Here are two photos of the 1895 EM leather-clad glass canteen, as well as what is purported to be an officer's version of a glass canteen covered in leather with tin cup on bottom.
Clearly shown is how the bottom leather shell detaches to serve as a leather drinking cup, which was unpopular among soldiers as disgusting to drink from.
Last edited by Nick Komiya; 05-09-2021 at 06:27 PM.
I'll put this logo here as a reminder to find the maker ID, when I can. They do not seem to be active in postwar years, which makes it a bit difficult to come up with a name.
Water Bottle Repairs
I added a section to the helmet thread on repairs done at the field depots (野戦貨物廠 or 野戦被服廠), who specialized in repairing gear as well as well as producing theatre-made items. So I’ll add similar comments here, too, on fixing water bottles.
Special Heat & Acid Resistant Paint
Field depots stocked paint specifically developed for repainting water bottles and mess kits, which were only for these two items and not to be used on other items such as helmets.
However, like helmet paint, they came in two can sizes 25 kgs or 5 kgs, the former being the standard can. 50 grams of this paint refinished 10 canteens, whereas 10 mess kits needed 320 grams of it.
This half-matte brown paint consisted of highly acid, heat and fire resistant pigment, suspended in lacquer of an artificial resin solution and was specially developed for refinishing of canteens and mess tins to meet the following test criteria.
1. Application on old examples should not suffer paint damage after the container is filled with water and put directly over a fire to boil for 30 minutes.
2. 15 minutes of immersion in a water solution, containing 50% acetic acid and 10% of salt, should not cause any delamination when scratching with fingernails.
3. 50 strokes with zero grade sandpaper wrapped on fingertips should not produce any delamination.
4. Must dry completely within 4 hours after brush application.
5. When applied to a thin sheet, the paint surface should show no cracks or delamination when bent outward by thumb pressure to an angle of 90 degrees.
6. The tone of brown and gloss to match control samples.
These tests were to be performed after 1 week of normal drying, according to Army specifications issued on 3rd July 1939.
The paint for refinishing canteens and mess kits needed to be clearly identified by printing the label shown below and gluing them to the cans, not to be confused with other brown paint like that used for helmet refinishing.
Refinishing Process at the Field Depots
Refinishing of these containers at the field depot normally involved rinsing off dirt and grime with water, soap and brush, followed by sandpapering (zero grade coarseness) if necessary.
Dents were removed by inserting metal shaping rods and lightly banging with a wooden mallet.
If surface corrosion of the aluminum had already set in, chemical baths were called for. The first bath was a quick one-minute soak in a solution of 20% sodium hydroxide, heated up to 80 degrees centigrade, after which it got rinsed with water.
This was followed by a second 1 minute soak in a room temperature solution of 10% sulfuric acid and 10% nitric acid, after which a good rinsing was needed to wash away any residue of these corrosive chemicals.
When dry, paint was applied by brush. The containers were then to dry in a well ventilated, dust free place for about 3 hours before further handling.
Though in 3 hours, they would be dry to the touch, the paint surface continued to harden and increase heat resistance for a full week of natural drying, so it was recommended to wait a week before reissuing the containers.
Last edited by Nick Komiya; 09-09-2021 at 06:44 PM.
Hmmmm .... thoughts of the fictional "Mess Kit Repair Company" make me smile. If you aren't aware, this has been a standard joke in the US Army; something like, "Yeah, I was in the 162nd Airborne Mess Kit Repair Battalion and was in the Handle platoon. There I was, knee-deep in spoons and handles when the VC got in the wire ..."
But we really had one as well:
-- Guy
Correction
The IJA was more advanced in the use of aluminum than the German army
As I wrote in post 8, I had long mistakenly thought that Japan’s introduction of aluminum canteens and mess kits were an idea borrowed from Germany. The letter from a German manufacturer dated Feb. 1895, which I showed in post 8, had derailed me onto a wrong line of thought. That letter claimed that they were already supplying the German army with aluminum canteens, etc. Also, the fact that the production equipment for these aluminum gear needed to be imported from Germany reinforced that chain of thought.
That firm may have indeed supplied samples to the German army and the Germans must have been a step ahead in industrial use of aluminum and manufacturing therewith, but the truth is that the German Army was not that experienced in the use of aluminum as I thought, as they only fully switched to aluminum canteens as of 23rd March 1931 (M1931), previously having been of tin.
Thus the Imperial Japanese Army, motivated by the need to overcome the problem of canteens exploding in the extreme cold in China, had become a pioneer in the military world to adopt aluminum canteens.
1933 Testing of Canteen Warming Covers
I did not discuss canteen covers in this thread, but included that in the new mess kit thread. So to be fair, I will add that here, too.
With the outbreak of the Manchurian Incident in 1932, dealing with severe freezing became a concern once again. So on 7th February 1933, the army sent out to Manchuria 10,000 pcs each of prototype canteen and mess kit warmers. These were finally made official items on 31st August 1936 by Army Ordinance No. 42.
Last edited by Nick Komiya; 04-25-2022 at 10:44 AM.
Hi, in reference to post #64 and #65.
I acquired this canteen a week ago, almost in mint unused condition, except for a little nick on the bottle.
While browsing on this post : The Evolution of IJA Canteens (1889-1945) Expanded Version
I found that it had the same markings.
With Model "A" harness and the Model "B" stopper.
Thanks Nick it really helped me out identifying the canteen.
More details on those markings, here.
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