Brodie Helmet "Restoration"

[Flying10uk]

I was intending to restore this Brodie helmet to a chief air raid warden's helmet, painted white with a black W on it front and back. I chose to restore this particular helmet because it had already been striped of it's original paint years ago and repainted.

There were several small areas of rust under the paint and, therefore, I stripped off the paint completely and prepped it for chemical rust removal.

I normally use a phosphoric acid based rust remover which is available on the UK market via a chain of tool shops. I placed the helmet in a tank of the rust remover.

2 days later the helmet had partially dissolved. I knew that something was wrong when I went to remove the helmet from the tank as it was significantly lighter than when it went in.

I know that it may appear like an obvious mistake to make and that, with hindsight, I should have checked it earlier but I have used this rust remover for years without any problems.

What I don't know is if the special alloy that these front line Brodie helmets are made from is more reactive to phosphoric acid based rust removers than mild steel.

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