M40 camo wired

[reneblacky]

Hi Rene, no the comment was not directed at you, I agree with your views. Brad

Cheers Brad

[reichss]

I directed this comment for johnmcgary who simply stated " the twist is all wrong", nothing else said.

[RichieC]

I directed this comment for johnmcgary who simply stated " the twist is all wrong", nothing else said.

We frown upon such types of curt and truncated "contributions" here.

Kindly enlighten us, johnmcgary , as to what and why...

Many thanks.

Respectfully,
Richie

[ObKrieger]

Here is an interesting section on a now somewhat outdated website about wire on helmets:

German-Helmets.com

[DougB]

I have to agree that the liner certainly looks like a reproduction, the chinstrap very well may be as well but better photos are needed. The liner shows no evidence of being worn on a combat chickenwire M40 helmet - that is highly unusual in of itself, the holes in the leather are brand new and not stretched and the drawstring cord also appears to be a reproduction. As for the helmet, the paint does not appear to be ET M40 paint, this looks to be a green-gray and the pin color looks unusual. Finally with the wire, the most common problem with post war applied wires is the fakers overdo the "faux oxidization" as this one clearly has.
So judging by the photos this one is a ground up reproduction.

PS Brad, there is never a "now or never" situation with buying German helmets. If a seller is putting Now or Never pressure on you that is a massively huge red flag that he is either;
A- selling a fake
B- a complete asshole
C- all of the above
and is best left alone as there are plenty of original German WW2 combat helmets out there but man you really need to look in different places for your militaria - in my opinion.

Cheers
Doug

[Paul D]

Certainly it seems to be one of the trendy tricks of our " faker friends " to stick some wire onto a helmet , they clearly believe that because of this they will be able to charge more and that a helmet with some wire stuck on is a profitable trick to fool collectors !!

For me a golden rule is that any lid with wire on has to be treated with suspicion until it has been proved 100 % right , but i mostly just keep away from them as the majority are put together fakes !!

[Datrus]

Right on Paul. Also on the few original wire helmets i have seen, the wire and helmet tends to have quite some space between them making it possible to fit some material between the helmet and wire. The wire itself is almost always pretty "banged up" from use and stuffing material in it. IMO this wire have never seen combat, and wire was only attached in combat, making this a fake.

[johnhmcgary]

Good morning, I apologize for not being very clear on my opinion of the wire. On almost all of the wired helmets that I have seen close up the twists on the ends become loose after 60+ years on the helmet, perhaps seperated is a better word. This makes sense to me as this is the weakest part of the twist itself. This is only my opinion and others may disagree with me but if I were looking to purchase this helmet as is, that alone would make me step back and reconsider. I understand there are no hard and fast rules to wire but this is my personal "red flag". My intention wasn't to insult anyone but to give my opinion. All can either agree or disagree. I would love to hear that this is a legit helmet as it is very collectable but looking at the totality of it I don't think so. Once again I apologize for not going into more detail before. Regards, John

[cricketchris1944]

This is a post-war wire not even a period piece.
chris

[reichss]

Hi all,the general consensus is the liner is post war so I've enclosed some close-up photos of the underside of liner plus close-ups of the wire.
There is a stamp on the reverse of liner which I hope some of you might identify.
With the wire, look closely at the underside of the wire where the helmet surface is bleached, would this not be indicative of the helmet being exposed to the sun over a period of time, Also the ingrained detritus in the twists, would this have formed prior to placing on the helmet or as a result of being in the field. It looks to me as if at some point the wire surface has been cleaned.
I am not trying to defend the indefensible, just wish to clear up some anomalies.