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

[David North]

Hello Mark and Robin,

In my opinion and without wishing to appear patronising (which I am definitely not), an excellent, reasoned and detailed response by yourself (Mark) which is greatly appreciated. I would suggest that it positively adds to our learning curve on the interesting subject of metals to include of course, the dreaded ZAMAK!

By my previous post, I have not for one moment suggested that the roundel to Robin’s Wehrwolf buckle is made from ZAMAK. Do you think however that there may be any benefit to the Belt Buckles Forum in discussing the subject of ZAMAK any further? Whilst potentially interesting, would it perhaps deflect and dilute somewhat from Robin’s post with regard to his again, Wehrwolf buckle?

Look forward to your thoughts.

Regards and best wishes,

David

[Robin Lumsden]

Thanks all for your comments.

Everything is much appreciated !

Here's another one of this pattern I found on the web. This was from an attic find in Germany a few years back. The roundel on this one also looks like zinc / kriegsmetall / hartzinn/ zamak or whatever .................... certainly a different material from the (iron/steel?) buckle proper.

As a point of interest, I've seen modern German pewter plates stamped 'zinn' and old German lead soldiers also advertised as 'zinn'. So I'm a bit confused as to whether 'zinn' actually means 'pewter', 'lead' or 'tin' .................... or a combination of all three !!

A Feldgendarmerie gorget I have had for the last 40-odd years, which I've always known as 'kriegsmetall', looks to me like it is made from exactly the same dull silvered grey material as the roundel on my buckle.

I'm assuming this one shown here is the 'Feldgrau' pattern advertised in the original newspaper shown earlier at RM 0.80, as opposed to my 'Messing Poliert' at RM 1.20

[Robin Lumsden]

Direct comparisons .......................

[Robin Lumsden]

The whole advert ...................

[Robin Lumsden]

One final thought ....................

After looking at a few known surviving examples of this 'official' (i.e. 'Vorschriftmaessiges', according to the newspaper advert) pattern of Wehrwolf buckle, as opposed to the many unofficial designs, I think this one most closely resembles what mine would have looked like when new.

To my eyes, these two seem to have come from the same die striking.

Thanks to David, for the chance to compare these.

[Gimmie]

My apologies for digging this old thread back up, but I distinctly remember seeing somewhere an advert like this detailing a 'Hitler mutze, Wehrwolf mutze'. It was a sketch of these early bergmutze with, I believe, a stripe down the side of the mutze in the sketch. Is there any chance you might recollect what I'm talking about and are able to post this again? I believe I have an image that shows a wehrwolf mutze off in the background.