Hi, I ussualy don't clean the inside of the shells, since you don't really see the inside. But you could use the same product, as long as it is a bit acidic it will remove the corrosion. Ketchup, vinegar, brass polish,... Biggest problem is finding something to get in there to scrub the corrosion away.

Thank you! And greetings from Belgium!

The stuff I find digging is much less spectacular then german helmets :D If you want to find good stuff you have to put in the research and even then it's a bit of trial and error to find the exact locations. It's a great hobby but you need patience and a bit of luck.

Brass doesn't get very dirty when it's relatively new so i guess they would be pretty clean. The corrosion you see has built up over decades. If you clean the bottom is up to you, it will probably make the markings more readable. Just look out if it hasn't been fired, a artillery shell primer is not something to mess about with. For the inside I wouldn't bother, never done that myself, you don't see it so it does not make much of a difference. And it's going to be a tough job cleaning in there.

Well I’m quite sure mines been fired but what is the danger with an unused shell primer?

@@BaoBao0923 a primer contains some sort of gunpowder so there always a risk it goes off if you start cleaning it and it's unfired.

I think so yes. Freshly produced shells would have had a more shiny finish when they came out of the factory. The discolouration on these old shells is result of corrosion or dirt build up on the shell over many years. If the new shells would have had that it would have polluted the gun and might lead to malfunctions.

So even after firing the shells may have been shiney?

@@BaoBao0923 sure. They were even reloaded and used again if possible. Some British shells have markings showing they were used 3 or 4 times.

It's not fake, used this method often and works fine. But you can always use brass or copper pollish, the result will be pretty much the same. I just made the video to test if it would work because I heard about people using ketchup, and it does work, but if you have to do a lot of shells I would still prefer brass pollish. Otherwise you are gonna need a couple of bottles of ketchup. Good luck!

Thank you for replying

Hey, I would also like to ask if shells in the time of the war were shiny because I guess I want to try get it looking as close as it might have looked during the war.

@@KG-Collectionsorry for asking another question in the case that I may be bothering you

No this place it's fine if you have a permit. Other areas are prohibited, I know for sure the Ardennes/Battle of the Bulge battlefields are not allowed. Not sure about the ww1 battlefields around Ypres or Passchendaele but I think those are off limits to. But where i'm at there are a lot of detectorists, mainly coin hunters, because there's not much interest in what happened here during the first weeks of ww1.

Thanks for the clarification I did wonder

Haven't tried since then but I think it's a lost cause. Maybe I'll give it another go sometime but I don't think it will be any use. And even in this condition it's still a cool piece.

Thanks and greetings from Belgium!

Hi Hugh, i've watched your video and that's a bit of a mystery. First of all it seems a bit long for a trench knife, in close combat it was better to have a shorter weapon. But that doensn't mean it isn't one, trench knives were often made by soldiers in their spare time so there are really no restrictions in lenght, shape or form, anything was possible. Now for the blade the only thing I can come up with is the blade from a fencing type of sword. Some of these have square blades similar to this one. Fencing was a big sport in the early 20th century so there would be plenty of swords that could be used to make one of these. For the brass handle, this also looks like something 'home made' but not unusual for the period. The french had brass handle bayonets and the germans also made some brass handle ersatz bayonets. So i'm afraid I can't tell you exactly what this is or how old it is, but I hope this helps you out a bit.

@Kgo yeah it's very unique. The handle I can tell has alot of age. It has small flecks of red rot in it here n there on its brass handle. I don't think it's a repaired blade because the fullers don't go into the handle like a repair would. They also stop before the tip. Fullers in general are tricky to make properly on a full taper blade and need a jig to make. The fact that it has a gun metal style blue also to me is a clue it was made to be stealthy as most rondel style daggers like these are just polished metal. Do you have any buds etc who may be of help?

@@hughgrection3052 I can't say I know anyone who could help, but there are a lot of people making videos on historic knives and blades who might have an idea what this could be. In my opinion it's going to be very hard to tell exactly what and how old it is. There's probably only one of these and that's yours, so finding something to compare with is going to be hard or nearly impossible.

@Kgo yeah the more I look around the more I think you're right. This square blade is proving to be quite hard to track down and the ones I do find aren't of this size. Judging by the patina of the brass even tho it was stored indoors I can tell it's very old. So for now I'm going to I guess treat it as a WW1 Era Theater blade/ possibly ww2, for now. It's so well made I was hoping I could find other examples or find a maker doing similar things but yeah I don't think it's the case now. It really won't matter no ways to be honest, as I don't plan to sell it. So value isn't a big deal. I just find it to be very unique and it's one of the absolute most wicked knife that's not even a knife that I think I've ever seen lol. It makes me now want to track down a matching oversize D Ring theater Bowie to pair with it lol. Thanks for the help bud

Strange, normally it should work. Could it be the shell has been varnished? I have had some shells myself that had varnish on them and then it wont work.

Always clean them well with acetone first to degrease and eliminate any possible varnish/topcoat

Thanks! Yes in the german word for fuse is zunder.

@@KG-Collection ja! Danke! What other cool stuff have you found? Any bayonets, rifles, or helmets?

@@j.lietka9406 mostly buttons, insignia, buckles but not the big stuff. Hard to find something like that here, the battlefields were mostly cleared shortly after the fighting.

@@KG-Collection that sounds about right! 😠 No cool stuff! Still neat what you do find! Thank you 🤓

Hi Sven and thank you for the info, since I made the video I have indeed learned that the J stamp often actually is an I.

The cockades are after the cleaning on the wrong side. The long chinstrap with metal pieces were used for steel helmets. Great job mate 👍🏻and now a nice and clean helmet in great condition

@@svenkuczyk7811 Thanks again, I didn't know that about the chinstrap.

Sorry, I don't paint my helmets so I would know. But google is your friend, I searched feldgrau paint and come across several sites selling this. Most mention RAL 6006 as colour code.

@@KG-Collection thank you, I’ve searched a little bit on the internet but I still haven’t found anything. I’m too not a great fan of repainting helmets, but I came across one already restored in the incorrect color, as it was double decal apfelgrun like the m35, so I decided to re-restore it in the original way

I have some I can't get open either. Don't use pliers or other tools, they damage very easily. I've tried with WD-40 but that doesn't work very well so i'm afraid we both have the same problem...

@@KG-Collection then I'm gonna keep it in showcase until I found someone whi can light up again.