Muetzenfabrik

**stonemint** · 02-20-2012, 04:53 AM

F-B, those are someone's collection on the WAF (and one I would love to have myself).

**Espenlaub Militaria** · 02-20-2012 04:53 AM

We also buy and trade your items and full collections!

**stonemint** · 02-20-2012, 04:54 AM

BTW, the civil headgear industry had their own trade publication leading up to WW1. Too bad there was not a military equivalent:

**Friedrich-Berthold** · 02-20-2012, 05:04 AM

by stonemint

F-B, those are someone's collection on the WAF (and one I would love to have myself).

thank you.

**BenVK** · 03-17-2012, 09:22 PM

I too get a buzz from seeing marketing material of the period matched with the actual product.
Thanks Chris!

**stonemint** · 03-26-2012, 03:47 AM

Here is the "Erel" of USAAF headgear: Bancroft Flighter Crusher. Note the price in US $:

**stonemint** · 03-26-2012, 03:48 AM

Not quite an Erel, but still a private purchase cap--note the price in RM:

**Friedrich-Berthold** · 03-26-2012, 04:49 AM

The irony of convergence. However, RM 7.50 was less than USD 7.50, to be sure.
The classical exchange rate was, I believe, 1 USD = 4.2 RM, but that may have changed at the end of the 1930s. I well recall the era in which 1 USD was 4.2 DM, in my salad years.

**stonemint** · 03-31-2012, 02:18 AM

F-B, thanks for the exchange rates. The Bancroft "Flighter" was cheap compared to the premier maker of USAAF visors during the war, Luxenberg. His visors retailed for $14.00, which would come to some RM58!
Unfortunately, neither Luxenberg nor Bancroft survivedd to this day. Bancroft got caught up in some government contract scandal arising out of the "beret order" back in 2001 (but by then they were making their caps in Arkansas, and not Framingham).

The USAAF crushers are much more utilitarian than their German bretheren, and are (imho) more durable, in terms of the cowhide sweatband, thickness of the one-ply visor, and attachment points for the visor. The AAF leather bills are tanned and dyed differently as well, and as a result, they do not age like the "asphaltum" bills of TR crushers.

**stonemint** · 03-31-2012, 02:23 AM

Here is a major difference between US & TR visors--the liner. US visors used a thing form of clear plastic (almost like polyethelyne) for waterproofing. However, over the years, these (for some unknown reason) "caramelize" --ie, they turn brown over time (but still retain flexibility).