Old grenade

[SG500]

Here's one I got the other day.
I'm a little behind the curve with grenades, anyone know how it works?
Dave.

 

[pointblank0]

What a fantastic example. Really nice condition. I believe they were made to fill a gap in grenade stock, but correct me if I'm wrong, as not too hot on French WW1. Certainly looks all original to me.

 

[SG500]

What a fantastic example. Really nice condition. I believe they were made to fill a gap in grenade stock, but correct me if I'm wrong, as not too hot on French WW1. Certainly looks all original to me.

Thanks pointblank0 I got it in Malvern last weekend. The stall holder said about his friend who had got a load out of a lake when it was drained (possibly the same as Julien mentions above). There were about 10 of them on the stall, some with handles that had mainly rotted away, others like this one in better condition.
Dave.

 

[paul the grenade]

Hi Dave, it was a very simple gren to use.
Under the nail inside the wood block would be a simple percussion cap. a short length of fuze would go from the wood block to the 100 grain Melenite cartridge Model 1890, which was inside the frag tube. the nail was attached to the gren by a smal length of wire and would be in the top end of the wood block when issued. to use the gren the nail was inserted in the hole that its in now and pushed or twisted into the percussion cap to light the fuze. as soon as it started to burn the gren was throw. they came in a variety of sizes and different pattern frag tubes. see attached.
Originally the whole gren would have been dipped in wax to waterproof it.
cheers, paul.