Jump to content

Cleaning A Berlin Police Pickelhaube


SARGE
 Share

Recommended Posts

Gents,

 

I thought I would post some photographs of a Berlin Police Pickelhaube that I picked up a few years ago. It was dirty, had 100 years of tarnish on the fittings, and was lying un-loved and under-appreciated in a pile of field gear on a dealer table at SOS on the last day. So, I bought it for reasonable money and brought it home thinking I could improve it.

 

Everybody likes a before and after story like the underappreciated Cinderella becoming the beauty of the ball. My helmet may not exactly be a Cinderella story but I was able to make it more beautiful. When I got the helmet the leather corpus was dirty but not damaged with tight stitching and just a couple of scrapes to the original black finish. The fittings were all solid German silver with no damage outside of being a little misshapen. The chin strap and cockades were missing but these can be found. The liner was intact but this gave rise to a problem. The liner is not the open kind but the closed style with a closed cloth lining attached to the wide leather head band. Therefore, none of the metal fittings could be removed to clean or polish the leather or the fittings. This circumstance gave rise to some thought and ingenuity.

 

Before photos follow:

 

 

Berlin Pol helmet.JPG

Berlin Pol helmet side.JPG

Berlin Pol helmet plate.JPG

Berlin Pol helmet 2.JPG

Berlin helm lining.JPG

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Knowing that I would have to clean and polish the helmet with the fittings attached I devised a plan. First, I cleaned the leather as best I could with water and a damp rag. I knew that the water would not harm the solid German silver fittings so after cleaning the leather body I let the helmet dry thoroughly for several days. I then took on each piece with brasso metal polish. I don't normally use brasso but it is aggressive enough take on 100 years of tarnish and grunge like was on this helmet. The brasso worked well and simply required careful application and lots of elbow grease. I could work on areas like the visor trim and spike without too much trouble to worry about getting the polish on the leather. After polishing these metal pieces I took a tooth brush to remove any polish (old or new) that was on the adjacent leather. My problem arose when I tackled cleaning and polishing the front plate. The Berlin Police Wappen is intricate. It also had some original black highlights in the Berlin Polizei motto lettering that i did not want to remove. So, I took a sheet of fairly thick paper and slid it between the leather body and the front plate. I then meticulously polished the Wilhelm cipher and carefully avoided the black paint in the motto inside the ribbon. This was the most difficult part and it took days to accomplish.

 

At the end of the process the helmet looked better. The leather was cleaner and what remained of the original finish was still there. The metal fittings were all one silver color and the nicotine stain was gone forever. The original black highlighting of the Berlin Police motto was retained and that actually came out much better than I had dared hope. The Nationale and Prussian cockades were replaced / restored along with the chin strap. And, I am very happy with the way it looks nowadays. Perhaps not a Princess at the ball but no longer a frog.

 

 

Berlin helm left.JPG

Berlin helm right.JPG

Berlin helm.JPG

Berlin helm back.JPG

Berlin helm side.JPG

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That looks fantastic! Great job in restoring it to what it would have looked like when it was in service. (I don’t always agree with the “leave it looking like it was neglected for 100 years” crowd.) Must have been tough keeping the brasso off the leather.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for the kudos! I like before and after photos so I took pictures of the cleaning process along the way. This cleaning job was a real pain but I think the results were worth the time and effort. I should say that this helmet was not only cleaned but was restored. It was a restoration because while I only removed dirt and grunge and tarnish from the helmet I also replaced the missing cockades and chin strap. So, it was more than just conservation to restore this spike helmet to its former glory. But I think the work was worth it.

 

I should also say that this is the Model 1898 Berlin Police Pickelhaube. Notice that it has a low Police Official (Beamte) style of white metal spike with a pearl ring and a ball on the tip. It also has a nicely shaped four armed base that can be seen on some Beamte spikes. The Friedrich Wilhelm IV (FW) Wappen plate commemorates the 50 years of service of the Berlin Police in 1898. This helmet was worn from 1898 until 1918.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Have you ever tried using lemon juice? I tried it in place of Brasso and found that it did a reasonably good job on cleaning U.S. Army brass and silver items I have had over the years without the residue. After success with my uniforms, I used it on my Pickelhaube.

 

Regards,

John

Link to comment
Share on other sites

John,

 

I have not tried lemon juice. It is acidic so using it makes sense. I will put that on my list of things to try.

 

Thanks, George

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...