WWI British MkI Brodie Helmet Restoration

[peregrinvs]

I haven't done anything new to the Brodie helmet, but I did get a ball pein hammer yesterday so watch this space...

On the general theme of WWI British helmets, you might find this late 1930's Civil Defence helmet I recently acquired of interest. It's a MkI* helmet - a WWI MkI helmet rebuilt in the late 1930's as war clouds gathered with a new liner, chinstrap and chinstrap lugs.
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This was supposedly the most common type of helmet used by the BEF in France in 1939-40 - which may explain why they are now much scarcer than the MkII helmets that replaced them.

The black paint appears to have been applied over the original textured khaki paint. It also looks like the dents were acquired before it was refurbished, so it's tempting to imagine they'd been made by German shrapnel balls 20 years earlier. The 'HS' marking means the shell was made by Hadfields Ltd of Sheffield circa 1916-18 and the replacement liner is 1938 dated.

I'm rather fond of it - being a 'two world wars for the price of one' helmet. It could after all have hypothetically survived incoming German ordnance during both the Battle of Passchendaele and the Blitz...

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[bigduke6]

but I did get a ball pein hammer yesterday so watch this space...

Mark there is a Knack to riveting, one is the rivet is a tight fit, the other is right length, on the start you need to have the back or "made" side of the rivet on a good solid base if its rounded etc a dolly in that form is recommended, am not going to teach you suck eggs but its just the basics, if your good at knocking nails in without sore fingers then you should be ok.........

When I was an Apprentice we had to make our own from welding rod, a lot of lads chose to do it there way....... I just listened to the instructor and followed suit, we had to form one end first, although it was suppose to be at least some form of angle most ended up like mushrooms on the first attempt, I expect your rivet to be different as we were riveting are tools together and had to be as tight as a ducks a**e..... once all done and made good you couldn't see them (if you were good)

See link the two links below post #17, when I did a No5 bayonet and some of the tools I had to make post #16 , like an old mate of mine says, we were trained to file within a thou of an inch, now I can get it spot on.

https://www.milsurps.com/showthread.php?t=40522&page=2

https://www.milsurps.com/showthread.php?t=40615&page=2