By way of introduction: My involvement in the leather trade, is a Historical one as I restore/restitch the leather spiked helmets worn by the German army from 1842-1918. I have been doing this for 20+ years and I work on helmets which are worth from $500 to $2,500+US. All my stitching has to be done by hand as these helmets were coated with a shellac based waterproofing and although, they were originally machined stitched they have to be done by hand 100+ years later. Any attempt at modern machine stitching will chip the shellac finish. I don't have much knowledge regarding turn of the century sewing machines but from Observation, I do know that the ":foot" of the machine left tracks on the underside (hair side) of the leather. The shellac finish was sprayed on to the flesh side of the hide where it would stick much better. All thread used has to be 100% natural as anything modern would show up (glow) under blue light. Primarily, I use vintage 100% cotton thread purchased on the internet although, I have also used vintage linen. I was rather disappointed with the linen, it is supposed to be very tough but weakened and frayed when applied to my specialized usage. I of course, use beeswax to coat my thread at all times when stitching. I use 6 cord thread on Ordinary Ranks helmets which were govt. issued and a finer thread for the custom purchased officer helmets. I have also restitched holsters for various customers. Anyway, that is what I am about, I am interested in any information regarding the shellac waterproofing formula used on these and other turn of the century leather helmets. B
