Pickelhaube Cockade Questions

[PlaceOfBayonets]

Well, Joe settled everything!
I for one am heading over to Pickelhauben.net

Eric

Is Pickelhauben.net a forum dedicated to halbs only? Are they a open forum or a bunch of paranoids like on German Helmet Valhalla?


W.

[joerookery]

The forum is www.pickelhaubes.com

Are they a open forum or a bunch of paranoids

I think there are good group of guys -- I don't know anything about paranoids.

[C. Roelens]

Someone wrote me and asked me to give an opinion on this. First I think Chip was right and you should focus on pickelhaubes.com

The questions about cockades are legion. There is not even an agreed-upon spelling nor name. I think we still have a great deal to learn. I don't think anyone has a lock on the topic but it certainly has led to some opinions in the past that were probably formed by poor documentation like Bowman from the 1980s.I have actually withdrawn my article on the subject rather than listen to some of this.

There were many many types of these cockades. Sizes changed over time but the ones you are looking at generally fall into the 48 mm category. The European system is millimeters and works far better than inches when it comes to helmets. There are two questions. Are they all supposed to be exactly 48 mm? Did they all have this lip that you are showing? The first question is answered only by the argument about Probe samples. Was there a sample that all cockades were supposed to clone? Therefore all of the correct cockade should clone this perfect example exactly. The second question is far easier. There were many different types of lips. Some had no lip -- some had a reinforcement around the center hole. Some were flared -- some were not -- some have notches -- some did not.



I think there is a pretty good layout of a metal "kit helmet" at this website:
http://www.pickelhauben.net/articles/BKa.htm
you can see that these are flared and have- notches. From what I have been able to research the manufacturers of the various ersatz helmets might have used this style of cockade to improve the fit helmets made of metal. It was a real selling point in their letters. A higher lip would tighten the fit of the m91. then of course you have the issue of all of these cockades laying around and used pretty much indiscriminately. Therefore I think it might be difficult to attribute a raised lip to specifically this kind of helmet or that kind of helmet.

I do not plan to expand upon the probe system here. I hope what I have written has been of some help -- I would consider moving other questions to the pickelhaube's forum.

Hello Joe,

Thank you for taking the time to respond... it is much appreciated. I will be visiting pickelhaubes.com.

Best Regards,

Chuck

[C. Roelens]

Hey Chuck, you looking to restore some cockades to your halb?

W.

W.,

I'm looking for an original pair of cockades, and a chinstrap (with steel fittings) to complete this helmet.

Chuck