STEP BY STEP FROM A DRAFT TO FINAL IRON CROSS - Excursion in the Deschler&Sohn Munich

[Rich G]

Wonderful thread!

Here's one in unissues condition (although the core has suffered slightly). I'm sure there are better examples out there.

Rich

[Rich G]

back of packet

[J C Gray]

Wonderful thread!

Here's one in unissues condition (although the core has suffered slightly). I'm sure there are better examples out there.

Rich

[Douglas 5]

Nice presentation :
Just a bit to add to their production may be of interest :

Douglas

[Douglas 5]

Also ...

[mp409mm]

Thank you, I always wondered how it was done.
Alf.

[Rich G]

Of particular interest to me is how they burnished the frame. I knew more or less how but to see the actual burnisher and the size of it is interesting.

[Giel VW]

Never saw the whole series of photos. Thanks for sharing, looked like a nice place to work too

[Miro O]

I don't suppose that this is available with English text???

That´s precisely the point.

Thank you all who bothered to spend a word. When translating this, I was afraid that this info was already posted here, somewhere in time (I thought it had to be!). And although search window showed no results I was sure that someone would appear and post the link to an old thread where all of this is written in better English... But your interest and replies were the best answer.

I am ahead of you in this for about a month, so I can tell you, that this presentation needs a time to be absorbed. It´s really emotional experience for dedicated collector, to look through all these windows to the past. But when this strong feeling of time-machine calms down, there is a lot to discuss, to question, and also a lot that can be just throw away after knowing all of this.

J. C. Gray already opened one of the interesting themes. Yes, the crosses were not painted only before assembly, but also after assembly. At least at Deschler. When we see, how many steps follow after first basic paint, through how many hands and machines the cross travels, it makes sense that there must be one more spray finish at the end to clear all the paths. It makes sense now.

Another interesting theme, at least for me, is jumpring being drilled in the obverse frame and (what is not said, but can be seen) completely drilled out through the reverse frame. Not that long ago we had a discussion in Imperial Forum, where drilled in or out jumprings were ruled out as jeweler´s repair. And although I was not absolutely right in my assumptions, the opposite side was completely out of trail.

I believe you will come to even more interesting finds.

[J C Gray]

Yes, the crosses were not painted only before assembly, but also after assembly.

From experience, I can only imagine how meticulously well fitting that the stencil must have been to avoid any overspray on the beading...but assuming that the frosting was then applied in a similar way after this (a two part stencil would be required for this stage), it would have counteracted any inconsistencies on the beading.
This thread really drives home the almost inconceivable (in this day and age) amount of time, effort, skill, man hours etc. that went in to creating this most ubiquitous of awards, yet we as collectors still resent forking out $75.00 or whatever for an item of such quality and beauty.

[J C Gray]

Of particular interest to me is how they burnished the frame. I knew more or less how but to see the actual burnisher and the size of it is interesting.

Those burnishers aren't actually overly large...the handles are that size to act as a counter balance which allows for more accurate manipulation at the business end and also serves to combat muscle/tendon fatigue.
The burnishers seen in photo No.49 would appear to be 'dog tooth' agate burnishers and not hematite...hematite burnishers are almost black and would probably be used after this stage for a final burnishing. Incidently, 'dog tooth' refers to the shape of the stone on the burnishing tool, although hundreds of years ago a real dog, or badger's tooth would have been used.

Below is a selection of my own burnishing tools which I use for burnishing Gold Leaf, photographed beside a 13 EKII for scale and whilst neither the stones nor handles are quite as big as the ones in the Deschler photos, you will generally find that the handles get larger relative to the stones...the dog tooth one shown below originally had a very large handle, but it broke and the only thing that I had to re set it in was this dip pen handle. BTW. the dark stoned tool at the top is hematite.

[Eklipse]

There were two different production models: the big factory (as the one reviewed in this thread) and the small workshop in a city with many craftsmen working as a "cottage industry" basis.

High production numbers were achieved through firms like Deumer, Zimmermann, Deschler, Mayer's, and so on. Factories with important premises and modern machines, as the belt driven ones we can see in the photographs.

On the other hand, there was a plethora of small makers with lower production numbers that worked with a great array of suppliers of semi-finished parts, doing the final assembly of the medals. Machinery was mostly hand driven, but the quality of the craftsmanship equalled the industrial production.
This is the way you can spot, for example, the very same pin in crosses from various different makers...something that now makes the collector crazy.
Postwar production was done mainly in this way, adding the use of leftover parts from everywhere.

[tejanofig]

This post was a great source of information. What is better is the continuous addition of more info. Thank you all.
Jose Fig

[Buuzert]

Very interesting thread, thanks for sharing.
I already got a written answer on "repainted deschler R3 core" but now also with photos included.

Indeed a great source of information.

My R3 extra painted core

[StefanK.]

Thanks for your effort!