Opinion about this field cap please

[Levallois]

I’ve put this on other sites so if you have seen a post like this before, I apologize but wanted to cast a wide net. Anyway, I thought this cap looked original WW2 and genuine. What do you all think? Thanks!

[JTV]

I’ve put this on other sites so if you have seen a post like this before, I apologize but wanted to cast a wide net. Anyway, I thought this cap looked original WW2 and genuine. What do you all think? Thanks!

The field cap m/36 that you have the outside appearance of to be pre-war or early World War 2 era style cap, but I'm afraid that is the extent of good news. I hate to be bearer of bad news, but based to what I can see from those photos it appears to be reproduction, which may have been manufactured by Milpro (now defunct Finnish company that used to provide clothing for theater, tv and silver screen production etc). Being made from coarse cloth type wool and having somewhat small soft peak the basic design fits to outside appearance of wartime hat and brass buttons (sometimes referred as buttons m/22) were the oldest button type used in these hats. Cotton liner is also correct for standard issue field caps (read: not private acquisitions) of the era. But the real hats have either leather sweatband (pre-war and post-war manufactured caps) or burlap sweatband (wartime production caps due to shortage of leather) and standard issue hats also normally have ink stamps indicating size, manufacturer and production year. I have two reproduction caps from Milpro in my small collection of Finnish military headgear and the liner fabric fits (same fabric as used in post-war peltipaita military shirts) plus they often marked the size into liner with ballpoint pen in that that manner. The fabric used in mostly used in wartime hats looks bit different, since poor availability of wool forced Finnish industry to start using substitute materials in the fabric used for making these starting around 1941 - 1942 or so.

I hope you did not pay too much about the cap. Real wartime field caps m/36 can go (here in Finland) for over 100 euros, while reproductions cost maybe half of that at most.

Jarkko

[Levallois]

I appreciate the information, Jarkko. That is disappointing. I paid $50 for the cap. I am trying to learn about all this stuff since I got the WW2 Finnish bug but education can be expensive when you’re in the US.

Best regards,

John

[JTV]

I appreciate the information, Jarkko. That is disappointing. I paid $50 for the cap. I am trying to learn about all this stuff since I got the WW2 Finnish bug but education can be expensive when you’re in the US.

50 USD is about 44 euros, so although the item was not what you assumed it to be it, you actually did not overpay too much. Finding original Finnish World War 2 field cap m/36 in that (practically unused and without any moth-holes) condition for such price would have been a truly remarkable deal. Be aware that there are not only re-productions, but most parts of Finnish World War 2 remained in production quite some time into post-war era. One might even note that most military uniform items being sold in Finland nowadays were in fact manufactured in post-war era (which is typically easy to see from ink-stamps, although one should be careful as the stamps can be faked) and some (rare) items (such as summer cap m/39) are even still in active use today. Finding World War 2 era uniform items in sizes this large ("62" should refer to head size of 62 centimeters in diameter - in other words about 24.4 inches) is also practically unheard of, which is one of the reasons why the reproduction market exists.

I am about to add two new pages to my website about Finnish World War 2 uniforms soon, which you will hopefully find useful. In highly recommend acquiring good source materials about the subject before starting to collect items belonging to it. The source materials obviously cost money, but they can also help to avoid making costly mistakes and if stored correctly will only gain financial value.

The best single book about Finnish military uniform m/36 (the de facto standard uniform of Finnish military during World War 2) is Petteri Leino's Asepuku m/36 (Military Uniform m/36). Althought the book does not have English-language title written into it, but it contains all its info (texts, photo captions and charts) both in Finnish and English. Since the particular book was published in year 1998, it is nowadays difficult to find, but if if you want one, you might want to try this online shop: https://www.swat.fi/index.php?route=pro ... ct_id=5160

Jarkko

[Levallois]

Jarkko,

Again, thank you so much for the response. It is difficult not to buy these items right now but it’s good advice to learn as much as I can first. I’ll see about acquiring that book.

Best,

John