FJ helmet liner bands.....

[Willi Z.]

I was thinking about the various metals used for FJ helmet bands. I suspect that, like other Wehrmacht helmets, they started out as aluminum, went to steel and then to zinc. Any comments?? I must admit, though I look at a solid 150-200 original FJ helmets each year, I never have really paid much attention to what the liner band was made out of. And, I know it is literally impossible to date a FJ helmet. Best we can do is prewar, midwar and latewar. Will start paying more attention to bands on the future....

Any observations? How about from the other Wehrmacht helmet guys?

Willi

[Ben]

Willi,

of all the FJ-helmets that I have had and have handled, including dug-ups, I have only ever seen the aluminum and the zinc ones. Never have I seen a steel/zinc coated FJ liner band.

Cheers,

Ben

[John Hodgin]

This is interesting Ben. I always assumed liner bands were only aluminum or zinc plated steel, that a pure zinc band would fatigue easily and too prone to splitting.

regards,
John

[Ben]

Hi John,

if I have a bit more time tomorrow I will look for some dug-up pieces of some zinc FJ liners and I will post it tomorrow. The are all fully made out of zinc.
The zinc bands have about the same strength as the aluminum ones. Most of its strength comes from the bend at the bottom edge of the rim. The thickness of the zinc doesn't vary that much from the aluminum and I believe that it has about the same strength properties as well.

Cheers,

Ben

[John Hodgin]

Looking forward to your findings.

Best,
John

[Luftm40]

With M35 helmets, to the best of my knowledge, there are only aluminum and zinc clad steel liners (done to inhibit rust). Zinc by itself is a very brittle material.

[John Hodgin]

Thanks Andy, this is still my belief as well. Zinc alone would not work as a liner band, especially in a jump helmet! Was hoping to hear back on this from Ben.

Regards,
John