Please help - LACQUERED tropical WH ?

[Winkelman]

Has anyone EVER seen a WH tropical buckle before in this GLOSSY finish ?

Marked Noelle & Hueck 1941 , green tab , normal inside .

The outside however has a glossy , translucent LACQUER . Before I try to remove this , and perhaps ruin an otherwise mint buckle : could this have been factory applied ? Or did some collector just apply it as a form of protection ?

Thanks for all help .. !

[Winkelman]

Lacquer ..

[Winkelman]

Normal inside ..

[Winkelman]

Sideways ..

[Winkelman]

1 more ..

[Winkelman]

Better pic. of marking - note lacquer from front visible on edge ..

[Ric Ferrari]

Has anyone ever seen a WH tropical buckle before in this GLOSSY finish ?

Marked Noelle & Hueck 1941 , green tab , normal inside .

The outside however has a glossy , translucent LACQUER . Before I try to remove this , and perhaps ruin an otherwise mint buckle : could this have been factory applied ? Or did some collector just apply it as a form of protection ?

Thanks for all help .. !

Hello,

the buckle showed is a well known original pattern, but the translucent lacquer is not factory applied in my opinion.
I remember few buckles purchased in the past by German Shows with the same appearance : IMO some collectors does apply it to different materials (steel, brass or silver) to prevent from rust or oxidation.

I would leave it as found, differently a factory finishing damnage is possible.

Best

Ric

[buckle1]

I have owned a number of buckles with this laquer finish. All were from European collections. The finish was applied to prevent tarnishing or to just protect the finish from scratches. As Ric stated it is definitely not a factory finish. I have removed the laquer from my brass buckles without any damage to them. If the paint on the steel buckles is original and you use fingernail polish remover it should not damage the paint. I would try a small area on the back of the buckle first as a test, or just leave it alone.

Bill

[Winkelman]

Thank you both for the fast reply ..!

I suspected as much , but if it would have been such a waste if the coating was indeed factory applied .
I have seen this lacquering before as protection for bare steel bayonets & such , where it would make more sense IMO ( and also easier to remove .. ) .

[Winkelman]

And it did look a little bit similar to the roller bar on this darkblue JFS buckle - but that's probably more highgloss paint than applied lacquer ..

[Ric Ferrari]

And it did look a little bit similar to the roller bar on this darkblue JFS buckle - but that's probably more highgloss paint than applied lacquer ..

The brownish paint on the JFS buckle roller bar is factory applied.

Ric