FS 82 MKI Helmet

**Steelhead10** · 09-14-2024, 02:07 PM

Hi All,

Another one of my bucket list for the collection. This salty surviving example was bought whilst scrolling through the bay, the seller states that his daughter picked it up on a walk in Wales and that they were originally going to throw it for scrap, I'm glad they didn't.

The shell itself has seen better days, it retains some textured paint in places, looking to have been stored upside down as the top of dome is almost deviod of any textured paint. It also has at some point been painted over in black, mostly remaining on the inside of the brim. Inside the dome and in places on the rim there reamins some green paint. Amazingly, the rim of the helmet is in place and shows no signs of trying to detach itself from the shell; likely helped by the generous overlap on this example.
Stamped FS 82 for Thomas Firth & Son of Sheffield.

The oilcloth of the liner was very dry, however intact with the chinstrap still in place and not snapped. There are a few dry rot holes through it and the oilcloth is separating from the netting/drawstring. The liner doesn't appear to have the 1917 rubber doughnut improvement, whether or not this has been lost to time or is a pre-1917 example I don't know. In place of the doughnut a previous owner has packed the top with wool, this would appear to have been done some time ago. There are the remains of the red stamp on the underside of the oilcloth although no longer legible.

The chinstrap lugs remain intact, although the brass loops have either been replaced or cut down and twisted back together for some unknown reason.

I hope you all enjoy,
Matt

**Nozo410** · 09-15-2024, 06:45 PM

Hi Steelhead,

Lovely Brit that you have there, I'm glad that the Preowner didn't throw it away. It's nice that it still has it's Chin Strap and Liner, on most of MKI that I see it's usually missing.
Thanks for showing.

Best regards
Nozo

**Steelhead10** · 09-16-2024, 07:14 PM

I know it's been done before and there's many sources around. But before work I'll do a quick comparison between the British MKI and the US M1917 helmets.

First off, dome profile wise there's very little difference, the bowl of the M1917 may have a sharper angle between it and the brim, however that could be due to more textured paint on the MKI doing it's job of breaking up the profile. The brim on my MKI appears to be rounder than the M1917, although this is difficult to capture in pictures. However dimensions of MKI helmets can vary from manufacturers.

The liners of both these examples appear to be near identical, although from what I can see the M1917, or at least this example does not have the asbestos pad underneath the felt. The MKI does have the asbestos pad, this is missing its felt however my example has been packed with wool, likely serving the same purpose the rubber ring improvement made by Britain in 1917, this was not adopted by the US.
Possibly, due to differences in the size of the liners the MKI has a rubber buffer all around the circumference of the liner. This can just about be seen in the photo of both the liners. Whereas the M1917 only has rubber buffers placed in every other loop around the liner. The M1917 liner being marked for 7 3/8 whereas I've yet to find the marking on the MKI and carefully handle the liner due to the asbestos pad being less sealed in than when the felt pad is present.
Both liners are riveted in and are constructed with a a strip of leather over the top of an oilcloth headpiece adjusted by a drawstring through a netted section of the liner. This leather strip ends with brass loops which pass through the loops of the chinstrap lugs and the chinstrap is affixed to these rather than to the chinstrap lugs directly. The M1917 is missing the chinstrap. However due to the deterioration of the M1917 the construction of the liner can be seen more clearly.

The first thing noticed externally, other than colour, is the top of the MKI chinstrap lug rivet it a flatter profile than the domed machine rivet of M1917. Both have clipped corner Chinstrap lugs, however the MKI has a split rivet rather than the M1917's sturdier machine rivet. Often MKI helmets can be found missing chinstrap lugs or with them no longer parallel with one another, this can be seen on this example.

Manufacturer stampings follow a similar format to each other, the first Letter being the steel supplier, then the second being the firm who carried out the stamping of the helmet. However on a MKI these are usually divided by a "/". On this MKI the steel supplier is also the firm where the helmet is stamped - FS believed to be Thomas Firth & Sons of Sheffield. The M1917 there appears to be less documentation of steel suppliers, the C code helmets are believed to be the E.G. Manufacturering Company of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Finally, for this post the magnetic mild steel rim on both of these examples is welded closed. More often than not the MKI helmets have longer overlaps on the brim and often appear less polished off than on the M1917s.