BACKGROUND: The M1913 Kugelhandgranate (ball hand grenade) is the hand grenade the German Empire went to war with in 1914. The M1913 Kugelhandgranate was a large, heavy, well-made 1 kg cast iron sphere with deep outside fragmentation grooves and threaded at the top for the brass igniter. For transport a transportation plug was inserted and for combat a long brass traction igniter was inserted with a pull wire. The igniter was a hollow bronze tube filled with compressed black powder fuse (providing a delay of 7 seconds or 5 seconds for the red-painted igniter) which was armed by pulling a brass wire on the top which was attached to a friction block dipped in a mixture of glass, manganese bioxyde and potassium chlorate. The hole on the side is actually a vent hole for the burning of the delay fuse. The German troops entered the war in 1914 with reasonable quantities of a good modern grenade thanks to its fragmentation design and an igniter quite impervious to humidity. The wire igniter, however, was prone to cut into soldier's fingers especially when wet, cold, and muddy.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: M1913 Kugelhandgranate. Excellent example, nice and clean and in superb condition. Like almost all surviving Kugelhandgranaten the igniter wire on this example is lost to time.

Please note, due to Postal Regulations. De-activated firearms and Inert Ordnance may not be shipped outside of Canada.