April 22, 20215 yr #1 Hi Guys. I picked this one up recently. I liked it a lot because it was a really early example of a Navy M1 lot# 29B. I like the early light baby blue paint as well. The khaki OD3 chinstraps are caked in grease or more likely oil (long since dried and no smell) and they still have the blue paint on them 80 years later. It has a real “artifact of war” feel. My guess and feeling would be this one traveled the world quite a few times and saw a thing or tw ...... a thousand :) I have a few M1 navies in the collection that are in great shape but this one has that “boat wear” we see sometimes on USN helmets.... that have been out to sea ... stacked... knocked around and just saw overall heavy use. The Rust spots. The Staining. Etc. I think the Westinghouse liner has been with this lid for a long time since perhaps war even (some matching wear I can see) but it was originally issued with a Hawley or earlier type low pressure liner I figure. The hand rendered “85” is painted in white on front in almost an Art Deco-y (?) type font. Thanks for looking! Z
April 22, 20215 yr #3 That’s a great piece Zach! You’ve got a solid navy collection! It looks like it was long on a ship!
April 22, 20215 yr Author #4 1 minute ago, Blueprint said: That’s a great piece Zach! You’ve got a solid navy collection! It looks like it was long on a ship! Thanks H. I’ll have to take this one to the beach this summer for another round of pics! Thanks for the nice comments :) Z
April 22, 20215 yr #5 Beautiful shell. Love it! Unfortunately, it is not a 29B shell, but a 29xB shell. WW2 Mccord shells does not the spacing between numbers and letter, ever! In addition, all lots from 25-51 has a suffix number after the letter, with a spacing! Like 29B 2. On top of that it has 2nd style Mccord loops, which starts from around lot 188. It so happens I have a 290, 291, 292, 294, 298 and 299 on record, and I think this is a 290 shell, as this is also extreme difficult to read. Keeping a Mccord lot list (750+ so far) I have found that same lots usually show the same chartaristics and placing. If not a 290, it might be a 293, 295, 296 or 297.
April 22, 20215 yr Author #6 13 minutes ago, twthmoses said: Beautiful shell. Love it! Unfortunately, it is not a 29B shell, but a 29xB shell. WW2 Mccord shells does not the spacing between numbers and letter, ever! In addition, all lots from 25-51 has a suffix number after the letter, with a spacing! Like 29B 2. On top of that it has 2nd style Mccord loops, which starts from around lot 188. It so happens I have a 290, 291, 292, 294, 298 and 299 on record, and I think this is a 290 shell, as this is also extreme difficult to read. Keeping a Mccord lot list (750+ so far) I have found that same lots usually show the same chartaristics and placing. If not a 290, it might be a 293, 295, 296 or 297. Whoa. Very interesting. Def a new one for me and I assume a lot of others. Great information! I will have look this up to learn more. Appreciate the breakdown. Also the buckle had me perplexed as well would have figured an early M1917 type one but figured another M1 anomaly to add to the list. Z
April 22, 20215 yr #7 Good looking steel pot! Definitely looks like it spent some serious time on the open ocean.
April 22, 20215 yr #8 Very nice, fantastic looking helmet! I'm surprised that the liner chinstrap hasn't rotted away.
April 22, 20215 yr Author #9 1 minute ago, Nickman983 said: Very nice, fantastic looking helmet! I'm surprised that the liner chinstrap hasn't rotted away. Almost. LOL. I’m Handling with care. Thanks Nick
April 23, 20215 yr #10 i really love the look of that one. a very cool looking medium blue color that i hadnt really seen on a helmet. love the grease inundated straps too. definitely a worker
April 23, 20215 yr Author #14 @The Rooster Thanks Dave. They are Def cool as a whole and underrated IMO @conn Thanks brother
April 23, 20215 yr #15 On 4/22/2021 at 2:04 PM, Paddyd00 said: Whoa. Very interesting. Def a new one for me and I assume a lot of others. Great information! I will have look this up to learn more. Appreciate the breakdown. Also the buckle had me perplexed as well would have figured an early M1917 type one but figured another M1 anomaly to add to the list. Z Nice helmet set. The chin strap hardware does look early but appears to have a coat of paint on them? Here is a early strap on a fix bail I found a while back.
April 23, 20215 yr Author #16 37 minutes ago, doyler said: Nice helmet set. The chin strap hardware does look early but appears to have a coat of paint on them? Here is a early strap on a fix bail I found a while back. Hi Doyler Thank you and nice pics! I was thinking originally w the low lot number on this one it was 1941 production lid and would have had these even earlier ones attached. The ones on this Navy are defintely early brass buckle like your example .. have a couple of these as well on other... I guess they first in line to replace the pictured Kelly Helm ones
April 29, 20215 yr #18 Interesting, I have a few helmets which supposedly came off the San Francisco from the collection sold on eBay a few years ago, and I believe some of the chinstraps (or chinstrap remnants) have that same grease on them.
May 1, 20215 yr #19 I like the faded "salty look" probably spent a lot of time on the deck exposed to the sea air and sun.
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