The long life of a M17

[Finnlander]

This is a Austro-Hungarian Stalhelm model 1917, which Finnish army bought in tens of thousands from Germany and France after ww1. I'd like to show this specific one here, because you can actually see signs of how it has been there, there and there.

There's an Iron cross scratched to the front of the helmet, which you can see clearly from the pics. It's been carved into the original ww1 paint and the 1930's Finnish paint has hidden parts of it. I can only assume it's been done in it's previous life in ww1, or the time around it. Under the newer Finnish paint is a couple of dents, including a sharp strike. A bayonet or a schrapnel perhaps? Or maybe he hit his helmet hard into a sharp edged rock, who knows. Interesting nevertheless.

The original paint can be seen in numerous places, especially in the interior. Finnish army painted it with brush very crudely. They just went around the ''easy to access'' places, so middle of the inside dome has 100% ww1 paint.

You can see the owners name inside. It is ''Tapio'', which is a Finnish first name. Also the pads are very worn and some even broken from where the lace goes from. Front liner pad has broke down sometime and been pre-ww2/ww2 field repaired with a new pad. The chinstrap has snapped once and it has been repaired by stitching it (in a hurry..) the wrong side outside.

The shell is marked W64 and the liner band has ''64'' in it also.

Just wanted to show you this interesting piece of history. Who knows what it has seen? Maybe both world wars, or maybe the other.

I do have a question for you; Do the pins and liner band look original ww1? If not, then they're Finnish depot versions.