Boer war or WWI

[CINDERS]

Purchased this the other day as I have not seen to many down this place and want opinions if this is Boer war issue or WWI field kit. It may have been part of a private purchase by an officer as part of their travelling kit or by a soldier as it bears no marks.
Its pretty cool how they slot together you just make sure you have 3 rivets on one and one rivet on the other lined up and there you go. The knife part of it still has a pretty good edge and would most certainly take care of a nice rib eye.
So what do you guys think about possible era pretty chuffed as I got it fairly cheap considering what others have been asking for them.

Also my APDS 20Pdr projie turned up the other day and looks really cool in the 20Pdr shell Centurian shell case will get some pics up shortly think I won't do any refurbishing on it just leave it as found. Cheers

[browningautorifle]

I'd think that's just private purchase and probably made to order...nice. I'll be watching for the new 20 pounder pics...

[Flying10uk]

Any ideas on the wood, anyone? Rosewood? I bet that it was expensive when new.

[rcathey]

The grain isn’t *quite* right for the most common rosewood of the era (Brazilian).
I’m thinking more like a mahogany.
But yes, definitely a high price item!

[bigduke6]

Agree with BAR, I also doubt it was Military use either, but even back then personnel kit was purchased rather than issue, but an officer would of been well looked after, only purchase back then was probably al sidearm or rifle.

Not much changed regarding buying own kit, only problem now is its not insured, so your not insured yourself if using none issue kit......( obviously certain forces exempt etc)

[CINDERS]

As promised BAR the 20Pdr APDS projectile with the smoke round and case with both fitted up I'm pretty lucky but won't deny the hours and hours spent trolling the net the APDS I found with only 17 hours left to go so I was not going to surf but decided on a whim too otherwise I would have missed it an 11:45pm whim I may add...

The DS seems to be a lighter material possibly aircraft grade aluminium whilst the penetrator is for its size very heavy I am not sure if it has a tungston core penetrator but doubt it being a training roundn perhaps someone can answer that one would imaging the sabot to fall away quickly and imparting the spin onto the business end.
WIKI had the performance of the 20Pdr APDS at 4,700Fps and able to penetrate 13" of RHA at 1000 yards making the gun a very effective tank killer in the day.

As usual 303 MkVII for scale the smoke round is unfired as can be seen the driving bands are intact and not engraved.

[22SqnRAE]

Hey, Cinders, that KF... err yeah, is a pearler! Just the Jack Kit that the well prepared rooster in the Mounted Rifles or Light Horse headed off to The Veldt would have taken with him.

Decades later, the S was discovered to be the only essential eating implement for the Commonwealth Armies to carry in their kit, as there was *&%$ all that required sawing to bring down to bite-sized pieces.

Just think of Bully Beef in Tobruk, Nadzab or Balikpapan.

[CINDERS]

We discovered in the cadets that those bloody hard tack biscuits you were given in your 10 man ration pack were almost good enough to drive a nail in but they absolutely shone as fire lighters which we put to good use as such when on a Bivy.
Also the small gold tins of vegemite clandestinely & descretely dropped into another pairs cooking fire yielded a good fire scatterering eruption with the usual hoochie suffering the fall out, once a young 1st year cadet decided to heat his spam up but did not puncture the lid whilst it sat in the water we warned him of the dangers to which he punctured the can with his FRED and had a meat jet about 10' long sorta meat fire extiguisher LMAO.
The Sgt and I coupled our hoochies up me just a lowly Cpl so we had extra width and divied the rations as required otherwise the 1st years gutsed all the sweet stuff first but it was good fun I enjoyed my 3 years in the cadets very much. Have some funny stories like allot of the regular service personnel here have.

Yes 22Sqn anyone that has tangled with a FRED understands what the name implies about how good they were you'd do better eating with your fingers after opening the can which they did accomplish but boy they bent allot, allot of us brought our own can openers knives and forks from home.

[browningautorifle]

The DS seems to be a lighter material possibly aircraft grade aluminium whilst the penetrator is for its size very heavy I am not sure if it has a tungsten core penetrator but doubt it being a training round

Sounds logical, that would be a good reason for painting them blue for training. Tungsten is expensive and you don't need it for practice. We used to find those all over the live fire area and I personally didn't have a clue what they were back then. Here's a couple example pics of the live and training...you only miss the polymer obturating band at front.

[CINDERS]

I think the chances of getting one of those would be very slim indeed Jim but I am happy how it sits and the hunt still goes on for the Tgr 88mm round