MK IIA1 In the Attic

[EODGUY]

A friend brought me this container that he found in the attic of a house. The container and the grenade are in almost issue condition. Evidently some veteran managed to bring it home and decided that the wife and family might not like it in the living area of the home. The M10A3 fuze I find somewhat interesting. The same information, except for the 199 lot number, that is stamped on the fuze handle is also engraved on the top of the handle beneath the stamped markings. That may be a common practice but I do not recall seeing it before.

 

[hink441]

New guy here, that is really cool. Is the grenade marked by a yellow band ontop of the body? I can't really tell in the pictures. I really like the MKII's.

 

[EODGUY]

There is a yellow band but it is spray painted on in what I would consider one of the worst controlled paint jobs I have seen. The spray goes way down the top of the body and the "band" itself is very light in color.

 

[Grenademan2005]

It is a mega nice set with a "s into an oval" grenade. What you say about the fuze is not very rare, I have one or two with the same. Found into an attic.... in Spain you can find pigeons and old mattresses.

 

[Kilroy was Here]

That's a really nice "Lazy S" grenade and can, I like these grenades, I have one also, but not nearly as nice. It's one of the many unknown makers, and seen fairly often.
I personally have not seen many fuzes that have the (almost) same ink and metal stampings. Then they have upgraded-updated this fuze maybe very soon after it was produced, and at the same factory it was made.

Have you unscrewed the fuze from the body yet?
Have you looked closely at this fuze and grenade?

I hope you do not think these are stupid questions, or you think I'm trying to insult your intelligence......but surprises do happen sometimes. :tinysmile_cry_t:

 

[Grenademan2005]

Ive checked my spoons and found a couple M200 overstenciled M10A3 and three of the restenciled ones, being the three the same than yours with PMC-1-279 A, PMC-1-212 and PMC-1-224. This means that maybe only this kind of spoons were restenciled, I cant see three lot number on mine, same than EODGUY one, so maybe this was the problem.

 

[EODGUY]

Yes, I have removed the fuze. The upper crimped part of the aluminum detonator is still attached to the fuze body and the bright green waterproof sealant is still present. The fuze on the left is the one from the grenade. The other fuze is a mint, never been loaded, M10A2 for comparison. It is interesting to see the other over-stamped fuzes p;eople have. Mine, however, is not a different model or manufacturer. The engraved markings are "FUZE M10A3 LOT PMC-1-". Ink stamped over that is "FUZE M10A3 LOT PMC-1-199". If they were going to ink stamp the lot number, why not just do that or engrave the lot number like was done on the M10A2 in the photo.

 

[Grenademan2005]

No, no, no, "other people" not have the other spoons, its ME who have them. roud: And yes, four spoons are from same maker. I already said it in my last post. Maybe they could not mark the lot number and for save time did it with a seal.

 

[Kilroy was Here]

Yes, I have removed the fuze. The upper crimped part of the aluminum detonator is still attached to the fuze body and the bright green waterproof sealant is still present. The fuze on the left is the one from the grenade. The other fuze is a mint, never been loaded, M10A2 for comparison. It is interesting to see the other over-stamped fuzes p;eople have. Mine, however, is not a different model or manufacturer. The engraved markings are "FUZE M10A3 LOT PMC-1-". Ink stamped over that is "FUZE M10A3 LOT PMC-1-199". If they were going to ink stamp the lot number, why not just do that or engrave the lot number like was done on the M10A2 in the photo.

Very good, just checking, :wink: I would not want anyone getting hurt.

That's a very nice fuze you have, very clear nice stamping, and in really good shape.
I thought your fuze was interesting in that both stampings are the same "model number" like you said, it's just missing the "199" stamped in the metal after the "1"

I have a few overstamps also, but they are not like yours, and the PMC fuzes Miguel has shown. They are all "PMC"company fuzes. Does anyone know who this PMC company was? Seems they are the only ones to overstamp like this, the same ink marks, over the same metal stamps.

I think this PMC company maybe added the ink stampings "with Lot number" after the fuzes were loaded. All the metal stampings do not have any Lot numbers after the "1", and if they were loaded they should have a Lot number after this "1" shouldn't they?

I don't think anyone will ever completely figure out all the different methods companies used, and the meanings of all the different markings-stampings, the revisions and other things done with U.S. grenades and fuzes during WW2. It seems endless.

Here's a "shamrock" overstamp fuze..... what the deal with these? What company this was? They must have had a contract to upgrade fuzes. But only M200A1 fuzes? I've seen other shamrock fuzes also, I think they were also M200A1's......Here's a revision "A" fuze also....what did revision "A" consist of? anyone know?

 

[Grenademan2005]

NICE BOX OF FUZES!!! I want one! I looked again at my fuzes, well, onto the grenade fuzes, and found three interesting ones, I think. Both M200 are PMC made. It seems this company was very busy at the war. Last pics are from an M10A2 fuze with only stenciled marks on it, it is the only one I have in this way.

 

[V40]

Bob,

We lived in a place that was by an Arsenal, Small Air Force Base that had the old P-51's still in service up to the mid 50's. We had Top Secret eveything such as the companies Goodyear, B.F. Goodrich, B&W, Firestone, etc., etc. Each company during WWII were provided with housing for there workers. This and in some other 1940's holmes is here we find the most "Pinneapple" in walls of old homes. When the buyer attempts to a remodeling and old house, they bump into either an old Colt, and/or a grenade. I was always hoping to find at least one Singer Sewing 1911A1. I would of been everso rich in allot of different ways.:tinysmile_grin_t:

We even found under a junk car lot, right in the middle of the drive towards the back and being a dirt road that was packed down clay, their was a spoon and part of the fuse just above the ground exposing what turned out to be at least one M34. There at that spot turned up to having being at least one and turned out to being old being M34's x 4 burried just below the surface in a box that at one time was waterproofed by some kind of wax. Seems one of the the guys who drives a very large forklift was tired of looking at that piece of metal that had been laying there for months, he walked up to it and found a spoon that was very old and rusted fuse. He called the police which they called the Bomb Squad. They were dumfounded.

They had to choose on which way to do it. I didn't know at that time which way they choose to removing them, but it worked and only two went off. Which the firefighters there quickly extguished them using just a certain kind of of ingrediance with water with something added in.

 

[Kilroy was Here]

NICE BOX OF FUZES!!! I want one! I looked again at my fuzes, well, onto the grenade fuzes, and found three interesting ones, I think. Both M200 are PMC made. It seems this company was very busy at the war. Last pics are from an M10A2 fuze with only stenciled marks on it, it is the only one I have in this way.

Thanks Miguel, I thought you have seen my fuze box before? it's also shown on Lex's site. I'll let you know when I'm ready to sell it one day. :tinysmile_fatgrin_t

Those are more nice fuses you have shown. I also have never seen the the last type M10A2 with only ink stamp, very nice! thanks for showing more of yours.

Maybe there should be a special thread here on BOCN with everyone's different US WW2 fuze's, like a "data base" of all the different markings?

I have many photos saved of fuzes that was going to send to Lex. We wanted to start a page on his site with all the different WW2 US fuze markings, but he has been too busy the last year or so, so have not bothered sending him pics until he has more free time again to update his site.
He has a few photos on this special page he made, BUT for sure he will need more than one web page to show them all!!! Seems the marking variations are endless!

 

[Grenademan2005]

By my own experience Alex is always very busy.

 

[Kilroy was Here]

I was always hoping to find at least one Singer Sewing 1911A1. I would of been everso rich in allot of different ways.

Hi Mark, that's a great story you told. I guess "SOG on the brain" has not affected your memory too much it seems! haha!

All us .45 collectors always hope to find the "Holy Grail of 1911A1's" .....the elusive Singer .45. I came closer to have all the different makers when I found my US&S about 30 years ago........here's a pic since it seems you like .45's also. I have the Colt, Ithaca, Rem-Rand and US&S, but no Singer :sad:

I think the last Singer I saw for sale was $57,000!! This was a while back, and I'm sure today they would cost even more. the sky is the limit for a collector who wants one bad enough AND has the money to buy one.

There have been many fakes-forgeries of these also. If someone was planning on buying one that is for sale, they should have the frame X-rayed and measured to see if in fact, it's an original Singer frame. There are more Singer slides around than complete guns, and many crooks who try to fake the Singer pistols.

 

[Kilroy was Here]

By my own experience Alex is always very busy.

Yes, he's a VERY busy man. Even more so now with new baby daughter.

 

[Grenademan2005]

57.000$ for a gun? :tinysmile_eyebrow_t It is made of gold?

 

[EODGUY]

Wow, I am really impressed with the number and variations of fuze markings that have been shown here. I have never seen anything like the shamrock and the "A" markings. Great box of fuzes you have. As for the digging up of the M34's I had a similar experience at Redstone Arsenal in the 1970's. They were digging alongside one of the major roads on the arsenal to fix a leaking water pipe and the ground started to smoke. They stopped and left the area and called for EOD. We went out and found an M34 that had been buried and rusted through. The digging had disturbed the ground and exposed it to air just enough to begin to burn, but not violently. We pushed a little more dirt away and let it burn out and carefuly dug around the area and found two more. They were not rusted through, but were quite rusty in places. They were so old that one of them carried the E16R2 designation, given to the design that was finally adopted as the M34. We carefully put them in a bucket of water and took them away for disposal. The wate line people were nto very excited about going back and finishing their job at that point.

 

[Grenademan2005]

I cant understand what those grenades were doing buried at side of the road.

 

[Kilroy was Here]

57.000$ for a gun? :tinysmile_eyebrow_t It is made of gold?

haha! No not gold, but might as well be. There were only approx. 500 Singer Sewing Machine Co. 1911A1 .45's made.

It was a special "test" contract to see how long it would take a company that had never made guns to get the tooling and manufacturing to get production started, and also to see how the quality and interchangeability of the parts would be.

Funny, it's been said, that it turned out that the Singer 1911A1's were the best quality and interchangeability of parts of all of the 5 manufacturers of .45's during WW2!! They canceled Singer's contract after the 500 pistols were made for different reasons, so they are very rare to find, and even more rare in good condition.

I personally would never pay $50,000 for a 191A1, but some collectors with deep pockets would.

 

[Grenademan2005]

I know that company Singer, it still today making sewing machines, it is one of the best ones. Funny that in WWII it made guns,a few ones. Also, often when a company start to produce a new item, this is better done than the company that make the same item since a long time, I call that: "New Blood".