Gas masks

[Top Buzzer]

Hello Guys,

This may not appeal to non British collectors.

I am now 37 and the first thing I was given and the item that started me collecting was a WW2 civilian gas mask I was given when I was 8. I kept this item on my collecting shelf and I never opened it for years. Last week for the first time ever I opened the box! the rubber face mask broke up like a biscuit in my hands!!!!! what happened????????? How could I have prevented this? did I do something wrong in my handling? Does all rubber just naturally biodegrade over time? Its only a £10 item but I was gutted due to the sentimental value of the item.

Love to hear your advice.

Regards

Mike

[CWP]

I had a similar experience with a German civilian gas mask. Exposure to heat and other environmental factors can rot rubber over time. It may also be that some wartime rubber will just self-destruct. Rubber is not a permanent inert substance and it will change over time. The environmental condition that destroyed your mask may have happened before you owned it. The mask I had I kept in a metal box in a climate controlled room, it was never exposed to light, and one day I went to take it out and it had sort of melted and was just totally destroyed. I think sometimes there is no way to stabilize certain items.

Hello guys. I have read this and now i'm worried about my masks. I have 3 WW2 German military masks, 2 of which are made of rubber. Would renaissance wax protect them from such terrible thing? Let's hope to get some advise from other members.
Regards

[Top Buzzer]

Hello

I know its just a Gas mask but I feel I let the item down. I have owned this item for over 30 years and I remember last looking at it 14 years ago....perfect condition! then a couple of weeks ago the mask crubbled in my hands!!!!
I got this item in perfect condion 35 years after the war and it sat in a womans attic since then. In was on a shelf in a warm central heated home. I used to see these masks for sale at car boot sales and I used to get angry at seeing masks in this condition wondering how people can take so little care of them. Now I know this happens just in a normal place, cool and dry. Is it best to put.....don't laugh!!!! KY jelly on them? I once heard on TV that Vaselene rots rubber on condoms so probably the same on a rubber gas mask.
If you collect gas masks you have no reason to take them out the container or box and years later the same can happen. It shocked me how much the item deteriorated.
This is a stupid buy I made a month ago. I woman phoned me asking if I wanted to buy a mickey mouse gas mask. They are quite rare. I went into her attic and I found 35 boxed civilian gas masks, two mickey mouse, two babies gas masks and a civil defence gas mask. Got the lot for a bargain £200! When I got home I wondered why I bought all these Now I am paranoid incase they all rot in their boxes. I don't know how German WW1 gas masks have survived so long.

Thanks

Mike ps please don't get the wrong idea since we are on the subject of rubber,gas masks and KY jelly lol

[Wesley's Dad]

Gas Masks

I can sympathize with your gas mask situation. I collect Soviet equipment and all their masks are in sheet rubber like your British mask. We moved homes in 2009 and much of my collection is still in boxes. Recently I remembered that one of my masks was packed away from the others so I set out to find it among the boxes. When I found it, large areas of it had crystallized and gone brittle with areas crumbling off in my hands. When I first got the mask a very small area had started this process, but it had advanced further in storage. I have to wonder if the acid in paper making up the cardboard storage box was part to blame for my troubles. It certainly was not an issue of environment or climate in my case as I had that covered well.

I took away two things from this. 1) never again buy a mask with even the slightest trace of crystallization of rubber. This natural process once started only goes one way. 2) Do not store these items in cardboard boxes made of non-archival paper. The acid in such papers can harm other items over time.

That said, I would strongly consider not storing your other masks in the original wartime cartons if possible. They certainly are not archival quality and are likely made of a high acid content, low grade paper.

I certainly worry about my other masks, but I have had them much longer than the one that ruined in storage. They never had any evidence of becoming brittle before storage and still do not. They are also not packed away in a box anymore.

[Lt Visser]

I've never tried it, but a friend of mine said you should try the stuff they put on slotcar wheels. It makes the rubber soft and flexible.

[Uncle Goose]

Never put anything on rubber gasmasks, no wax, no talcum powder and certainly not those products to make rubber shine again, these will give nice results in the short run but eventually they will damage the rubber.

How good the rubber is depends on the moment is has been made, wartime production often consisted out of inferior materials (to preserve materials) or inferior production methods (to speed things up). Storage is also an important factor, especially light and temperature. Before I buy a gasmask I check every inch of it to see if the rubber hasn't started to perish yet, if it has it will still last a long time if it's stored properly but it will never get better or repaired. Unless it's a real scarce mask I never buy a gasmask with signs of dry rot. Look before you buy.

[Fariz]

What about storing German gas mask's in their original canisters? Is this a good idea? I bought a German gas mask and canister in 1994 and the gas mask has been in the canister since then. It's still in the same condition as when I bought it.