Restoring German Helmets With Wax! (Diggers Tips, Photos+)

I recently acquired a very fine piece, an original German M42 Stahlhelm. Now this helmet was in a good condition with the original paint and everything, but I had one question: was there anything I could do to make it look better and add some value to it without destroying it in any way? And does it work for a “dug” German helmet? The answer is: yes!

As some of you may remember, I have already written about this wax here, and I recommend reading about it. But for those of you who just want a quick summary of what it is, here you go.

The wax polish with the name “Renaissance Wax” is a specially made micro-crystalline wax polish used among other things to preserve coins and to “freshen colors” as they say it themselves. This wax is actually used by the British Museum and many other restoration specialists, or so they claim themselves.

But now you may wonder, can you safely use this to “restore” a German helmet? Well, yes! First off, this wax does not damage the helmet in any way, but it actually protects the helmet from further corrosion. Second, this wax is totally reversible; just take a cloth with some white spirit on it, wipe the helmet and the wax is gone.

And by the way, I would totally trust the British Museum to know what they are doing;)

For instructions on how to use it, I will just let the wax talk for itself:

Now I proceeded to do exactly this with my M42 German Stahlhelm, but before doing it I took some photos of how it looked before applying this wax to really see the result:

Then I proceeded to apply the wax:

As you see, you immediately see the difference when applying the wax.

And finally, the result (I also inserted the liner here):

The photos above are after, and the ones below are before. the colors vary a bit because I took the first photos at night, and the second ones in the morning so the lighting was diferent. but trust me, it looks better after the process!

Now I would definitely say that it looks better! The wax makes the helmet look better by bringing out the original color and making it look smoother.

Let’s look at another example of what this wax can do:

Looks nice, doesn’t it?

This wax honestly doesn’t cost that much, and if it is worth it or not, is up to you to decide. After all, this is a matter of personal taste, but I’ll go ahead and say that I liked the results of this wax.

Good luck with your restorations!

For more useful diggers tips, look no further than here!