This is beautiful! I think it is from Indonesia. From the eBay listing:
I saw this at the flea market and it was drawing so much attention, I knew I should buy it before it got snapped up. The hand tooling on this thing is amazing. It is covered with fancy designs and also heavy equipment, including a bulldozer, road grader, dump truck, and crane. There is a large eagle on the front over the nameplate, which reads "C.L. Aldrich". On the back is a nameplate which reads "Atlas". The condition is excellent, though it could use a little cleaning. The liner is in good condition as well. This is a standard McDonald Mine safety Appliance Co. hardhat that has been laboriously hand tooled into a one of a kind work of art. On top it is inscribed Kota Gede Yogya with the initials NR. Kota Gede/Yogya is a region in Indonesia widely recognized for it's fine silver craftsmen. The initials NR are probbably those of the artist.More pics here: Hand-tooled aluminum hard hat
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a Brit named C. Langley Aldrich was an expert on trains back in the 1940's
maybe he was over in asia after the war building railways? i bet there's an ancestor who would want that
Gorgeous!
Incredible ! ! !
As someone who has worn many hard hats in my life I would have killed for one of these.
25 or so years ago the owner of a concrete block plant in Oklahoma City had and wore a silver plated engraved hardhat, it was unreal. As a young contractor I was awestruck the first time I meet him with his silver hard hat, work cloths, and big boss attitude. His company ruled the industry in our area at the time.
...and we're sitting here wasting time blogging.
Shame on us.
I've got an aluminum hard hat (my father wore it while working on the Grand Coolee (sp?) dam. It's just plain. Now I'm ashamed.
I think it reads "C.E. Aldrich" not "C.L. Aldrich" on the front plate.
forget wearing them to work. Some safety git will show up and claim the helmet is "compromised" and can't be used.
My Dad has one if these. He got it in Indonesia in the 70s while he was working on an oil platform out in the ocean. I believe he said he picked it up for $25. It's equally as intricate and even has his name on the front.
Anyone kick out any links on handtooling aluminum?
I did some casual mid-bagel googling that didn't lead to the technique that would arrive at something that cool. I did find something else kinda nifty, crookedbrains.net, Monday, August 27, 2007
Aluminum Craft.
I haven't commented here much and I don't know the link policy so I will gladly offer myself up for dsemvowelling if I irk the mods.
J
search terms here
Wow, flashback.. I curated an exhibition of minder's hardhat art in Perth, Australia in 1997 and 1998 as part of the Artrage Festival. I'd been a driller in the mines and was sick of the miners regarding 'art' as something effete people in cities did, and sick of friends in the city asking me how I could stand working with all the white trash, so I got a grant to curate an exhibition of hardhat art - show the miners that a thing a lot of them did was actually art, and show the city slickers that there was more going on up in the mines than they thought. Anyway, to cut a long story short, while tracking down helmets for the show I got a letter from a retired miner with a photo of this hand-tooled helmet, and it's either this one or another by the same artist. He was insistent that it was worth a fortune and wanted it insured for a huge sum though, so we didn't end up using it in the exhibition. I'm delighted to hear there's more than one out there though.
sorry, here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Repouss%C3%A9_and_chasing
The technique on metal is called repousse. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Repouss%C3%A9_and_chasing
When done on leather, it is called tooling.
-Chris Wass
@1 gtron Descendant /pedantry
"..a photo of this hand-tooled helmet.."
I'm sorry, I was totally listening to your (actually very interesting) tale, and my mind wandered. Could you say the last bit again?
Sold for $127.50.
http://cgi.ebay.com/Awesome-Tooled-Aluminum-Hardhat-Heavy-Equipment-Design_W0QQitemZ250377715145QQcmdZViewItemQQptZMetalware?hash=item250377715145&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=66%3A2|65%3A13|39%3A1|240%3A1318
JoshP,
The link policy is that anything that adds value is fine - interesting, informative, a resource, funny, etc. It's almost always better to link to a specific item than a home page.
WANT. As a pipefitter, I wear a hardhat every day, and just today I was looking at various hardhats online, specifically for a carbon fiber model, but this tops that. Although the metal would probably be a bad idea at times when I'm fitting up a weldor to tack, and get zapped. It's bad enough when the shortest path to ground is through your gloves (sweat or rain), through the noodle might be a tad worse.
I have my dad's old (plain) aluminum helmet. It has no webbing. Anyone know where I can get new webbing?
just buy a cheap hard hat and swap it.
It's the modern version of Achilles's shield!
No, seriously, think about it. A hard hat is basically modern-day functional armor, right? And this one's engraved with scenes that have immediate meaning to the wearer, etc... the parallels are endless! [/classics geekery]
My dad has one of these, too. Although, I would argue that the engraving on my dad's is much more detailed and of better relief. I don't think it has his name on it. He travelled a lot in the 70's and 80's, so I'm sure he got it abroad as well. I will have to ask him about it. It always just sat around the house when I was a kid, and I always thought it was neat.
@14 - ?
gtron: You had it backwards.
The original owner of the hardhat would be the ancestor of his present day descendant.
I mean there probably would be an ancestor that would like that hat, but you would need a time machine.
Found the company. No mention of prices though.
Good find, #25. Looks like NR stands for the owner of the company, Noor Raharjo, and that there are thousands of these helmets out there. Still awesome!
Hi
I've tried to register to post but your link leads to a 403 forbidden message.
Just found this hat and thought i'd let you guy's know that i've found another one! Its not named and engraved (strangely) in an English style. Anyhoo, hope you like it!
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&item=330333645207
Have fun!
i also have a tooled aluminium hard hat, all the wonderfull detail is apparently the life story of the guy who wore it, his name is Chic Shaw and my fathers friend who used to work abroad in the 80's used to fetch me baseball caps but one day brought me this wonderfull piece of art! i think it was from Oman as he also gave me another baseball cap at the same time with South Oman decals . i would love to research the original owner/ artist, but i guess its near impossible now. but what a beautifull piece of work to show my kids.