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WWII K Ration Crate and Carton buy from SOS


rambob
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Well, there I was walking around the Show of Shows minding my own business, looking for ways to spend my hard earned money, when the cell phone rang. On the other end was my friend and fellow forum member Bryan Fryar. He asked me whether I was interested in WWII ration items and I replied “Yessiree!” Bryan said, there is a K ration crate with the cardboard carton still inside over at Hayes table and the price is very reasonable. After taking a good look at the crate/carton and with an excellent sales pitch by Bryan I made the leap and bought it. But that was after I walked away from it once and then reconsidered. After all I have never priced or explored an item like this and was an absolute neophyte. BTW. Bryan, thanks for thinking of me and don’t forget to hit Hayes up for your 10% sales commission cause you really deserve it!!

 

In my wildest imagination I never thought I would be ever be buying a K ration crate anytime soon for my collecting and definitely not at the SOS. I hope the pictures tell enough of the story for you all.

 

Bob

post-299-1298729910.jpg

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Bryan, Thanks for leading me to this crate!! I really appreciate the thought! I have an idea for an insert that will make it look like it is full of rations, perfect for display. Stay tuned while I work out the details, mock up a prototype and post the results.

 

BTW. I hope you were able to find more treasures during the remainder of the show and had a nice drive home. Also, the box of MK II Very Signals I bought are posted in the Latest Finds and Acquisitions section.

 

Bob

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General Apathy
Great crate and matching box....

 

Glad you got it...

 

Hi Bryan, nice clean crate you sold to Bob there. ;) really miss doing the SOS

 

Hi Bob, congratulations on buying it, nice looking addition for your collection :thumbsup:

 

ken

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Thanks everyone for your kind words. As promised, here is an insert I just made so that my K ration crate would look full of K rats. I already had two sets of the repop camo K rat boxes and I bundled them together so I could color photocopy one end once and have 2 rows of rations. I made six copies and had my twelve rows of rations. I then carefully cut out the copies and pasted them to a cardboard frame I made after measuring the inside opening of the carton.

 

I think it turned out perfect and I didn't have to spend a lot of cash buying more repop k rat boxes to fill up this puppy.

 

Bob

post-299-1298930223.jpg

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  • 2 years later...

After revisiting this post. I thought I would go a step further and make this display even better. I had read that the rations themselves were contained in a sealed tar paper type "bag" to make them more moisture/weather proof. Is this true and what do you think I could use to duplicate the look of this paper in my crate. I want to make it look like someone opened the bag to get to the rations and have the bag edges hanging out of the crate. Comments please.

 

Thanks,

 

 

Bob

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BTW. I realize that the hardware store does sell roofing/tar paper, but I believe it is too thick and I don't actually want the tar residue getting on the crate. I need something that looks like the tar paper, but isn't really tar paper.

 

Bob

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hbtcoveralls, that is my fall back position, but the pieces of paper are generally pretty small and I will need to glue them together, which would show. I did some additional investigation today and now I am not sure whether there was anything put around the rations inside the cardboard box. I guess the best question right now from the ration experts here on this forum is "Were the group of 36 K rats wrapped or sealed in anything before they were placed into the big cardboard box??" I may just be barking up the wrong tree.

 

Bob

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Bob,

I'm up in Gettysburg right now and will be back in a couple days... When I get in and settled I will post pics of a complete full crate of K's and details on the inner weather proof wrap that the carton is in.. The K's as packed from the factory go right in the fiber carton, the carton flaps were glued and then the weather proof paper wrap is put on the carton.... it's put in the crate, ends nailed and wire banded.

 

I've been lucky enough to find several full crates of K's over the years... also have several K inner main cartons that when filled and glued the glue ran under the flap onto the K boxes.. when the cartons were opened to issue the rations out the K flaps stuck to the inner flaps of the cartons.. neat to see that after 70 years..

 

Kration

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Kration, I will really look forward to see your pictures when you get back. Finding an entire crate of WWII Krats these days would be like finding the Holy Grail!! I have always hoped one might pop up around here in response to my ad that I run.

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  • 3 months later...

I am bumping this post up to the top again hoping that forum member Kration will weigh in with some pictures of his K Ration crates he mentioned in an earlier post

 

Bob

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  • 9 months later...

HELP SOMEBODY!! I just bumped this topic because I still haven't seen the details of the packing of the K Rat crate with the waterproof paper, etc. Can one of you experts out there please post some color pictures on one of your crates for me??

 

Thanks,

 

 

Bob

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Quartermaster

This picture is of a K ration display from the document QMC 17-3 US Army - Support - Survival - Assault - Combat - Rations and Supplements.

 

You can see the wrapping paper in the opened crate.

 

K-Ration-case-picture.jpg

 

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Dwayne, Thanks for the picture, which is a great start but I really need a close up of the crate and the wrapping details. I have read that some of the forum members have complete crates of K Rats, so all I need is for one of them to belly up to the bar and dust off their camera for me. After all it is a chance to also show off what they have.

 

Bob

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