Guys...I only have one of these....and it’s lost to storage....somewhere....but keep going....I’m getting drunk on your enthusiasm.......
Guys...I only have one of these....and it’s lost to storage....somewhere....but keep going....I’m getting drunk on your enthusiasm.......
Much as I hate be a know-all, I must say that you will find yours on Page 1 of this thread. Think nothing of it, it's all in the game...
I am still working on this M37 thing. I've been looking at lots of photographs online and few of them are useful, in the sense that they are not showing any makers stamps (OK, hard to see even with the helmet in hand, but many of these people are making no effort to show them at all...). To a degree that doesn't matter because I still don't know what the size number + alphabetical letter means.
Perhaps more concretely, I have found several more instances of the M37/60 with the I-53 liner all with four blind rivets, showing conclusively that they are earlier shells relined and not newly made. At this point I think I have seen more of these *with* blind rivets than without.
And to think that so many people effectively condemned these as dull ordinary helmets.
So theoretically, would that mean the newer made helmets were a small limited run?
Well, theoretically, yes. If we assume that there was a lot of refitting of the I53 liner into the original shells. But this brings up a couple of questions. For a start I have always thought - based on what Swedish collectors have said - that the whole programme with the I53 liner was 'experimental' and limited. And for second, a lot of people, including the usually very reliable people at World War Helmets, believed that the I53 was fitted into new-made shells, not retrofitted into existing leather-lined shells.by OsiusGaming
The point about 'new made shells' is obviously wrong. But there really were new-made shells with this liner (I have some and so do the WWH people, obviously). What we do not know is the proportion of new-made shells against original leather lined shells that were modernised.
At the moment I think I may have seen more converted shells than new-made ones! It could be - maybe, perhaps - that the new shells, obvious by having only two rivets for the chinstyrap, are the less common ones. That would completely reverse what we think we know. There are more questions than answers about this helmet.
Are there any Swedish, Finnish, Danish collectors reading this? We need your opinions.
Also, can anyone piont me to any militaria forums (not ones concentrating on guns and tanks) in any language in those countries. I have done a lot of websearching and found nothing useful. Think of forums that are similar to this one.
I don't think any such forum exists. We are not that many people, so we just piggyback on the English forums
Strangely enough I don't have any M37 with the top mounted liner ... but ... I think it must be more than coincidence that the last version (M37-70) uses the exact same rivet hole placement as was used for the leather liner. To me, this supports the theory that that the top mounted liner was only an intermediate solution and that the newest version of the liner was deliberately designed for reuse of existing helmet shells rather than starting to produce new ones.
Thanks, Jesper! I was beginning to despair of my usually good web-searching and limited language skills. I may be looking for something that doesn't exist.
I am sure you are right about the /70 liner. Absolutely no coincidence that it uses the same placement of rivets. I have certainly seen an M37 dated 1941, which would have had the original leather liner, with the third version. I wonder if it had been also fitted with the I53 - perhaps some markings in the crown unless obscured by a repaint. These shells were used for a long time.
M37 Refurbishment Project
I appreciate this is not one for the purists but having acquired a Swedish M37 the liner turned out to be almost completely wrecked - the leather pads were hard and breaking, the padding pouches completely shreddeed and only half the strap left. As a project I decided to re-make the liner an am actually quite pleased with the results. An old pair of boots acquired from a car-boot sale provided the leather pads, a cotton 'bag for life' the padding pouches and combined with some leather strap and newly learnt leather sewing and riveting skills the end result came together quite well. Clearly only the shell and metal fixings are original but I think it is an honest recreation using much the same materials and skills as they would have used when making the original and certainly better than the wrecked example originally acquired. Ideal for a personal collection and adds a new dimension to collecting I think anyway. Hope you don't disapprove too much!
I rather like this. Apart from anything else my partner Catherine is an accomplished leather-worker and I know enough to know what you have done. It is actually interesting that you had an example with such deteriorated leather. Can you tell whether it was extreme use or storage deterioration?
Just today I got an example of an M37 with original leather and strap and while it had clearly been used the leather is in very good condition with original surface patina. Of course it might have been in stores for most of its age!
As long as you tag it as 'restored' I see no problem. Nice breakdown photos, by the way.
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