Salty M42

[LeonardoL]

Hello, my friend has send me photos of a helmet he wants to check.
Well, not to check its an 100% original M42 as you can see; but to ask how to clean it the best way and to soften up the leather since its stiff from the years of bad storage. I would say best to leave it as is, not to sure about removing the liner just to clean the shell since the pins will probably break.
Nice chinstrap though.

[bigmacglenn]

Not a good idea to remove the liner-it will break the pins and ruin an otherwise decent collectible...
Personally, I would only wipe the shell/liner of dust and dirt, but otherwise leave it alone...Perhaps remove the rope, lol...
cheers, Glenn

[Frundsberg]

Seems to be a nice helmet shell, oxalic accid will do some miracles:-).

[FALLSCHIRMJAGER]

Hi there,please do not attempt to remove the liner,it will do more damage to the helmet.It is what it is and that is an original un-messed with piece of history that has seen better days.It is still a nice item that needs to be looked after from now on. Leon.

[Lidman]

I would leave it as is, at most, Glenn's advice to just give it a wipe to remove the dust and lose the ad-lib chinstrap, is as far as I would go.
It is what it is, a still collectable and unmessed with helmet.
And as Leon points out, it needs to be looked after from now on.

Brad.