Evolution of the german 1ww kugal grenade

[paul the grenade]

Hi All.
This has been a subject of much argument so i thought i would give my ideas and hopefully we can come to a conclusion.
The attached picture is in my opinion the correct order for the evolution of the kugal
the left hand M1913 grenade is well made and has two horizontal grooves that have been machined on a lathe. a time consuming process but not a problem at the beginning of the war.
The next one has only one horizontal groove. maybe to speed up production as more grenades are required.
The next one has no horizontal grooves to further speed up production. this is the casting the first 2 are made from and could be first on the list but i think its in the right place at third.
last one is a re-designed body but probably no quicker to produce than the third grenade. may be as its not so chunky it saved on the amount of iron used.
hopefully this all makes sense. does anyone have any better ideas?
cheers, Paul.

 

[doctor]

Hi
Very interesting
A thing which worries me for a long time the spirit: have weigh yourself different model grenades?
The third seems to me much too heavy compared to the last model in service so thus very heavy to launch it to the hand

 

[xxxx]

All of them had the option of being launched by various spring loaded catapults.

 

[Millsman]

Paul

It looks to me that your new No.2 was made from a No.3. I'd swap them over. I'm sure that new grenade is a one off. If it's not in Delhomme I'd think it wasn't a widely made variant.

John

 

[grenades]

Here some kugels from my collection.
Im dont know correct order for the evolution of the kugal but I think Paul forgot about one type(on the right)with small fragments in the middle of grenade.

 

[frizzen]

From a production viewpoint, I think Paul has it exactly right. The 1913 model with the two grooves started the war. Production could not keep up with demand so to speed things up, only one cut was made. The third model eliminated the cuts completely and the fourth (the model 1915) used a more mold friendly design which required not only no further cuts, but was easier to remove from the mold so molds could be used longer.

 

[orcutteod]

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