Hand-marked canteen cups and mess kits?

[willysmb44]

Im not looking to make fakes, but I want to mark up a canteen cup for a fictional person Im writing a book on (a fake history of someone, which includes his WW2 service), as well as one for my WW2 war correspondent impression (with my own name on it).

What Im looking for is an understanding on how they did such markings. Ive seen plenty of these over the years, but have never encountered a vet who recalls how they did it. The style is pretty consistent but Ive never understood how they did it. Itd have had to have been simple to do, but I cant tell how it was done.

Does anyone have first-hand info from a vet to explain how these were done?

[Bob Hudson]

Thoise little dots seem to me to be evidence of a small electric metal engraving tool: Home Depot has one for $15 https://www.homedepot.com/p/WEN-Variable-Speed-Electric-Engraver-Kit-with-Stencils-21C/203604639?cm_mmc=Shopping%7CTHD%7Cgoogle%7C&mid=sZGuZt7RB%7Cdc_mtid_8903tb925190_pcrid_195274179091_pkw__pmt__product_203604639_slid_&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIpubytOHh1wIVXrbACh1O1gAaEAQYAyABEgILmPD_BwE

[willysmb44]

I agree that the Home Depot link appears to have the same results, but does anyone for sure know how it was done in WW2?
My father is also convinced that they used some manner of engraving tool, but who'd have access to something like that? Were there really that many such tools available to GIs back then? Maybe they did them aboard ships in transit?

[hbtcoveralls]

I saw photos one time of people in france making trench art out of the shell cases left after WWI

 

They were using a nail and a hammer to stipple the design rather than engraving it

[Bob Hudson]

i have an Oct. 1946 POPULAR MECHANICS and I easily found three ads for tools that could engrave: two were Dremel-type rotary tools and the third had a vibrating diamond tip: I'd be something like that made your marks, I believe. When I was a kid in the 50's or early 60's I made a vibrating engraver using some wire to fashion an electromagnet. It didn't engrave like a diamond tip, but it worked, off of batteries.

[willysmb44]

I saw photos one time of people in france making trench art out of the shell cases left after WWI

 

They were using a nail and a hammer to stipple the design rather than engraving it

 

That's what I'd assumed, as the power tools note elsewhere in this thread don't make sense to me. What GI would have had access to anything like that? There are too many of these in existence from ground pounder unit types to explain their existence on power tools. Few (if any) line units would have had anything like that for a GI to get his hands on for something like this.

 

[Bob Hudson]

I have always assumed that most trench art was not made in the trenches: but rather in rear areas or, as noted, aboard ship on the way home. Also, a lot of it was made at home after the veteran was discharged from wartime service.

[airborne53]

I saw photos one time of people in france making trench art out of the shell cases left after WWI

 

They were using a nail and a hammer to stipple the design rather than engraving it

hello

one video from france , very intresting ...

 

olivier

 

 

 

 

[willysmb44]

Also, a lot of it was made at home after the veteran was discharged from wartime service.

 

I would have to strongly doubt that, as almost all of it is identical in the manner it's done.

You don't even find it done with the metal hand stamps from the stamping kits. I've always found it odd you almost never find mess kits of canteen cups marked with those, and they would have had to have been way more common than any electrically-powered device.

As for it being done on the ship during the return voyage? Yeah, that's always a possibility. it would explain a lot of it that looks like it was done in the handwriting of the GI. I could imagine they'd mark the surface with a pencil or some kind of marking tool as if they're be writing, then a sailor would just go over the lines with a Dremel-like tool.

I'd just love to find good evidence to support it either way.