The anatomy of the Schirmmutze

[Friedrich-Berthold]

You may see me on youtube playing the drums or windsurfing but you will never see me dissecting or re-assembling a hat! ;

All of above skills I've learn't have been hard earned with lots of sweat and tears and can't simply be downloaded into the brain!

This is my link to the past and the source of appreciation also. No book or online forum debate can truly convey or begin to understand what it meant to be a craftsman, an artisan who used the skills developed in his or her finger tips. You have you experience it yourself to understand.

I can't speak German and I'm not an academic. I know a fraction of what I should and what I would like to know about Germany and the period but I have undertaken an apprenticeship. I'm learning the physical skills of hat making and I choose to do that to better understand my subject. I actualy feel quite angry that my work will always be linked to the fakers trade and that suspicions will be raised and snide comments made but that's the price I have to pay for my interest in this period of history.

I do not link you to the fakers, but they are the chief practitioners of reverse engineering, which we facilitate and enable by sharing the truth. The artisan's approach has great poetry to it. Those who link you or anyone who wishes to follow the path you sketch out to a faker is a total fool, and belongs on the other website where such people can be company to each other with their digital slapstick and high jinx.

Since you live in Europe, which I do not, you can easily go by Ryanair or Easy Jet to said locales where people still do apprentice in cap making and learn also from them. I would do it if I had time, but I never do. My life is too quick and confusing, which is why I should become a taxi driver.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

Ben, if you were nearby, I would have you fix some of my caps and I would be sure to compensate you warmly, unlike others....

[KSH]

You may see me on youtube playing the drums or windsurfing but you will never see me dissecting or re-assembling a hat! ;

All of above skills I've learn't have been hard earned with lots of sweat and tears and can't simply be downloaded into the brain!

This is my link to the past and the source of appreciation also. No book or online forum debate can truly convey or begin to understand what it meant to be a craftsman, an artisan who used the skills developed in his or her finger tips. You have you experience it yourself to understand.

I can't speak German and I'm not an academic. I know a fraction of what I should and what I would like to know about Germany and the period but I have undertaken an apprenticeship. I'm learning the physical skills of hat making and I choose to do that to better understand my subject. I actualy feel quite angry that my work will always be linked to the fakers trade and that suspicions will be raised and snide comments made but that's the price I have to pay for my interest in this period of history.

Your physical approach, the act of learning the craftsmanship for yourself to understand this almost lost to us art, is a most praiseworthy venture my friend. I agree that no book can equal that. The people who automatically connect the noble thing you are doing to what the forgers are doing are narrow-minded fools in my honest opinion. In my opinion you make the traditions and skills of the past come alive today. And that is no small thing.

- Kenneth

[Friedrich-Berthold]

I will compensate you to fix the caps and the Mercedes, actually. I'd rather give the work to you than someone else.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

The fuel lines on my W210 Turbodiesel need replacing, since the o rings can start to leak easily. The car always needs work, actually, and there are too few skilled hands here to do it. Also, the transmission will likely need to be rebuilt, too, at some point, though I change the fluid regularly.

[BenVK]

I would urge you to sell it soon FB, before it no longer changes gear. Very expensive to repair...

[Friedrich-Berthold]

I would urge you to sell it soon FB, before it no longer changes gear. Very expensive to repair...

I know the German locally who rebuilds this kind of transmission, and the process is less expensive than the search for a like car of equal value. Such a procedure costs around 2,000 dollars, but it is worth it, as the car is very solid. They do not rust where I live. There is a huge used Mercedes repair infrastructure here, even though it is not Schwaben. Or I should take the thing to Schwaben and have them fix it. This W210 Mercedes also can run on waste vegetable oil and is appreciating in value as a result. My newer diesel cannot and is much more complicated, and not as robust.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

No, it is not a Tiptronic. It is the late 1990s transmission and can be rebuilt.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

Your physical approach, the act of learning the craftsmanship for yourself to understand this almost lost to us art, is a most praiseworthy venture my friend. I agree that no book can equal that. The people who automatically connect the noble thing you are doing to what the forgers are doing are narrow-minded fools in my honest opinion. In my opinion you make the traditions and skills of the past come alive today. And that is no small thing.

- Kenneth

Ben's approach also resembles or duplicates how these were actually made via the copying of the Proben by the vendors and craftsmen and craftswomen of the era. Here are some images of just such a Probe of the SS Sonderanfertigung peaked cap for enlisted and NCO made by Mueller. This piece is still for sale at no small price, but for sale all the same....

[Friedrich-Berthold]

No, it is not a Tiptronic. It is the late 1990s transmission and can be rebuilt.

OM606 722, in fact....