US pineapple grenade

[davej]

you can to shorten the fuse of a American pineapple grenade down to 1-3 sec. by removing and trimming it. There's a washer that keeps the fuse dry. In Early WW2 this washer was made of leather which I have a few in a grenade shipping can. My questions are ; do people restore grenades? does anybody want these? or should I dedicate said washers to another purpose?

[navyman]

Hello Dave,
I restore inert/cutaway/ display grens for display purposes when I have the opportunity, but have not known about these fuze shortening washers. Could you send me a picture, I'm currently working on a 'Pineapple' restoration so would be interested to see how they worked. It would be nice to have an original but if I had an image perhaps I could make a copy? Not the same though!
Best regards,
navyman.
Best regards,
navyman.

[Walkwolf]

It is great to obtain NOS original parts for any restoration, Davej !

Photos would help, as I have not heard of these keep-dry fuse
devices before either.......

I have read, however, that shortening a fuse would not be a good
thing to do, as they were somewhat unpredictable. If someone making
fuses at a munitions plant cut one just a fraction or so shorter, it could
mean a detonation as soon as the grenade left the hand.
( Re: WWII by James Jones. )

Different story for booby traps and demolitions, I suppose.......

[navyman]

Yes, safety fuse can be very unpredictable. I was taught never to stamp on a burning fuse as it can react like cordtex and hurt your foot, more importantly, the fuse keeps burning. As I remember the recommended method was to cut the fuse as far away as possible beyond the burning bit. I may be wrong, it was a long time ago, but I clearly remember stamping on a piece of ignighted safety fuse and it exploded like an extra large sixpenny banger.
Cheers,
navyman.