Advice - Restoring No.5 Mills Bomb

[JustinF]

Hello,

I just brought a fair condition No.5 Mills bomb, its a bit pitted in places and has some orange oxide in places, what method is best to clean it up without damaging it or losing it provinence. The seller mentioned Beeswax as a way of cleaning it up.

Any thoughts or help appricated

Justin

 

[gothica7]

Hello,

I just brought a fair condition No.5 Mills bomb, its a bit pitted in places and has some orange oxide in places, what method is best to clean it up without damaging it or losing it provinence. The seller mentioned Beeswax as a way of cleaning it up.

Any thoughts or help appricated

Justin

Hi Justin,

here are a few piccys of the first and only No5 i restored. It was originally an orange rustball and all i did was get as much flakey rust off with a wire brush, covered it in fertan, let it all dry off and then a couple of coats of shellac. I did not fill or restore the gren in any way but as it was my first gave it a rather nice base plug. The fertan made the gren black.
Dont know if fertan is still available as a water based rust cure, there is a Sherman tank[or was] at Pendine Sands that was treated with the stuff and it seemed to work but i suppose any good rust cure would do. You could of course take it back to bare metal and just shellac it but you may loose more of the gren due to the loss of rust. You could of course leave it as is, a good covering of beeswax polish would certainly slow down the rusting process.
Good luck with it.

Andy

 

[dano1917]

images

Hi Justin, Would it be possible to see pics of the grenade in present condition. Can't form an opinion without pics. Dano

 

[JustinF]

Thanks for your replies - I will take some pictures tonight and post as im in the office, I think our facilities people would have a thousand fits if it was in work!

 

[JustinF]

Pictures!

I also have the spring and centre tube