seen pictures of the early wwii 1919 and 1918 ect oil cans, but never in person. picked this up for $5 at an estate sale as looked identical. no markigs that ive seen. Anyone able to confirm if this is the oilcan, or just similiar?
Nice price to find a WW I can. There are also 3rd and 4th versions, oblong, 1-3/4" wide, 3-1/4" long by 4-5/8" tall, plus screw-top spout 1-7/8" long in brass or steel, just as pictured on yours. Drab green, stenciled in light blue "LUB, OIL M.G."
They were once made a popular give-away to participants at certain 1919 gun-build parties.
Every time I see a picture of one of those I cringe a little at my own stupidity. Back a couple decades ago I was on a duck hunting trip and went in to town to get some hardware supplies with my buddies. The hardware store was having a sale. They had a box with cardboard partitions and in it were about forty of those cans (steel tip) The price was $0.25 each and I bought a total of two. At that time I thought that was one too many as I would probably never use them as oil came in disposable cans even then. Just think for a five dollar bill ai could have had twenty of them. And my buddies would have said "what the hell did you buy those for".
Of the dozens of these I have owned and sold/given to people, all were from the same box, all brass, and all painted. I had an earlier "banjo" oiler that was unpainted. J
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