crusher interior cap band fake/celluloid?

[kaiserwilhelm2]

Dear Forum,

I picked up this crusher cap yesterday. It is just wonderful (nicely aged, well used - see pics) BUT the interior or structural cap band is not lacquered pasteboard.

On page 44 of Wilkins' " The collector's guide to Third Reich military headgear" it reads: "The interior (structural) cap band for visor caps was made of lacquered pasteboard (sort of paper of cardboard like material - addition to the text by myself), sometimes with a thin cloth glued over it." Clearly this is not the case with this crusher!

Wilkins then goes on: "Kriegsmarine caps occasionally turn up with a cap band made of a thick celluloid material rather than the normal pasteboard. Metal was never used for bands, nor was plastic (highly flexible plastics, in fact, did not yet exist in the 1940s). Many of the reproductions available today do use plastic, rather than a pasteboard band."

My problem now is the following: of what material is my interior cap band made? (see pics) The material is flexible although resistant so that to completely fold would probably mean damaging it, it is thin, and it appears to be lacquered as the material itself below the lacquering contains what appear to be fibres. So - although I am not an expert on materials - this does not seem to be plastic. Could it be celluloid? I am also not sure of that because I have never seen any celluloid interior cap bands.

I love this crusher and can not fault it on anything but this unusual interior cap band. I would hate to return the cap but if it is not genuine it will have to go back. Any help is really appreciated to determine the genuineness of the interior cap band and therefor of this beautiful cap! Thanks.

Willem

[kaiserwilhelm2]

Here are the pics of the interior cap band. What do you think?

[knopf]

textbook interior band for crusher caps.

[Kreager]

I see no worries about that band material. Looks like a good cap to me.

Matt

[jacquesf]

I agree very nice looking cap. I would not mind owning this one. Jacques

[M B CHISHOLM]

This is the cap from relics recently if im not mistaken.... Looks like a nice vet

[Andy C.]

Boy i would love to own this one too!

[kaiserwilhelm2]

Thank you all so far for your very nice comments on my crusher cap.

However, after doing some more research. It turns out that the word plastic in the English language is being used more generically for a variety of artificial substances and not only plastic in the strict sense of the word (as in f.e. the plastic used for plastic bags).

I tend to think that the material used for the interior cap band of my crusher is some sort of artificial substance and therefore could - in the more generic sense - be termed as plastic.

If so, how does this rhyme with Mr Gary Wilkins' comment that: "Metal was never used for bands, nor was plastic (highly flexible plastics, in fact, did not yet exist in the 1940s). Many of the reproductions available today do use plastic, rather than a pasteboard band"?

If my crusher is genuine but does have a 'plastic' interior cap band, it would seem Mr Wilkins' comments on the non-use of plastic for bands is incorrect. But as I believe Mr. Wilkins is somewhat more of an expert (having written a whole book on military headgear) than I am, it still seems more logically to assume that my crusher even as wonderful as it is, should ipso facto be a reproduction.

ANY COMMENTS ON THIS DILEMMA? Please help me out. THANKS.

W

[phild]

The material used in your cap is some type of heavy woven fabric like canvas or a form of buckram that has been bonded with a substance (probably using heat when the coating was liquid) to give it ridgidity but allow flexability. As everyone has said already this is very typical in these caps although several other materials were employed just as often depending on the maker and the whim.

There is nothing plastic about this one.

[jacquesf]

I will help you out of you dilemma.You can sell the fake cap to me. Jacques

[kaiserwilhelm2]

LOL!