Oil Bottles

Ever wonder what the inside of an oil bottle looks like?... Well maybe its just me and my OCD disorder. I recently managed to acquire a few extra oil bottles and after sorting through them into various manufacturers differences in a vain effort to ID what's, British, Canadian, Australian and New Zealand made bottles I decided to sectionalise to see the design on the inside. What I learnt was they were all made from Bakelite, that Bakelite stinks and that there is a unique odor to each countries bottles due to the formulation used with the phenol formaldehyde resin. mmmmm yum.

Left are Australian Bottles, right are the two NZ made bottle
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...fkj5cjl5-1.jpg

There I believe are Canadian variations
https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...hh1g8ehk-1.jpg

Enjoy, my madness

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Originally Posted by nzl1a1collector

Bakelite stinks and that there is a unique odor to each countries bottles due to the formulation used with the phenol formaldehyde resin.

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Do not some forms of Bakelite contain Asbestos fibres? A quick internet search seemed to suggests that some do and some may not? Sorry to be a kill-joy.

No worries about being a kill-joy, I'm already dying.... its terminal....... I only have about 40 years left so I might as well make the most of it. :madsmile: That's the problem when you start breathing air.... it starts to kill you, there's no escape.

Its possible the Australian bottle may have an asbestos filler, there certainly some form of fiber mixed into the Bakelite, that's why it has the rough edges. The rest don't appear to have a filler in them.

I have another 11 to sectionalise

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Originally Posted by nzl1a1collector

There I believe are Canadian variations

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Without them in hand...they look right.

Interesting project Kev, the thought of sectioning oil bottles (along with a rough SUIT and bayonet) had crossed my mind.

So if you need a check up from the neck up for L1 OCD, I will likely be taken away too mate...

I believe that I have one or two Canadian versions of the bakelite oil bottle and I may have more than one style of Canadian version. I will have to dig them out at some point but, from memory, one of them only has the tiniest of Canadian acceptance markings on the base to identify it as being Canadian issue and could easily be missed.

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Originally Posted by mrclark303

Interesting project Kev, the thought of sectioning oil bottles (along with a rough SUIT and bayonet) had crossed my mind.

So if you need a check up from the neck up for L1 OCD, I will likely be taken away too mate...

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I've thought about doing a SUIT sight, basing it on the ones done for SKN rifles, I have a mate that could do it but it would have to be when he's not busy with work... I could be waiting for a while.

Recently I've managed to find a number of unique new items, that I will titillate you :super:

---------- Post added at 02:22 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:12 PM ----------

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Originally Posted by Flying10uk

I believe that I have one or two Canadian versions of the bakelite oil bottle and I may have more than one style of Canadian version. I will have to dig them out at some point but, from memory, one of them only has the tiniest of Canadian acceptance markings on the base to identify it as being Canadian issue and could easily be missed.

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All the bottle I've looked at have no Canadian markings, ........ I've carefully examined them. We have large quantities of Bakelite oil bottles and I believe this is because we were reequipped after WW2 with No. 4 Mk. 1* rifles of Long Branch and Savage production, which came with oil bottles and spares, these would of kept NZ supplied until the SLR was withdrawn in 1988. The Australian bottles would of come with the L1A1 SLR rifles shipped between 1959 - 1967.

I would be interested to see 'known' Canadian examples so I can confirm the designs that belong to them.

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Originally Posted by nzl1a1collector

Canadian examples

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Thing is, we were issued lots of different oil bottles, I expect many came through the supply system in CFE and returned with us during repat...I think if I check my leftovers, there'll be a bit of everything and I don't recall CA markings.

The Canadian acceptance marking on the bottom of the bakelite oil bottle is just about the most easily missed CA marking that you are likely to encounter. This is because it is small and feint. I was only aware of it because the vendor pointed it out to me and charged me a premium over unmarked examples for the privilege to own it. I'll dig it out and photograph it later, if I can find it.

Here are some pictures of 2 oil bottles both of which, it is my understanding, are of Canadian issue/manufacture. The first 3 pics are of the oil bottle which I have referred to earlier and I have included 2 shots of the base for clarity. The "C" and the arrow appear out of alignment but both can be made out in the pictures. I think that I have another similar oil bottle with fainter markings but this is not to hand at present. The other oil bottle, last 2 pics, I understand to be made in Canada by a firm called something like "Dominion Plastics" hence the initials on the cap but I stand to be corrected on this one.

Thanks for the images, can you take a photo of the spoons and see if there are any mold markings on the inside of the bottle and on the inside of the screw cap.

I'm almost temped to say someone tried to stamp the C/|\ marking.... I wonder how many bottles they broke in that process

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Originally Posted by nzl1a1collector

I wonder how many bottles they broke in that process

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That would be a little electric branding iron to do that. Burn it in...

The first 3 images are of the cap from the "C A" marked bottle and the last 3 images from the "Dominion Plastics" bottle.

I'm struggling to figure out what the digits on the "D.P." cap read because they are so small but it could be "A2Y" or "A27".

I think it might be A2Y but my eyes aren't as young as they used to be :rofl:

I have a LB No 4 that came with an oil bottle will dig it out and find what markings are on it.
Dick

Thanks for the photos

Yep the 'P' mold marking. I haven't seen the A mold marking before..... looks like A29 interesting.

If you look into the very bottom of the bottle you will find a mold marking there eg. P18

nzl1a1collector in #1 mentions formaldehyde, as a farmhand had some very nice times (Not) mixing that stuff decanted neat out of a 200L drum into a 5 liter bucket to mix into a trough for the dairy cattle to walk through to stop the chance of foot rot after milking into their allotted pens as they were fully housed like the European cattle are over their winter.

I can attest that cattle crap allot when you had 30 cattle housed in individual pens after a night in there its like just mountains of the stuff.
After milking's the drill was 2 blokes put them away 1 bloke on the swing gate calls the number, 2nd bloke in the shed (usually me) goes to that pen that corresponds to the number un-clips the chain cow is let in goes into her pen you go beside her to clip up her chain around her neck, the fun starts if they miss their pen in a small raceway with nowhere to go cows do not have a good reverse, got punched into the side of the shed a few times but patience helps as they get distressed pretty quickly.
But that formaldehyde was bad we had no protective equipment just the usual farmers stuff shorts, boots, hat & T-shirt the farm was owned by the Western Australian Government also we used to spray the Apple of Sodom a noxious weed cattle will not eat with 24D & 245T the latter I need not elaborate on you may have experienced it in the 60's-70's again all I had was a mask no other protection just farm attire I was on the back of that tanker sprayer for weeks with a hand held sprayer.

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Originally Posted by Flying10uk

Do not some forms of Bakelite contain Asbestos fibres? A quick internet search seemed to suggests that some do and some may not? Sorry to be a kill-joy.

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Mate, most of us Aussies over 40 have lived in fibro (asbestos cement sheeting) houses or huts at one time or another. My guess is that between the fibro, the mercury we handled in school science classes back in the 1950s, the lead base paints from the day, all the solvents we handled before they 'became' toxic/carcinogenic substances, and the Agent Orange that was dumped on us in Vietnam my generation has been on borrowed time for decades. Personally, I'm planning to live well passed the 100 mark.:cheers:

Add to that the huge Trichlorethylene and Carbon tetrachloride vapour baths big enough to take a Centurion tank engine and a Bedford truck chassis depth ways while you leaned over spraying CTC etc over the bits with the hose. I'm not sure that I remember any of us donning a mask or gloves while we did. Anyone else remember that notorious 'cotton waste' we all used to use as hand wipes and cleaning rags. Usually full of old swarf and gungy oil.

Was it not the case that individuals could not take legal action against the MOD, in the past, but the law was changed to enable people to do so now? If this is correct I would imagine that the MOD is much more safety conscious or, if it is not, is probably paying out vast sums of cash each year in compensation. When I started work everyone laughed at me* for wearing eye protection when operating lathes, mills and grinders, Now everyone has to wear eye protection and anyone caught not doing so faces disciplinary action.

*Anyone who has experienced hot swarf in their eye or seen a large grinding wheel fracture will understand the importance of eye protection.

Crown Immunity........ Here endeth the lesson

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Originally Posted by Peter Laidler

Crown Immunity.

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Hasn't this come to an end after a change in the law?

A fellow shooter, seeing me with an L1A1, said 'you may as well have this', and handed me a very battered green box, which was good of him. He said it would be the correct cleaning kit for an L1A1. I squirreled it away and forgot all about it until I saw this thread. It's nice to have the correct accessories for the rifle, sling, bayonet... oil bottle.

Attachment 88196 Attachment 88197

The oil bottle doesn't appear to be bakelite. I'd say, pretty confidently, that it's plastic. It also has a fairly modern looking O-ring, that doesn't look quite right.

So, does anyone know if it is a later type of oil bottle that would have been used with the L1A1?

Cheers.

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Originally Posted by Charlie303

a fairly modern looking O-ring

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I think it should have a flat washer...

Yes, thanks Jim, quite agree. I noted the flat washers on the original post. It's a new neoprene o-ring, too modern for the bottle. It'll have to go!

The oil bottles originally came with a leather and then a fibre sort of washer and then a crap flat rubber/neoprene washer. The flat rubber ones used to squash outwards and made the oil bottle leak. Then the round neoprene ones ones came on stream with an LV6 MT? type part number indicating that they were a B vehicle part. They didn't bulge outwards, were a stock item anyway so solved the problem. But please, please don't tell anyone that I told you this because they'll be putting me into the nerdy oil bottle collecting fiends category.

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Originally Posted by Peter Laidler

nerdy oil bottle collecting fiends

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Show us your collection of oil bottles then?

What! Peter collects oil bottles, does that mean he is nerdy like me, nope no one is as nerdy as me..................