I was at a gun show today and some guy claimed to have a nazi helmet..

This guy had a table of war relics including German helmets. He had a mint black SS helmet and a scruffed up green one. I picked up the green helmet and looked at the inside of it. I noticed there was no batch number stamped on the inside of the rear portion of the flap and the edges were not rolled underneath. I told him it was not real and he argued with me. What do you guys say?

 

no batch number would mean post war, but most likely it was a spanish modelo "z" made up to look german..

 

or a repro helmet, they are usually lighter

 

After I told him it was fake he then claimed it was Spanish. Who knows..

 

Lighter in weight? Damn I should have compared to the two.

 

Not always, but cheap repros are usually made with lesser quality steel. They make the outside look older with scrathes and dip the new paint in rust, but often forget the inside circles that are totally new, so would be the rivets. The leather is sometimes recycled from Warsaw pact helmets (very similar and dated from the 50s , so they look old too)