Refitted British Mk 6a ?

[Mark K]

Just one more side note here from a man that wears two different styles of hard hats and climbing helmets at work for 10 to 12 hours a day and have for the last 25 + years sometimes it is the small things in there construction and padding that make up the difference...
I have a personal preference to what type of hard hat I wear it has the addition of a removable comfort cover for the front liner band with a better than average shock absorption system in the dome which is better than the standard helmets used at my place of employment ...

Regards Mark

[Greg Pickersgill]

Mark, good compare and contarst excercise, and very interesting. Like you I did think at first that the brow-pad with several 'pleats' was a clear distinguishing feature but when I pulled out another Mk7 I found it was different, having just a single pleat in the centre. I don;t think we can attribute anything to that element at all.

Having read your piece several times I remain unconcvnced that there really is any difference between the 6A and 7 liner, and right now (always open to new information of course) I believe that what has happened with the 6As previously shown is that the Mk7 chinstrap assembly has been installed in an otherwise factory-finish 6A. Obviously that doesn't make those examples any less interesting because it *is* a significant modification/upgrade.

It's worth mentioning that there might be nothing gained by removing the liners to check all this - unless they were obviously different shown sidebyside -as none of the NP liners are marked in any way.

[Mark K]

Thank you for taking the time to look Greg your thoughts and opinions are always appreciated and sir I believe you are correct ..
The slight difference in construction of the liner ie..the lines sewn through the brow pad and rear pad are a bit perplexing in regards to time lines and where the only notable difference I could see so was basing my initial post on this until you brought the subject up yesterday and forced me to pull some composites off the shelf this morning for a better look and noticed the my own Mk 7 helmets had liners with slight differences..

Regards Mark

[Greg Pickersgill]

Hold the phone a minute...we might have to press the reset button on this. Spurred on by that man we fondly know as 'Composite' I got out all my Mk7 and 6a (which was not easy I can tell you..small house, actual heaps of helmets) and I have the following

Mk 6A

2007 - 1 sewn pleat in browpad
2008 - 1 pleat
undated - 1 pleat

Mk 7

2010 - 5 pleats
2010 - 5 pleats
2012 - 5 pleats
undated - 5 pleats
undated - 1 pleat

And of course it was the latter undated and one of the 2010 Mk7 I originally checked. Which shows if nothing else that a sample of 2 is too small.

There's obviously something going on here; either the Mk6A and 7 liners are actually different (even if only in one respect) or...well, I dunno what 'or' is right now. Any more data from anyone?

[Composite]

Just checked 15-20 Mk 7s.....of those with labels, the ones with single-line-stitched front brow pads are all dated 2009/2010......and some of the 5-line-stitched front brow pads are dated 2010......

I’m just putting that out there......the brow pad stitching pattern changed in 2010.....please prove me wrong.....

How exciting is this?

[Mark K]

Well gentlemen now that is interesting thank you for taking the time to sort through multiple helmets as per my own Mk 6a with the single stitch brow pad it is dated to 2010, And the one Mk 7 with five stitch brow pad is dated to 2011..
Unfortunately my Mk 7's with the single stitch brow pad is without labels as is my re-fitted Mk 6a..

Regards Mark