The following is Lawdog's own description of the work carried out to produce this first class helmet.
We begin with an original WW2 front seam fixed bale shell manufactured by Schluetter of St Louis, Missouri between October 1943 and November 1944. Schluetter manufactured only 10% of the total number of helmets produced during WW2 and made fixed bales for only a very short period of time before swivel bales appeared in October of 1943. This helmet has only a very few shallow dents and only one minor stress crack that does not go through the shell and is barely visible. The "S" stamp under the brim is no longer visible due to the restoration re-paint and 60 years of storage in an open air DRMO lot, but the distinctive Schluetter "flair" of the brim is al too obvious as are the wider fixed bales, typical of Schluetter. First, years of post war paint are stripped form the shell in a caustic bath. The shell is then re-corked between coats per QM specs, and re-painted using industrial grade OD FS33070 oil based paint. The distinctive camo pattern of the 320th Glider Field Artillery Battalion of the 82nd Airborne Division was then hand painted onto the shell using real 1943 dated US Army Loam Camouflage paint. I found several of these unoped 60 plus year old cans in a large DRMO yard recently. The effect is unbelievable!The chinstraps are khaki shade 03, 11-rib weave and feature blackened brass hardware in the early war style. The liner is an original and very early Firestone with steel chinstrap lugs. The rotted webbing was completely replaced using khaki shade 03 triple-panel HBT. The webbing suspension is secured with early war unpainted steel A-washers and steel semi- tubular rivets that are correctly roll crimped in place with an arbor press for a factory tight finish. The sweatband is made with khaki suspension webbing and re-faced with new die cut leather and an OD painted buckle. The nape strap is sized large. Both the nape strap and sweatband are stamped with my own QM number. The liner also features our own repro leather liner strap with OD painted brass cam buckle.
