RFX Richmond Foundry

[Kilroy was Here]

Originally Posted by Eodtek
It's at the office so I'll photo it on Monday.



[/QUOTE=kilroy] OK, thanks, I look forward to seeing this one. Just in case....I will throw some pillows around my office chair before I look, and possibly fall over from finally seeing the Holy Grail of WW2 pineapples.[/QUOTE]

Here it is, a flat bottom RFX that originally was painted solid yellow and was recoated in OD green.

Well, I'm feeling a bit better, I missed one spot around my office chair with the pillows, and just my luck...... that is where I landed when I fell over.

Seriously, I really have not been feeling well for a while, thus the slow response. I am now humbled, and I will eat some of my earlier words about RFX grenades in this thread :eating:

It is amazing to see this yellow w/ green overpaint RFX. This grenade you've shown if all original means they were certainly made well before 1945. If in fact it's the original paint, and not done by a collector many years ago, it's truly a brand new and very interesting development for grenade collectors. I personally would like to see more of these yellow overpainted grenades to absolutely 100% positive and convinced they were made as early as 1942.
In my opinion, just a green w/yellow stripe RFX body could possibly be post war grenade body, and any WW2 fuze would fit it and could have been changed over the last 65+ years. I am now convinced they made HE solid bottom grenades, but I would really like to see more of these yellow overpainted grenades, or a period photo, documents etc.

This yellow overpainted grenade, if orig. is a very rare grenade, and not seen by many or anybody, and in my opinion, it's comparable on the "rarity scale" to the two 1944 dated M21 grenade cans and grenades I've shown that proved M21's were indeed made during WW2.

I guess all the sayings....you learn something new everyday......never say never.......and all the rest of the sayings, should "always" be remembered in this very interesting and fascinating grenade collecting hobby.

Thank you very much Eodtek for bringing up these RFX grenades into discussions here, for showing these grenade bodies, and for all the very enlightening information. I will say for sure this forum is a wealth of knowledge, with the greatest members, and this is the best forum there is. :congrats:

P.S. here is a couple more RFX photos to add to this thread that I received from a friend about a week ago or so.....one has been chrome plated and the other you can see is green w/ yellow stripe, and a WW2 type fuze. The other is some type of factory display item maybe, not sure, but it has a post war fuze installed. I have no history on these, just these pics......

 

[Kilroy was Here]

Can't you edit your post's anymore now? I kept calling Eodtek Frank, and I wanted to edit a few posts.

I'm sorry Mike (Eodtek) for calling you by your wrong name. I certainly will remember you now after this very interesting thread.

When members don't have signatures, or sign their posts it's hard to remember who's who.

Best Regards, Steve

 

[Grenademan2005]

Totally agree with Steve, but the definitive proof will be when one of those RFX appears here in Europe.

 

[Kilroy was Here]

Totally agree with Steve, but the definitive proof will be when one of those RFX appears here in Europe.

If you found another yellow overpaint RFX in Europe somewhere, that would "seal the deal" for me as definitive proof there were made as early as 1942. Mike's RFX grenade looks very good in the photos, it's just impossible to tell from pics, and without seeing it in hand.

It very well could be the only one that the collector community has seen so far, just like the 1944 M21 cans. If there is this one RFX overpaint, and it's real, there must be more out there somewhere.

Although, there is a way to test the paint on Mike's RFX for it's age in a laboratory. They do this in the antique art field, but it's expensive, about $300. They have machines that breakdown the molecular components of a very small paint sample for computer analysis with FTIR spectroscopy machines that can precisely date the paint. :nerd:

 

[Grenademan2005]

I will wait for to find one here :tinysmile_tongue_t:.