Article about: If you keep the helmet in a dry place it wont corrode, but if you want to protect it further wipe a very thin layer of beeswax on to it!..
I just started collecting Stahlhelms and this is the first one I bought. I was on a holiday trip in Poland, Krakow and saw this one in one ''Antyki - Militaria'' shop. The shopkeeper said that it is original WW2 Wehrmacht M35 helmet.
He said that it has been reissued to Polish army/personnel after the war, so all of the stuff inside of it are from fifties and are Polish.
I bought it for 60€ and after that, I took it to another Militaria shop named ''Arsenal'', which's very friendly and knowing owner said that the shop I bought it from had many fakes in it's wares. Old and new next to each other.
I showed the helmet for him and he said that it's a nice shell and is original WW2 Heer helmet. It has some ''Apple green'' or something like that, paint still left on it. It wont show well in the pictures. He also said that it is in original paint.
The only real flaw I see in it, is the small drilled hole in the skirt at the back, which has been propably used to store these helmets easier, by running a wire through all the helmets' holes.
Im here, because I wanted your opinion about it. Is it really original WW2, has it been repainted or is original paint and did I lose my money with this one?
The linings and such are obviously worthless due to being postwar Polish. Is it worth buying original linings, chinstrap and such to this?
The very first Stahlhelm I bought was the M55, which Finnish army ordered from Germany postwar, but they're not just the same thing as the ones who have seen the war, in a storage or in combat.
Thank you for taking your time reading this. As I said, Im new to Stahlhelm collecting and in need of some info.
Hello, I think the shell is OK, not the inside, not the rivets, not the chinstrap. So it is a rusted shell. 60 € is a lot of money for this. Sorry
Cheers
Michel
this is a m35 german helmet but i think in relic condition theres a lot of pitting in the steel. the liner is out of a polish wz 31- 50 there should be stiching next to one of chin strap that joins the liner leather together. and im not shore if poland used ex german helmets. and welcome to the forum.
Damn. Well, sometimes you got to learn from mistakes. Is the paintjob original? Or repainted on a rusted surface?
What kind of conditions may cause this kind of pitting? Could it have been found from ground, pond or such? Could a bad storage cause this?
Well, it's some money lost, but I have huge respect for helmets that have seen the World War Two, so im still happy to have it, since it's my first original item from that war.
Is there any way to find out when this was manufactured?
i think it still holds it some of its original paint but hard to see from these images. and i think there a bit of decal left very little bits. or theres bits of of what looks like to me of white.
looks like a m35 size. i can see 66 the size should be stamped on the left side of helmet on the in side of the skert and maker. eg, ET66. Q66. EF66. there should be numbers in the back of the skert eg 4567 . depending on the maker a m35 helmet was made from year ad 1935 to 1939-40
My first Stahlhelm, what do you think of it?
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