Relics - restore - fix - leave them alone

[dano1917]

The relic question is one I have pondered since I began collectiog. In the photo on the right is a relic m1917 n/A german egg with the m1917 stamped friction igniter. The picture shows exactly how I bought the grenade and I thought it was just beautiful as is. I bought it from Dugup about a year ago for 25GBP (reasonable). I enjoyed just looking at it for a few months, but curiosity got the better of this cat and I just had to find out if the porcelain pull was inside. I soaked it in penetrant for a few days, took it out and gave it a few light "hammerlicks" to try and start the loosening process. I then resoaked it a few more days and gave it some light jerks with the channellocks. No go. More tinkering and my patience grew thin. I put a visegrips on the cover and gave it more hammerlicks. Well to make a short story long I ended up with a ruined cap and sure enough the ball was inside but the string had long rotted off. It was not 10 seconds after removal that it hit me. I had f__ked up big time. I keep the picture to remind me sometimes it is best to leave well enough alone. The grenade had come from the Somme area and was a complete genuine piece of history. It is still a good grenade but if I had just left it be I would have been much happier. Moral to this story? Look before you leap. The rusted egg body is still one of my favorites. I love getting a piece that comes with history. The story you get with a relic I guess should be taken with a grain of salt. "Oral history" has a way of growing (if not completely made up) but I believe what I choose to. This is why, depending on circumstance, I choose to leave many relics untouched. The exception being that if something is so rusted over that it is unrecognizable then I will at least partially clean it. But brother this m1917 n/A German egg with the m1917 stamped friction igniter is one I wish I had left alone. I do have pieces from sources whose reputation is beyond reproach and when I know where a piece was originally found it really puts a historical perspective on it. The stuff cannot talk. The original participants are long passed, so this is all I have to go on. Babble, yada, whatever. Y'all have a wonderful day.......Dano

[waffenamt]

In my opinion,if the relic item is in danger of falling to bits then restore it!
I have a panzershrek round that was fully restored(took 3 years to get the damned tailfins back from a pal,long story!) but it is looking very good. Im going to get my tattoo artist pal to paint it and add stencills.
If i had not done the restoration then it would be just be a crappy old pile of junk.

regs

waff

[satan18]

In my opinion,if the relic item is in danger of falling to bits then restore it!
I have a panzershrek round that was fully restored(took 3 years to get the damned tailfins back from a pal,long story!) but it is looking very good. Im going to get my tattoo artist pal to paint it and add stencills.
If i had not done the restoration then it would be just be a crappy old pile of junk.

regs

waff

A lot of the time it is personel choice when it comes to relic purchases.
If the item is a common peice then i plumb for leave it as is,but however if the item is on the rarer side or you need components from it such as a nice B2 Fuse then you have to sacrifice for the greater good of preserving
what you have.

After all most of the relics have been in the ground or blown up etc.

Best phil

[SG500]

Bad luck Dano, lock up the vicegrips.......
I sometimes restore things that have already been restored just to get them back to how they should look, its amazing how wrong some things can be done, incorrect colours, lumpy filler etc. I always prefer original paint/finish etc but then it comes at a price. The magic Hammerite dip that I'm always going on about can work wonders for some rusty things though.
Dave.

[beihan62]

Hi Dano,Sorry to hear about your problem with the ww1 grenade,just work on the theory that at the time you were doing what you thought was right,we all have 20 20 hindsight,and believe me such things happen to us all at one time or another,you are not alone,
Regards,Don,

[EODGUY]

Dano, My sympathy for the results. In my earlier days of collecting I to attempted to restore a couple of items. Fortunately they both worked out, but it got me to thinking. I collect items because of their interest to me or their historical significance, especially if I can place them to a specific place or point in time. To take an item of any type or condition and "fix" it or repaint it destroyed that originality. Since that time I have not restored anything. Sure, everyone wants that pristine piece of WWI, or other timeframe, ordnance, but they are few and far between. Taking a battlefield pick-up and fixing it up , repainting it and making it look new though, in my mind, creates something about one level above a fake, because it is no longer the original piece it once was. I may be the lone voice in the forest, but we all look at collecting from our own perspective. I would not buy a valuable piece of antique furniture and repaint it to lessen its value, nor would I do the same to a grenade or other ordnance.

[GTR003121]

Dano, I think most people here probably have a similar story. If you collect for long enough, eventually you will get curious or think you can improve something. It's usually a bad idea.

I ruined a V40 body when I first started collecting because I heard that acetone can help break down some forms of inert fillers. Inert fillers inside grenades with a frag matrix is something that pisses me off to no end, and this V40 had a filling and I couldn't leave well enough alone. Needless to say, despite my best efforts to prevent it, I got some acetone on the exterior and ruined a large area of paint and markings. I was upset for a week and traded it as soon as possible.

This isn't exactly a relic story, but the point is that in a vast majority of cases, things are best left alone. The only exception in my opinion is that it's ok to use high quality oil to lubricate, prevent further corrosion and help to stabalize a corroded/corroding component. Using bondo to fill dents and repainting things is utterly ruining them in my opinion, and it also makes them less marketable should the time come to move the piece. Just my 2 cents for what it's worth!

Don't feel bad about the egg, you learned a valuble lesson, and a lesson that could have been learned at a much greater expense.

Justin

[pointblank0]

Relics are great. When I get relics, I oil them to stop the rust spreading and then leave them alone. So much history in a relic, I love them

[dano1917]

Relics are great. When I get relics, I oil them to stop the rust spreading and then leave them alone. So much history in a relic, I love them

Hi Rob, It appears I feel exactly the same way with exception when big chunks are obviously missing or if I feel it can be made to display better all while retaining its relic status if at all possible. 80% of all my relics remain "untouched". My GRZ14n/A in my opinion is a prime example. With a big chunk obviously gone I feel I made it much better, but never lost the "relic" look that has so much class. Best my friend........Dano