craigslist helmet

[DougB]

Everyone is missing the obvious here. Note the font of the maker. ET only used the serified font from WW1 for its earliest M35 models. This is a very early ET shell and the leather appears to be the original early 1935 embossed liner (embossing looks to be in the correct 5 o clock position) despite the pins. Chinstrap is also original. What is the lot number? I am guessing its 27XX or 28XX.

Who cares if it is Czech postwar paint, if you can pick this up for a couple hundred and it is in fact the embossed liner and a 27-28 series lot number with the original strap it's a good deal IMO. Send it to a professional restorer to strip the paint and replace the liner pins and you've got a decent helmet.

[MD Helmets]

Everyone is missing the obvious here. Note the font of the maker. ET only used the serified font from WW1 for its earliest M35 models. This is a very early ET shell and the leather appears to be the original early 1935 embossed liner (embossing looks to be in the correct 5 o clock position) despite the pins. Chinstrap is also original. What is the lot number? I am guessing its 27XX or 28XX.

Who cares if it is Czech postwar paint, if you can pick this up for a couple hundred and it is in fact the embossed liner and a 27-28 series lot number with the original strap it's a good deal IMO. Send it to a professional restorer to strip the paint and replace the liner pins and you've got a decent helmet.

Yeah, I suppose you have a point if one wants to do all that. The liner alone would almost be worth it. Guess we all got a little complacent.

[Lidman]

Interesting point Doug, never really considered that possibility.
Try as I might though, I did not (sadly still can't) see the embossing on the liner in these pics.
Having said that, I had (have) been staring at a computer screen all day and things are getting difficult to see clearly
Time to to see the optician I guess, or get a different job

Brad.

[KradSpam]

Single ply steel isn't it Doug, rounded bales and all that jazz? I thought the strap was 1934 but I decided it was 1940 in the end. I didn't notice the old font though that's for sure.

[jonobo]

That's all I need to know, I think i'll make this purchase. The only reason this helmet caught my eye was the knowledge from this forum, the originallity and patina'd look of it, just looked right.
I'm just a novice collector and I only have around 8 helmets (us,german,russian etc.) but every helmet was bought knowing it was original whether from checking around the forum or instinctively knowing that it was original and for that, I thank you guys!

[DougB]

Please make sure the liner IS embossed. It appears that way from the pics, the embossing can be quite feint on a well worn liner.