M18 ear cut out, straight out of the woodwork in Belgium

I love the double dip ear cut out helmets. Interesting with the black paint on the inner area; not sure I have seen that before. My ww2 DD has an m-31 liner, but if the m-18 liner was in good condition at the time, they probably would leave them in place. Nice find.

Ron
 
Nice one, too bad someone went decal digging. What is the lot number stamp on the inside of the dome? I see a K there but cant make out the rest. I used to database all of these I saw back in the day. Is that black paint under the reissue green paint? I see some black on the linerpad edges where it folds under the leather liner band. The SS used to put in a template in their transitional helmets and early M35 days before they sprayed them, so the black would not get on the liner band and pads or leather. Often if the original chinstrap would survive you'd see some black overspray on the clip or D rings. I suspect that is why someone went decal digging, looking for SS decals.
 
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I dont normally go along with the grave marker theory as its nigh on impossible to hammer a nail through the top of a helmet. However this looks to be dead center and nail shaped! Finding a real one of these in any sort of solid condition is very difficult unless you have a ton of dosh. Rob
 
You are right Rob: no way to drill a hole in a helmet in the “field”. If they did it would probably be done with a bullet. I wonder the reason for holes in top of helmets. I have seen many over the years. Maybe people just did that post war to nail it on a fence post. I have an ear cut out helmet with a hole that the seller told me he removed from a fence post in Russia. It was rusty when I got it , but I restored it as a dd luftwaffe .
 
Rkinkade said:
You are right Rob: no way to drill a hole in a helmet in the “field”. If they did it would probably be done with a bullet. I wonder the reason for holes in top of helmets. I have seen many over the years. Maybe people just did that post war to nail it on a fence post. I have an ear cut out helmet with a hole that the seller told me he removed from a fence post in Russia. It was rusty when I got it , but I restored it as a dd luftwaffe .
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Very cool, can you post a picture of it, I would love to see it.
 
Doug B said:
Nice one, too bad someone went decal digging. What is the lot number stamp on the inside of the dome? I see a K there but cant make out the rest. I used to database all of these I saw back in the day. Is that black paint under the reissue green paint? I see some black on the linerpad edges where it folds under the leather liner band. The SS used to put in a template in their transitional helmets and early M35 days before they sprayed them, so the black would not get on the liner band and pads or leather. Often if the original chinstrap would survive you'd see some black overspray on the clip or D rings. I suspect that is why someone went decal digging, looking for SS decals.
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Thank you, the lot is starts with R IMG_1455.jpeg
 
Rkinkade said:
I love the double dip ear cut out helmets. Interesting with the black paint on the inner area; not sure I have seen that before. My ww2 DD has an m-31 liner, but if the m-18 liner was in good condition at the time, they probably would leave them in place. Nice find.

Ron
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Thank you Ron, that makes sense why they would keep the liner.
 
Bobted said:
I dont normally go along with the grave marker theory as its nigh on impossible to hammer a nail through the top of a helmet. However this looks to be dead center and nail shaped! Finding a real one of these in any sort of solid condition is very difficult unless you have a ton of dosh. Rob
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The whole looks like a perfect match for a nail, I don’t think it was drilled. Perhaps it was done to decommission the helmet?IMG_1495.jpeg
 
Could be a shrapnel fragmentation. But perfectly centered seems highly unlikely. have a brass em spike that has several similar irregular holes.
 
chinstrap said:
I’m sure I’ve seen photos of men taking pickaxes to helmets, presumably to decommission them. Possibly on this site?
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The problem is that mine is far too small to be from a pickaxe. Maybe it was mounted in some way. I think this was done after WW2. Perhaps as a lamp or such.
 
This one has had 9 lives (not untypical of these ECO's) but for me is a difficult one to wrap my arms around.. As mentioned on another forum, the nail hole does potentially indicate a grave helmet but I am not sure what that orange color paint is around the hole. Plus this helmet was stripped as it was originally found with another post WW2 layer of paint on top (one if it's 9 lives)

It's also IMHO difficult to authenticate when the decals were adde or if they are even real.

Not saying I have firm answers and it all may be legit. Just that I don't think we will ever know it's 8 other lives:)

Still ECO's in any condition are still desirable
 
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MAP said:
This one has had 9 lives (not untypical of these ECO's) but for me is a difficult one to wrap my arms around.. As mentioned on another forum, the nail hole does potentially indicate a grave helmet but I am not sure what that orange color paint is around the hole. Plus this helmet was stripped as it was originally found with another post WW2 layer of paint on top (one if it's 9 lives)

It's also IMHO difficult to authenticate when the decals were adde or if they are even real.

Not saying I have firm answers and it all may be legit. Just that I don't think we will ever know it's 8 other lives:)

Still ECO's in any condition are still desirable
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Yeah I tend to think it’s (the nail hole) post war myself.
 
I think that it was drilled.
When drilling through hard thin material the drill has a tendency to wobble and that wobbling tends to make a trianglish hole.
 
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