wooden mills No5

[paul the grenade]

heres an unusual find i picked up today in a bric a brac shop. its a full size wooden mills No5. its quite light in weight so i don't think its a practice grenade. any of you mills collectors seen one of these before?
cheers, paul.

 

[beihan62]

Hi Paul,Just a shot in the dark,could this be a classroom teaching/identification aid,it is so well made as to be factory produced,
Thanks for showing,
Cheers,
Don,

 

[Darrol]

how come I never find anything that interesting in a bric a brac shop . .ever .
Nice find and looks really well made . .looks like a gibbons style plug
.cheers.Darrol.

 

[SG500]

Good find Paul, its very well made.

Dave.

 

[Millsman]

Hi Paul.

I've seen a couple and they often get labelled 'Home Guard training Grenades' despite the fact that the No 5 would not have been used for Home Guard training! I think they are most probably models or toys made for old soldier's grandchildren. I think Tom (Snufkin) may have one that was sold on ebay. They would certainly need a lead centre to be near authentic weight to be used for training. Also the shoulders would most likely break off if thrown onto hard ground. I suspect all these are one offs. Yours being one of the better ones.

John