Desperately Need Help Authenticating Jungle Carbine!

[Seaspriter]

Once again....... In the real world we would just polish or polish out the small gouge and re-use the plunger. ... Just polish that surface and get on with the bloody job..........all through our apprenticeships were were taught how to repair what we had before we just replaced with new. We sometimes learned the hard way, especially on active service, that sometimes you just had to make do and mend as the spares we wanted were hundreds of miles away and at the bottom of the blanket stackers food chain! The VM's had it the hardest with this repair before you replace thing......Old fashioned I know....... But I used to look into the classified scrap bin (all weapon parts are now deemed to be classified scrap) and see parts that could easily be repaired by straightening or de-burring or assemblies that could be stripped and rebuilt, just tossed in the bin as scrap........ Not me I'm afraid!

Captain, thank you for saying this so eloquently. I'm sure in Britain you have an expression for this; in America we call it "Yankee Ingenuity." The idea of repairing something before replacing it is economically sound and the hallmark of a craftsman. It's why I spend money getting new soles on old shoes -- the uppers are still good, and the shoe comfortable -- I don't need new shoes if just the soles are worn.

My father and grandfather taught me: "don't throw it out until it's used up." During the Great Depression, my grandfather, who was ably employed at the time, went to the dump every Saturday to scrounge parts to rebuild everything from radios to washing machines. He'd work the weekend making repairable scrap whole again. Then he'd sell or give what he fixed to people who were up against hard times. Your "make do" and "improvise" is the spirit of a true artisan. Thanks for keeping this philosophy alive.