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After the light rinse, I drew the rust buckets a warm bath. Of course armed with gloves and good ventilation. First I poured just enough water to cover the bottom of the tub. Then I threw in a handful of Oxalic acid as a substitute for bath salts and dissolved it by stirring. Now I put in the helmets and filled hot-hot-hot water until the lids were submerged

In a forest where a gebirgsjäger artillery unit once lived I have searched and metal detected for a few seasons, and found several interesting map tools and some shooting tables for their guns.

These small metal sleeves to place a matchbox in were popular tourist trinkets and often they were decorated with vikingships, iconic landmarks, coat of arms etc. A few times I have been extra lucky and dug up trench-art examples were the soldier had made the cover from scratch and personalized it with his own artwork.

What is very common with these metal cups, made from a low quality aluminum-zink alloy, is that they most of the times are decorated with so called trench-art. In their spare time soldiers personalized these items with names and illustrations, reminding them about home, a dear one and other positive memories.