The Holy Grail of EK1 early Otto Schickle One Piece Clamshell ;-)

[vonStubben]

How difficult is is to silver plate something?

Not hard at all!

I have a very small, portable, plating machine with a "wand" attachment that you use along with a silver solution and a ground wire that silver plates most anything. Works with gold as well as copper, nickle, and chrome. This small device was developed for the car industry so the outer trim, emblems, etc., could be custom plated. I use this from time to time in order to restore certain antiques (where and when appropriate or necessary) etc.

[George Stimson]

Thank you!

[ben bijker]

Ben,

I don't think it was done to have a better base for the paint (as has been suggested) but rather to have the beading silvered already before the cross was painted (since this is a one piece). It would have been a lot more difficult to silver the frame after painting.

This cross is magnetic and paint sticks very well to iron.

That would make this cross one which either wasn't painted at all or stripped of the paint after the war. Since the owner insists that the screwback is original to the cross and shows patina, the cross seems to have been altered after the war. Just as Tony said: to enhance the desirability and rarity for the buyer.

Hi Dietrich,

I know it was because of the rim that it was plated first, most crosses have an iron core and no paint problems.
If you check out L/54 (early) ek's, most of them have a silver-plated core and lose the paint pretty easy.

the non-magnetic one-piece schinkels don't seem to have silver-plating, and the core i chemically blackened.

I think Stefan's cross was stripped from the remaining paint and polished, I don't see how it was awarded like this.
If you would wear it out in the field, that would be the same as committing suicide.....


best regards,
Ben

[Dietrich Maerz]

Hi Ben,

I know you knew - I am just posting because a lot of people all over the world are reading this ....

No way this was made to be sold like this (at least not during the Third Reich ...) nor to be awarded like this, we can all agree on that.

Dietrich

[killroy]

Yes Ben, I am one of those people all over the world. Still trying to catch up on a lot of the ins and outs of all of this. Glad to say though that this forum has made me much more confident about purchasing out in the world without first having to post my finds.

Jeff

[hades2004]

Very nice early Schinkle ! I have a preference for this kind of clamshell .
Kind Regards
Xiwan

[ben bijker]

Hi Ben,

I know you knew - I am just posting because a lot of people all over the world are reading this ....

No way this was made to be sold like this (at least not during the Third Reich ...) nor to be awarded like this, we can all agree on that.

Dietrich

Hi Dietrich,

I was a bit confused because you addressed your reply to me, that's all.
Of course I don't have a problem with your reply, everyone should benefit from this forum.

After all it's all about sharing knowledge and discussing crosses.

@Jeff: yes, you can learn a lot on this forum, no doubt about it!

best regards,
Ben

[5tefan]

Many Thanks to all ;-)

I must admit that this kind of finish could not been awarded official.
The disc show that the cross was worn.

So I come to the conclusion that the paint was stripped off.

Or it was plated postwar, what ever reason for!

Ben stated this type was always plated, I could only see a correlation to the EK2 on the shown pictures. But I'm not 100% sure about the finishing.

At the moment it is suspect for me, even it's texbook early Otto Schickle or most rated Unknown maker.

Maybe I was to euphoric with the headline.

And sorry for my behavior at MFF!

Sometimes I'm a meat head!!!!