To catch up - start here.
Interestingly, the closest anyone got was John S. Except he was answering the questions not asked. The two things I said I *could* have asked you about, but didn't, because they would be too hard (I thought) were the ones mostly correctly identified. The round gizmo is a check gauge, and the long, skinny thing is, in fact, a barrel-wear gauge. The only thing John got wrong was caliber - it's a wear gauge for .30 cal barrels, not .50. But since no size context was provided, John wins the Non-Contest! Of course, John really *is* a capital "G" Grognard.
The rest of you were inventive, entertaining, clever, and wrong, though some got tantalizingly close.
Let's see if this helps.
I realize that some of you will immediately think - "Hey! That works within the context of my guess!" True enough. Just remember I said... you were wrong, thus far.
Update! We have a winner. Dan. It is indeed, an early WWI British grenade, the Grenade, Hand No. 12, commonly referred to as a "hairbrush" or "jam tin" grenade, for obvious reasons.
For the label side, click here.
Or is it? Finding one of these mostly intact, much less in as good a condition as this - is almost the Holy Grail of those who collect grenades. If you do find one out in the wild, and the person who has it knows what it is, you're talking many hundreds of dollars.
I know better than to try to sneak that by SWWBO.
These were not what is called 'artisan' grenades (though the Holdings of the Arsenal *do* include a couple of French examples of artisan grenades), manufactured in their generally poor-quality-and-reliability tens of thousands by all sorts of people and entities during the desperate early years of the munitions shortages on the Western Front. This was actually a 'sealed pattern' grenade, meaning there were blueprints, specs, etc. It used that pull-ignitor to light off the fuze train (missing in this example). In addition to the fragmentation plate, the box was filled with scrap metal to make it more useful. It had a very short service life, it's funny looking, not that many were made, it's relatively fragile... so of course guys like me want one.
This is a reproduction. Or at least that's the best assessment of people far more knowledgeable than I. And it was presented to me as such - and it didn't cost hundreds of dollars as a result. I got it from an honest chap in England. I could lay out the details of why it's a reproduction, and go through the discussion of whether it was created as a favor or with malice - but I don't need to - that's already been done, for those who care to study further.
Go ahead, take a look - which one does *this* one look like? If it *isn't a fake - well, then my son will get a little more money than he expected when he liquidates the holdings of the Arsenal after I start tapping kegs at Fiddler's Green.
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