutely necessary. They have to be pulled out in order to stitch and they are stressed as the stitching occurs. The stitching on the silk bag is always delicate( the worst) and in this case, partially missing.You can also see here that the cane that keeps the bag up inside the shell is broken, this is typical. Anyway, we are refinishing at last so more pics to follow.
 
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