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Excellent Article on M1 Heat Stamps + Wiping Paint


Burning Hazard
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Burning Hazard

Posted in "Military Collector & Historian" article.

 

I know there's been debate on heat stamps and their significance but Please Please don't wipe the paint off covering them as it ruins the helmet. Please pass this information to new collectors!!

 

I also think we should have a sticky/pinned notice on top about not removing paint that covers the heat stamp; I've been seeing this done a lot on eBay by sellers lately.

 

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1065/6146/files/MC_H_Vol_70_No3_M1_Helmet_Lot_Nos.pdf?3737742651470471381

 

Pat

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stealthytyler

Interesting article and I agree with you on not removing paint to show the stamp. But I do have to say that the ability to date a lid by the heat stamp is very important when authenticating a unit painted and named helmet. But we must ask how accurate the current McCord dating chart is?

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The article that Marc wrote is very well researched and to echo others here, I cringe when I see guys uncovering the brim numbers. Most of us who have collected since before the "chart" understand that the chart is more accurately a theory than it is a science. It was based on samples from collections and the sampling, while large, was not extensive enough to be considered conclusive. These charts are really nothing more than tools, equivelent to a vise grip being used in place of the proper sized socket wrench.

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From what I can tell, the chart is fairly accurate to +/- 3-6 months, but using it to say your helmet is an August 1943 McCord is fanciful. As Marc points out in the article, pressing the helmet shells didn't necessarily follow the sequential order that the lot numbers were assigned, so lot 619 could have been pressed before or after lot 620. This means there is potential for relatively low lot numbers to show characteristics of later M1s if a pallet of 1942 blanks way in the back corner didn't get pressed until 1944. In addition, after a fairly short ramping-up period, the McCord chart smooths the data by assuming a steady rate of production, when in fact the number of helmets produced in any given month varied widely. Below is a graph of McCord's actual 1944 M1 helmet totals based on Ordnance Department reporting. It's easy to see how assuming steady production could result in inaccurate dates.

 

post-270-0-61096800-1548087826_thumb.png

 

Until someone locates additional information about what lots were pressed at a given time, it's best to use the chart as a general guide and not as the final word.

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i've had fairly good luck just holding a flashlight pointing up against the inside and across to be able to read harder to see heat stamps. The same old trick we used as kids to read the old headstones on boot hill in Calico. then i just annotate the number on the paper tags i use.

 

post-209461-0-94403600-1546804043.jpg
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I have a few helmets with the paint removal around the heat stamp. I also usually just read the heat stamp using a flashlight as well, I found no need for the paint removal, and if I can't find it then I put it back until I decide to try again. Simple, while the heat stamp can be useful for identifying if a rear seam helmet was produced during WW2, it isn't so important to damage the helmet in my opinion. The article was very good though and definitely worth the read.

 

Hunt

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Alittle baby powered is all I need, if that doesn’t work it wasn’t meant to be. Use tell tell clues to guesstimate.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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What do you do when you have a helmet that you removed some paint to uncover the heat lot number? I ask this because before I knew much about collecting helmets I was exposed to the McCord helmet heat lot chart and I had a helmet (fixed bail) that had an excess of old paint on the inside from a repaint after the war. I'm sure there are many people who read this thread that are saying to themselves "Uh-oh, I did that and now I understand why I'm an idiot."

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What do you do when you have a helmet that you removed some paint to uncover the heat lot number? I ask this because before I knew much about collecting helmets I was exposed to the McCord helmet heat lot chart and I had a helmet (fixed bail) that had an excess of old paint on the inside from a repaint after the war. I'm sure there are many people who read this thread that are saying to themselves "Uh-oh, I did that and now I understand why I'm an idiot."

Don't be too hard on yourself.

 

We all gotta learn somehow.

 

Well I have never done that I have had some uh ohs in my day too

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I cringe when I see guys uncovering the brim numbers.

 

It ruins a helmet in my opinion, when I see the paint removed to show the number. I know people are only trying to do what they feel is the right thing (to look up the number), but if they are messed with like that it ruins it for me.

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Interesting article and I agree with you on not removing paint to show the stamp. But I do have to say that the ability to date a lid by the heat stamp is very important when authenticating a unit painted and named helmet. But we must ask how accurate the current McCord dating chart is?

 

IMHO, if you have to know the number to feel better about the paint, then maybe you don't trust the paint in the first place? In which case will seeing a 'good' number change your opinion, or just make you feel better about it? Just a thought.

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