Help on Pionier Crusher Cap

[bradcancian]

Gents – what are your thoughts on this pioneer crusher? Apologies for the poor quality pics but that is all I have at the moment (from the public domain). The things that are sticking out at me as points of note are the slightly thicker piping, the slightly odd deterioration of the sweatband, the interior staining, and the different interior lining materials. There are things I do like, however – overall wear seems consistent from what I can see at least. Still, I am very much not an expert on these and would welcome more educated opinions on this one.








Thanks in advance!

BC

[BryanD]

I do not like it.
Although it has an early leather bill, It has a interior card board cap band stiffener. I can't see if it ever had chin cord buttons. I believe it has just had the crown shape wire removed for the broken look. I could be wrong but I do not think I would have it as represented as a crusher.

[Kreager]

Not a cap I'd like to have.

[DonC]

Brad, I suspect the visor has been reattached to a normal Pionier visor at best. At worst, I question the wear around the bottom of the sweatband as IMO it looks artificial to me.

Don

[bradcancian]

Thanks gents, looks like my concerns were well founded. Will stay away from this one. I continue to learn

BC

[Kurt]

Since I'm the guy who pointed out the online auction to Brad, I have to say I learned something as well.

I wasn't concerned about the slightly thicker piping, the staining or the interior lining materials. I agree that the sweatband looks a little strange and the insignia are probably reattached. I would even say that it had chincords at some point as there are signs of it when you look at the leather peak. My guess was that if it didn't have holes through the pasteboard from a previous wreath attachment, it could actually be a period crusher with restored insignia. I do have period crushers with such a pasteboard in my collection that even once had chin cords.

I'm not writing this to defend the cap in any way. This is just the second questionable Pioneer crusher I have pointed out to Brad. So this is sort of an apology: Sorry man --- I'll keep trying.

Kurt

[bradcancian]

Please don't apologise Kurt - without you I would have to look for these things myself!

I did find a couple of other interesting pionier items on that auction site, including an interesting piped EMs pionier tunic - never seen an EMs one available before, though I am currently pursuing deals on both an officer's and NCOs pionier piped tunics.... piped tunics for pioniers seem to be reasonably rare.

Anyways, keep on keeping those eyes out for me!

BC