No 20 Grenade Restore or not????

[gothica7]

Hi all,

in an earlier thread i showed you my No 20 gren. Said then i would have a go at restoring it and today i have cooked it in the DEOX-C for a while which has removed its rust ok and has exposed some of the original[ok, a bit faded] yellow paint. The question is, should i strip all this off and repaint it in all its true colours or leave it as it is. Its not a perfect example but quite a good one. The picture probably dosnt do it justice and the barrel is pitted.All the bits are finger tight.

What does the forum think?

Thanks.

Andy

ps, ime currently boiling up a No 5 on the Rayburn, ile show you how well that comes up too.
A

 

[dano1917]

not

Hi Andy, My opinion, for what it's worth is leave the body as is. I think it looks great with nice patina. I more times than not prefer the relic look over restored...Dano

 

[paul the grenade]

I think a re-paint would look good.
paul.

 

[Williams_castle]

Hi Andy

It is a matter of personal taste. My taste is to leave things as original as possible. A repaint may look good from a distance if you are very careful to dull the paint down, but close up it always shows, and paintwork over a pitted body appears unnatural. If you remove the original paint / patina, you have removed something of its history. Of course we would all like all our grenades to have original paint and be in nice condition, but that isn't always possible and in such cases I prefer to leave as much of the original finish as has survived. Others will take a different view, but once you have stripped and painted it, you can't undo that.

Best wishes,

W.

 

[18pounder]

yeah
leave as is mate,
just get anyparts that are missing:tinysmile_twink_t2:

 

[dano1917]

to be or not to be - that aint the question

Well Andy, So far the score is 3 to 1. I would like to add another 2 cents worth. If you do go the route of restoration use flat paints and use paint sparingly. When dried use ultra fine sand paper and really dull it down while tactfully removing much paint to leave a "ghost" of paint. This will give you the effect of well aged and worn paint and retain much of the original patina. Always use emery cloth for your final paint dulling effect. But again my first choice would be to leave it as is. Cornfuzed? I am after I just read this total line of B.S. I just wrote. Think it over...Dano

 

[Millsman]

Hi Andy

I'm in the leave it as it is brigade. The paint you have exposed is just the right 'French Mustard' colour and any example of this is worth leaving. I've got a No 24 mK II with about the same amount of paint on it and I'm leaving it be.

John

 

[dano1917]

no nade nate

Well Andy, That makes it 4 to 1. I posed the same restore or not on an m1917 German rifle grenade in a post when I paid for it on October 3rd. Well the grenade is still enroute (I guess) as it has not arrived yet. Hell, I think I might be hard pressed to even find the restore or not restore thread that I started it seems "eons" ago...Dano

 

[18pounder]

rod grenade

Hi Dano
heres mine i found sometime ago.

Literally stumbled over it!

Was in real bad condition,sunlight showing through some of the segments.
Some segments had to be rebuilt.
Gave it a coat of black and rescued it from total descruction.
Didnt think it was worth a total rebuild because there wouldnt have been much left of the original grenade!

Its nothing special,it reminds me of walks around certain parts of France/Belgium so its more of a momento than a serious collectable.

It was lying on the ground with fuze and end cap close by with a weed growing through it,so i could instantly tell it was empty...because you could see through it!
Not bad find though

 

[gothica7]

Thanks guys for all your kind comments.

I think i will just give it a good coat of beeswax polish and leave things be. I could never match the exact colours anyway. At least its been saved.

Seasons Greetings to you all.

Andy

 

[dano1917]

Hello 18 pounder. I really like that grenade. You have obviously repainted the grenade body yet it maintains that relic look and you have kept that in balance quite nicely. When I decide to "restore" a piece I at least try to maintain a balance of looking somewhat original while stopping the rust bug dead in its tracks. If I paint every effort is made to try and make the paint look as old an as original might look through the natural aging process while maintaining the integrity of the grenade and hopefully giving it the patina one might expect to see in a 100 year old piece. That's the juice for me. If there is a large build-up of rust I may chip away at the build-up with the objective of returning the body close to the original look it would have had. With your grenade in my opinion you have achieved this balance and I personally really like the result. If I do some painting on it, then every effort is made to "age" the paint as if it were on there for 100 years - paint - sand - wet sand - emery cloth for that final finish. If the paint result ends up less than desireable then I strip it off and start over. Now if I start with a relic that has some surface rust and no scale like build-up I would usually elect to leave it be and clear coat it with shellac or clear laquer. The eye of the beholder is what I say. Some of my favorite pieces are dug relics that I merely wheeled off the loose rust and put a shiny clear coat on it and call it a day. You could ask 100 different people and get 100 different answers. I always judge just how good or how bad a piece is when I start and build from there. Maybe you are now more confused than before you read this (assuming you read this). In my first picture this is the Dopp Z/c92 fuze atop a rusted 15cm nose cone. I wire wheeled the fuze just a bit and stopped there because I liked it at that point. Picture 2 started out as a #20 Brit rifle grenade body. I chipped away at the rust and the brass adaptor was given to me by a fellow BOCN member and I made the rod from steel dowell stock. I then clear coated the body and stopped there because I personally liked the result. Picture 3 is a relic granatenwerfer projectile it came to me really rusty and the fins completely gone. Some major rust removal, then made fins from sheet aluminum and bonded them to the tail piece. I decided to go "3 fin" since I already had a 4 fin projectile. Again this piece was really rusted so I was not looking for perfection. After affixing the fins to tail I painted the whole mess olive drab and think I definately kept the relic theme. photo 4 is an HZ14 German WW1 fuze. This one was in pretty good shape so a bit of emery paper and polishing compound was all I did. Photo 5 is 2 relic WW1 german fuzes dug at Verdun by someone I know. I definately wanted to keep them as relic as possible so just a light cleaning and I was happy with the result. It all boils down to what do you expect to end up with when done. My preferance is to keep a relic piece still a relic but do some kind of improvement to it and in my eyes I ended up with presentable results. I am not one to do full blown restorations as to me it subtracts from a piece of historical signifigance. And to make something very displayable from a total eyesore is what does it for me. Again question 100 people and you will get 100 different answers. Whew, I was going to get that off my chest if it killed me and it damn near did..Best...Dano

 

[18pounder]

nice relics
i once found a load of mills spoons near Albert.
They were totally rusted,but i could just imagine the poor bastards struggling in the mud pulling mills pins.

I wish i had taken pictures as there was alot to see,not just the usual unexploded shells but small arms amunition,grenades most of it still lethal.

I'll take another trip soon and post some images

it just like steping back in time.
I sometimes take trench maps so i locate a certain area,areas that tourists dont go.


regards

 

[dano1917]

Hi 18 pounder, To me that would be the trip of a lifetime. collecting WW1 in the US just could not possibly hold a candle to living near it. Yeah buddy take a lot of pictures. I'd love to see such a thing. With respect...Dano