Holes in a buckle ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ??

[Robin Lumsden]

Kirby.

I bought it for half that amount.

You have to remember ................. I'm a Scotsman !!

[Robin Lumsden]

David.

Great to hear from you again after all these years.

Many thanks for your valuable analysis. It is much appreciated.

Funnily enough, it was the wear on the thing that attracted me to it.

As regards the source, it came from a friend in Germany who is also a collector of all things totenkopf, Wehrwolf and Weimar. He's currently disposing of a number of items. He, in turn, told me he had bought it from a buckle collector some time ago. As to it's origins before then, who knows.

In any case, I was very happy to pick it up.

It's destined to sit alongside this case .................

[kirby]

You got a very good deal at that price.

[David North]

Dear Kirby and Robin,

Many thanks for providing the background information about this buckle and which is greatly appreciated. This is something that normally is of no interest to me, however I was intrigued as quite simply, I could not recall the the last time that this particular design of the Wehrwolf buckle was openly for sale.

Regards and best wishes,

David

[yellow12]

Hello,

the roundel looks like made from zinc .

I think it's unusual for this time period.............

[Robin Lumsden]

Hello Markus.

That's what I thought as well.

Zinc ................... or kriegsmetall ...................... was used for medals, badges etc. from 1916 onwards, but I can't recall seeing too many zinc buckles or buckle fittings.

Here are a few examples ....................

[David North]

Perhaps the subject roundel is not Zinc and instead is Hartzinn which is sometimes rightly or wrongly described as Pewter. I think that Hartzinn or colloquially Zinn translates as Hard Tin and of course Tin is the main component of Pewter.

Richard (DUJAILAH) on the Imperial German Buckles sub forum shows some sparkling examples of Hartzinn roundels on brass boxes and the also, the disastrous attempts to manufacture a buckle in toto with this soft alloy metal.

Is there a metallurgical definition of Kriegsmetall or is it instead, simply a generic term for that created in times of shortages, due to a lack of valuable core metals?

These days on the Fora and dealer’s sites, I hardly ever see reference to ZAMAK and instead the ubiquitous Kriegsmetall. No problems with that I should add. ZAMAK is importantly a very low aluminium alloy with a zinc base and I do not know when it was developed in Germany. ZAMAK as an acronym says it all as Z for zink (zinc), A for aluminium, M for magnesium, A for aluminium (again) and K for copper (kupfer).

ZAMAK is often referred to as Pot Metal and that is a description we know very well from late Second World War belt buckles.

Anyway, I think that there must have been some interesting metallurgical Kriegsmetall recipes between 1915 and 1945, although and again, I think that the Wehrwolf roundel may be Hartzinn, rather than Zink proper.

I would highly recommend everyone interested in 1919 to 1945 period German buckles to have a squint at our Forums sub forum of Imperial German Buckles as it and in my opinion, illustrates on many occasions an early rolling precedence, development and methodology picture towards the craft of German buckle design, assembly and manufacturing.

Regards and best wishes,

David

[Robin Lumsden]

Thanks David. Hartzinn makes sense to me. All I know is ............... it's dull grey and non-magnetic !! A bit like myself.

[Watchdog]

[QUOTE=David North;1945164]Perhaps the subject roundel is not Zinc and instead is Hartzinn which is sometimes rightly or wrongly described as Pewter. I think that Hartzinn or colloquially Zinn translates as Hard Tin and of course Tin is the main component of Pewter.{QUOTE]

I think to translate Hartzinn as Pewter doesn't really work as Pewter is an English name for a particualr alloy which contains Antimony as well as Zinc, Copper and Lead. Whereas Hartzinn is formulated differently according to use in proprtions of; Tin & Copper, Tin & Lead or Tin, Lead and Copper but not Antimony I believe. So it is probably more correct to translate it as Hard Tin and leave it at that.
As for Zamak I believe that is an American invention from the late 1920s which is an alloy of Zinc, Aluminium, Copper and Magnesium as you say. I don't know if the Germans had a production licence but it was manufactured in UK as Mazak (?).
The term "Pot Metal" in UK is a (somewhat archaic) generic term for zinc alloys at the lower end of the spectrum ie not the high performance specialist formulations.
I have always thought of "Kriegsmetall" ie "War Metal" as simply a description of the mostly recycling material gathered for the war effort (I think it might have been a company name originally) as in most of the belligerent nations rather than a particular basic alloy so maybe the use of the word in the context of some particular material is a misnomer brought about by common usage? It would be good to have a proper definition though if one exists.

In any case I think the roundel here is very unlikely to be pewter (proper) as it would be far too soft to endure wear so likely it is Hartzinn or dare I say ZAMAK

I know this doesn't help with the buckle here but I hope it adds to the discussion.

Regards

Mark

[Robin Lumsden]

Thanks, Mark.

When you have the buckle in hand, it is clear that the skull roundel has obviously been very detailed originally. Now the high points are almost worn smooth. Perhaps it is the relative softness of this grey metal, whatever particular combination of materials it is, that has resulted in the wear we see today.