Thinking of purchasing this one but I didn't want to pull the trigger without hearing what you fellows had to say. I am good with exterior but would greatly appreciate input on interior....

Helmet looks good. I can’t believe how high helmet prices are.

Thanks, mate. Much obliged. My only concern was the (brown) liner string. I have seen a million stahlhelms but that is first time I encountered a brown/wide string like this....but a string issue would not queer the deal for me. And yes, EVERYTHING - Third Reich has gone through the roof. I priced a vehicle ID flag for a chap who is cobbling together something for a regimental museum and it was $600.00 USD!!!!

Looks good. No way to tell when the liner string was replaced. $700 is reasonable. 

Appreciate you weighing in and I concur; string is a who knows and price is fair.

Yes. Here's one with an original string. That's a nice find. I like that it has all the lining fingers intact.

Thanks for commenting....Yes - I have seen, quite literally hundreds of stahlhelms and knew the brown shoe lace was not kosher. As to whether it was placed there by a serving member of old Fat Hermann's air force in period well, who can say? A pleasant surprise, as you suggest to find liner is intact and would be my contention that the wear is in keeping with condition of (outer) shell. 

Update: an acquaintance was kind enough to share his thoughts on both the website this helmet is featured on and the helmet's paint..... As follows: 1) EVERY LAST HELMET on the site has a decal which, should you have watched as much newsreel footage/viewed period photographs from period as I have seems suspicious 2) There is a spot next to manufacturer code where a unique green (not apple) is visible. He then directed me to a site that was selling Finnish helmets. The colour, to my eyes (and his) appears to be identical. Needless to say I passed on the helmet. Tempted as I am to do so I will not share the identity of the website or speculate on whether seller was aware of issues when he put the helmet up for sale. Bummer.

So the rusted eagle decal is a fake? 

My contention is that this is a Finnish helmet that was painted/aged for the reasons I specified. You are, of course welcome to differ.

I don’t care if it’s real but I’d like to see a picture of the decal. The images you posted are blurry. Who is selling this? We need to warn members to stay away from them. Why do you want to protect them?

Fake or not, once you have doubts they never go away.

I see nothing wrong with this helmet, the Finns were more prone to Hungarian shells, and they had their own liners. As Preppy Picker mentioned, the decal is the way you would expect it to be in regards to the rust. The best thing to do would be learn for yourself what to look for because when you ask for opinions, you will get them, and that's all they are... I could go on but there's no point.        Scott

I invited one and all to share their thoughts and comments and I sincerely appreciate you having done so. But let me also say that not one of you has commented directly on/justified the existence of the green paint that is visible under the dunkelgrau as seen in photo of helmet's interior. And it is NOT apple green - I confirmed this by printing a high quality copy and having colour scanned.  And oxidation does not confirm a helmet's bona fides. There is a notorious faker in the Canadian militaria market who buries his helmets in his backyard in the interest of "aging" them and, it is said one of his more clever Fallschirmjager efforts turned up in a regimental museum. Buyer beware, am I right?

18 hours ago, Von Ditner said:

I invited one and all to share their thoughts and comments and I sincerely appreciate you having done so. But let me also say that not one of you has commented directly on/justified the existence of the green paint that is visible under the dunkelgrau as seen in photo of helmet's interior. And it is NOT apple green - I confirmed this by printing a high quality copy and having colour scanned.  And oxidation does not confirm a helmet's bona fides. There is a notorious faker in the Canadian militaria market who buries his helmets in his backyard in the interest of "aging" them and, it is said one of his more clever Fallschirmjager efforts turned up in a regimental museum. Buyer beware, am I right?

 

        Perhaps you see something in hand that I don't see in the pics but the helmet looks good to me from what is shown. You are aware that the Germans used many colors correct, and that it may have been over painted more than once. 

         You asked for thoughts and comments and some were given, at the end of the day you decided to pass which is totally fine. I think many here, myself included, would just look at the helmet and decide what to do, not rely on the opinions of others as we are confident in our own knowledge or skills. Doesn't mean were perfect, just that you may not be getting the answers you want because for most its not an issue to opine on. We would either buy it or not based on what we see and know. 

          Maybe you made a good decision in not buying it, maybe not. Either way, you are the one who needs to be happy.   Scott

         

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For what its worth, I too like the looks of the helmet. The liner looks undiddled with (except for the string) I can't speak to the extra paint as I can't really see it, but I will say sometimes in person paint seems "under" until you look at it with a loop and it is "over". If it was repainted, I would also expect to see it on top where the abrasions wold have uncovered some of it as well.  I collect helmets, but they have to "speak to me" and if they don't I pass. There will always be more - especially a LW M40, but in the end you are the one that needs to be comfortable with it.

Mr. Jerry/Scott G: Most kind of you to take the time to speak on this. What I found/a few collectors here, in Canada also thought was that the dunkelgrau seemed to painted over what all of us felt was Finnish repaint/green. You may be amused to know that one of them took a high quality print I made to a chap we know who is an accident re-construction specialist and his colour comparison confirmed what I thought which was that this was not the apple green typically encountered - early helmets.....Anyways, you are quite correct, as are other participants this string - you like it or you don't and you proceed on your gut, in the end. Sincerely thankful for opinions though I must say I find the recurring message "don't rely on the opinions of others" rather odd given the whole notion of forums of this nature is to elicit the "opinions of others" in the hope of becoming more knowledgeable. 

"Preppy Picker"'s right.  $700USD is super-extra pricey, but I'm not a headgear collector, so I really wouldn't know.  Yeah, the string in the fingers of the liner is likely not original to the helmet, nonetheless that's less-than-minor, and should not be a "deal breaker".

6 hours ago, Von Ditner said:

Mr. Jerry/Scott G: Most kind of you to take the time to speak on this. What I found/a few collectors here, in Canada also thought was that the dunkelgrau seemed to painted over what all of us felt was Finnish repaint/green. You may be amused to know that one of them took a high quality print I made to a chap we know who is an accident re-construction specialist and his colour comparison confirmed what I thought which was that this was not the apple green typically encountered - early helmets.....Anyways, you are quite correct, as are other participants this string - you like it or you don't and you proceed on your gut, in the end. Sincerely thankful for opinions though I must say I find the recurring message "don't rely on the opinions of others" rather odd given the whole notion of forums of this nature is to elicit the "opinions of others" in the hope of becoming more knowledgeable. 

 

             That helmet is an M40, so not really an early helmet... I just don't see anything wrong with it and quite honestly its in the right price range as well. Just my opinion. Scott