Cold War equipment for sale
Listings for sale
Guides for these pieces
- Identifying and dating a French military insigniaThe back of an insignia says more than its face: maker, fastening, approval number. How to place a striking and spot a recent restrike.
- Caring for military leather, textile and metal: the minimum ruleDry leather, moth-eaten wool, rusted metal: what to do, what never to do, and why doing nothing is often the right call.
- Valuing an Adrian helmetThere is no official price guide. The six criteria that open the gap between two Adrian helmets, and how to reach an honest order of magnitude.
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Collecting Cold War field equipment (1947-1991)
Equipment here means load carrying and individual kit: belts and harnesses, magazine pouches, haversacks, rucksacks, canteens and cups, mess tins, entrenching tool carriers, cleaning kits. Since these items were issued as complete sets, it is still possible to rebuild a whole kit rather than lining up single pieces. Yet the internal differences are marked: models from the early years, withdrawn early, are met far less often than those of the 1970s and 1980s, which stayed in service until the armies using them were dissolved.
Dating by the material
Material dates better than appearance. On the American side, the change from cotton canvas to nylon is the main reference point: the canvas models of the 1950s give way to synthetic equipment in the second half of the 1960s, then to the ALICE system adopted in 1973, with its characteristic moulded buckles. On the Soviet side, coated canvas and tarpaulin remain the rule to the end, with Bakelite or painted steel fastenings, while the aluminium of the early decades gives way to plastics.
The recomposed set
The dominant trap is the recomposed set: a recently made harness, two original pouches and a canteen from another country, sold as an issue set. Check that the pieces share the same shade, the same hardware and the same stitching finish, a maker rarely changing method from one piece to the next. Since the 1990s, demand from re-enactors has led to series production of copies of Eastern pouches and packs, convincing from a distance, recognisable by their shiny synthetic thread and over-regular eyelets. On anything containing rubber, the material hardens and cracks: an old protective item is kept, not used.