Desperately Need Help Authenticating Jungle Carbine!

[Peter Laidler]

We appreciate that Cinders but 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 but luckily, with the Bedfords, Whites and LandRovers of the era, with no electronic circuitry and magic they could work wonders with vehicles. Strangely, it was the NZ VM's that were masters at get-you-home-repairs in all conditions.

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!

This No5 saga - all over the technicalities of a backsight fix has driven me to distraction already............

Information

Warning: This is a relatively older thread This discussion is older than 360 days. Some information contained in it may no longer be current.

[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.

[Colonel Enfield]

Strangely, it was the NZ VM's that were masters at get-you-home-repairs in all conditions.

Kiwi ingenuity has long been considered one of the country's great traits and there's a long history in NZ of effecting improbable repairs with "some 2x4 and No. 8 fencing wire" (ie whatever was lying around at the time). Legendarily, during the Pacific Theatre of WWII, RNZAF mechanics and engineers were able to take the discarded parts of three or four other F4U Corsairs (allegedly cast away by the Americans, so the story goes) and rebuild them into another flying Corsair which saw combat service and performed exactly as well as a factory-built plane.

[Seaspriter]

some 2x4 and No. 8 fencing wire" (ie whatever was lying around at the time)

We refer to this as the "bubble gum and bailing wire" (or clothes hanger) approach. I remember my grandmother using this technique (showed to her by her father) on a 1952 Oldsmobile that had a pin-hole leak in the gas tank. She took chewing gum and mashed it into the hole. Lo and behold dried and sealed the tank for a couple of years until she sold the car.

[5thBatt]

"some 2x4 and No. 8 fencing wire"

Don't you mean some 4x2 and No. 8 next you'll be telling me the color of my car is green when the colour of my car is green

[Colonel Enfield]

It was always called 2x4 when I was growing up (which wasn't in the US)