Original Waffen SS Camouflage Helmet Covers Factory Un-Finished!!

[Scott A. Hess]

Just my $0.02...
A helmet cover modern made post war from real zeltbahn material has no value to me at all. It is a fake, despite the real material. It would be worth far less to me than the zeltbahn that was cut up to make it.
It has no historical value at all.

I know you and many/most will probably disagree, but I dont agree with the above. I myself have a cover made of original material, I am guilty in a very real indirect way of these zelts being cut up, I didnt make one, I bought one. It fills several purposes.

1. Its an excellent learning tool in deciphering good from bad ones.
2. Not everyone has 7500-12K to buy an original one, its a LOT of money, it thus fills that expensive missing hole with no risk.

Like everyone here, I don't like seeing original zelts cut up to make repros, but the fact is, it has been done, is being done, and will continue to be so, ATF has made and will continue to make near perfect copies using original camo and as they say new generation rockers/springs. These though are not meant to deceive, but, we all know somewhere down the road it will happen just as with the outed Italian covers.
Bottom line, people want these covers, most cannot afford them, and those that do buy them, are taking a leap of faith just as with the Italian ones. Sometimes, 150 dollars spent on a "non historical frankenstein" can save you 8k, use it as a tool to try to one day find a real one, or make sense out of what a real one is supposed to look like, or have the next best thing if there is such a thing, and buy something else you won't loose sleep or money over.

[blamers]

Materials...

In fact I see some used camo materials I did never seen before.
Some do here, I guess...
It's very obvious this is very later used materials.

Just look at the low ink used on cloth with almost no brown visible.
Green enough..that's a fact.


This is really awesome , and destroying knowledge before.

So a very learnfull thread IMO.

I know you and many/most will probably disagree, but I dont agree with the above. I myself have a cover made of original material, I am guilty in a very real indirect way of these zelts being cut up, I didnt make one, I bought one. It fills several purposes.

1. Its an excellent learning tool in deciphering good from bad ones.
2. Not everyone has 7500-12K to buy an original one, its a LOT of money, it thus fills that expensive missing hole with no risk.

Like everyone here, I don't like seeing original zelts cut up to make repros, but the fact is, it has been done, is being done, and will continue to be so, ATF has made and will continue to make near perfect copies using original camo and as they say new generation rockers/springs. These though are not meant to deceive, but, we all know somewhere down the road it will happen just as with the outed Italian covers.
Bottom line, people want these covers, most cannot afford them, and those that do buy them, are taking a leap of faith just as with the Italian ones. Sometimes, 150 dollars spent on a "non historical frankenstein" can save you 8k, use it as a tool to try to one day find a real one, or make sense out of what a real one is supposed to look like, or have the next best thing if there is such a thing, and buy something else you won't loose sleep or money over.

[Asper]

Normally we see on different rockers here, but now all seems to be ok.
I see different steel rockers with different nails, steel and alluminium.
So I guess rockers before judged :thumbsdown are : now......
They all look very originall to me.
Quite confusioning.


It"s a very learnfull thread.

We all see there are more things to learn IMO.

Blamers, all rocker clips and pins shared in the pictures are textbook. You may be referring to the late war combinations which ranged from raw metal to anodized aluminum, pins ranged from steel to aluminum, in fact steel pins existed much earlier with aluminum clips.

Until recently, my experience has been that late war covers with still rocker clips were much scarcer to find, but over the past 2 years many have been surfacing in the open market which is rather odd, but plausible I suppose. Finds like these where 20 of these covers hit the market does impact the relative rarity of late war covers.

Cheers,

Asper

[blamers]

Yeah Sure..

Ive seen pinned NO before.

As I did say they look all very original to me.

Reading.... Asper.

Many things we don't know before are beyond textbook we know for now.

Blamers, all rocker clips and pins shared in the pictures are textbook. You may be referring to the late war combinations which ranged from raw metal to anodized aluminum, pins ranged from steel to aluminum, in fact steel pins existed much earlier with aluminum clips.

Until recently, my experience has been that late war covers with still rocker clips were much scarcer to find, but over the past 2 years many have been surfacing in the open market which is rather odd, but plausible I suppose. Finds like these where 20 of these covers hit the market does impact the relative rarity of late war covers.

Cheers,

Asper

[Scott A. Hess]

Its amazing things like this are still being found, it will certainly impact value of these covers, maybe in a good way though. Again, I would not finish or destroy the covers. I have 4 unissued SS zelts. Should I destroy them one day, rather than sell them as someone might turn them into covers? Your not responsible for what someone may do one day.

[Willi Z.]

D, great to see you grabbed more items from this amazing discovery!!!

Glad you followed through....

[drempfer]

Amazing find and great to hear many differing opinions. I'd leave the covers as is!

[Thorsten B.]

Very impressive pieces and a lot to learn!! Congrads to your stunning find!!

[horsetrainer]

Sorry Guys my computer was down all day and now is back up. There is a lot of PM and I will try to get to them after I make this post. I wanted to tell the story about how I got these. Some know from a previous post that I started, so basically I am copying and pasting it.

"Basically I sell on German ebay. The gentleman contacted me from my ebay auctions and told me about the helmet covers. I personally did not know that these were original since I never owned or even touched an Original Waffen SS Helmet Cover. I emailed him back and said that I was interested and he told me he would send a "sample". So a week later the sample came in the mail and when I opened it I was VERY IMPRESSED and thought this is a HIGH Quality Reproduction!!! I tried it on various shell sizes and come to find out the sample fit on 62/60 helmet shells. So I emailed him back to find out if he could make larger sizes and possibly make M42 Camouflage Feldmützen! He emailed me right back and told me "No! These were made during the war and are NOT new!". That is when I had the "brick hitting the head moment" and finally realized these are Original and not reproductions!!! Dank Gott!! The rest is history!"

[horsetrainer]

Partial manufacture of a Waffen SS Helmet Cover

[horsetrainer]

Partial manufacture of a Waffen SS Helmet Cover 2

[horsetrainer]

Partial manufacture of a Waffen SS Helmet Cover 3

[horsetrainer]

Partial manufacture of a Waffen SS Helmet Cover 4

[Christopher G.]

Amazing find! I am so happy that this stuff is still being found to this day...so cool. I would also leave them as is and let the next person decide. This also may be a nice opportunity for someone who may not be able to afford a complete one, purchase one of these from you...like myself

Regards,
Chris G.

[Patty D]

Its amazing things like this are still being found, it will certainly impact value of these covers, maybe in a good way though. Again, I would not finish or destroy the covers. I have 4 unissued SS zelts. Should I destroy them one day, rather than sell them as someone might turn them into covers? Your not responsible for what someone may do one day.

Great advice Scott, leave them as is! Plus if you document these and any other pictures of the covers, any that come up again 'finished' can be identified!