WWI German Practice Stielhandgranate Head

[peregrinvs]

As mentioned in the grenades section. The metal underneath the rust seems to be quite solid so I have hopes it’ll fettle up reasonably well. I took these ‘before’ pictures and it’s now gone off for a soak in citric acid.

The challenges will be (a) getting the head and lower section apart and (b) sorting out a replacement handle. All suggestions gratefully accepted. Unfortunately I think an off the shelf repro M17 handle will be too thin at the top and I don’t have wood turning experience or facilities.

 

[peregrinvs]

After​ 12 hours in citric acid. There’s some way to go yet, but the presence of a not insignificant amount of the original red paint is a positive omen of the condition of the metal underneath. I don’t suppose anyone would know what the original colour was and whether there’s an off the shelf modern equivalent?


Edit: Silly thought: is the red paint red oxide primer? As they were designed to be reused, it would make sense to rustproof them. I recall a 7.7cm shrapnel shell I cleaned up had traces of red oxide primer in the interior.

 

[doppz92]

Hello, German training grenades were painted red, obviously to differentiate them from live ones but possibly also to help find them once used since they were reusable.

 

[Anders]

After​ 12 hours in citric acid. There’s some way to go yet, but the presence of a not insignificant amount of the original red paint is a positive omen of the condition of the metal underneath. I don’t suppose anyone would know what the original colour was and whether there’s an off the shelf modern equivalent?
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Edit: Silly thought: is the red paint red oxide primer? As they were designed to be reused, it would make sense to rustproof them. I recall a 7.7cm shrapnel shell I cleaned up had traces of red oxide primer in the interior.

As other have said they were red:

And this is how it looks when it is going off.: