A gasket having a plurality of superposed windings of a profiled metal strip spirally wound upon itself around a central axis, a plurality of windings of a strip of graphite interposed between at least some of the superposed windings of the metal strip, and a solid ring of graphite on the O.D. Two or more of the radially intermost windings on the I.D. are in surface-to-surface contact with each other without interposed sealing material.