Egg / fragmentation grenade id

[Milton]

Hello folks. I found this old de-wat frag grenade at a local antique shop yesterday, but it's got me baffled as to its identification / country of origin. It's got a side and bottom screw (plug) and a strange metal sheath that covers one side of the grenade which aligns with two small holes at the open end (top-which unscrews) which is where I believe it'd be primed once the pin was pulled and the cover released. The internal mechanisms are also present as the exploded (no pun intended) view will attest. It appears to be utterly devoid of markings. Can anyone shed any light onto this particular grenade regarding its country of origin and period of use? Thanks!

[Milton]

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[Milton]

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[Milton]

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[Ordnance]

That's a really nice piece you've found. It's a WWI era U.S. experimental grenade known as the Shinkle. I have some drawings of its various parts dated 1919 that came from Aberdeen Proving Grounds.

As it was an impact fuzed grenade, it also appears the design was resurrected during WWII and assigned a "T" number for tests. The Army was investigating impact fuzed grenades for use by American forces because they had encountered many worthwhile designs in use by the British, Italians, and others which helped counter the drawbacks of time fuzed grenades. The most successful was the T-13 "Beano", developed with the OSS, but it appears they also dusted off the old Shinkle design and re-labeled it as the T-14.

I'm sure it never got much serious consideration, either in WWI or WWII, because the impact fuze is extremely sensitive once armed. A friend once played around with the example in his collection and was getting the fuze to function by dropping it from an inch or two in height onto a soft surface! That kind of sensitivity usually translates into premature detonations in the air or still in the hands of the thrower if the safety arrangement isn't foolproof. And that large, cumbersome spring steel spoon is supposed to be stripped from the grenade as it leaves the throwing hand to activate the fuze sure doesn't qualify in my opinion as foolproof.

Still, an interesting and very scarce grenade. In 35+ years of looking, I've probably seen 10 or 15 of them in various private and museum collections, so it's far from common.

[Milton]

Wow...Thanks very much! No wonder I couldn't find anything on line and I checked just about every major combatant (and some non-combatant) countries' grenade types and couldn't find its twin. Thanks very much for all the information. I don't suppose you have any idea at all as to its approximate value?? I'm not in the market to sell it but wouldn't mind having some idea for reference sake. Thanks again very much for all the information.

[Ordnance]

Value is always tricky with items like this that are so infrequently sold. I'd guess a minimum of $300 because even a nice WWI MkI frag will sell for that. An advanced grenade collector should value it at a premium but some guys I know that collect ordnance as accessories for a general militaria collection really have no interest in experimental items, especially at a premium price. I'm sure you understand what I mean.

If I needed it, I'd gladly pay $400 or $500 but already have one and don't need another that bad. But as you might guess from my forum name, I'm a bit goofy for things like this. And in the old days when eBay allowed items like this, I wouldn't have been surprised a bit to see two guys battle one up to twice that much. Hope that helps.

Rick

[Milton]

As before, many thanks for sharing your expertise w/ me on this. I understand completely re. "experimental" items. I'm just glad to have found it! Thanks again very much for taking the time to enlighten me! Kind regards, Milto OH, and lastly, any idea where I might be able to get a correct "period" pull pin / ring for this grenade in order to complete it? Thx again!