Restoring and Preserving 1950s C Rations

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ChowLine
Posts: 114
Joined: Fri Jul 29, 2016 4:15 pm

Restoring and Preserving 1950s C Rations

Post by ChowLine » Mon Jan 18, 2021 12:56 am

Restoration and Preservation

As I have worked to grow my collection so I can readily access original ration components to get information related to markings, sizes, construction materials and methods, as well as contents, I have been working on establishing preservation and cataloging practices in line with AAM, SSA, and other institutional museum standards that I can apply to these artifacts. Part of that process has been to assemble complete examples of rations like the 1955 and 1957 Ration Individual Combat (pictured). However, as most M units in these rations rotted away long ago, and money hungry re-sellers and military dealers pull surviving examples apart to sell them for their individual components in the name of the all mighty dollar, I have had to get creative to fill the gaps.

As I mentioned M units are hard to come by, but I came up with a solution that will help me complete my 1951, 1952, 1955, and 1957 combat ration sets. I recently decided to purchase the remaining stock of NOS unused 1970s/80s era C ration cans from a seller on e-bay. These cans are almost identical to the 1950s era M units in construction and finish making them perfect stand in replacements for the missing M units in my four 1950s ration sets.

I first started by cleaning the can. They are only sealed on one end, so that meant I had to seal the can myself with a commercially available lid. These are a slightly strange size and only one of the lid styles I had fit correctly, though it is not an exact match. Using my canning sealer I sealed the new lid on, cleaned the can again, and then painted it OD and applied a satin clear coat to match the cans overall finish. I then applied markings (replicating a Sausage Patty M unit)to the lid via a very durable , but removable (when coaxed but not harmful to the finish) industrial decal I use on my other reproductions. This produced the desired effect and created a new M unit that will look perfectly at home with any of my 1950s era C rations. (Note I have observed up to five different shades of OD finish on cans from 1951 to 1957).

If I so choose these markings can be removed, and new ones applied to represent any number of key-less M units produced for the RIC or RCI thus filling some gaps in my collection by using NOS components.

Other parts to this restoration project include the preservation of the B units (and whats left of the their contents) for proper controlled display, as well as accessory packet contents. But that is for another post.

(Edit: Sorry the photos are not in order, but the can marked for Sausage Patties is the one I made up as a replica M unit from the NOS 1970s/80s can)
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Dekard
Posts: 370
Joined: Wed Dec 14, 2005 12:47 am
Location: Bermuda Shorts

Re: Restoring and Preserving 1950s C Rations

Post by Dekard » Tue Jan 19, 2021 2:48 pm

wow. nice work!

ChowLine
Posts: 114
Joined: Fri Jul 29, 2016 4:15 pm

Re: Restoring and Preserving 1950s C Rations

Post by ChowLine » Wed Jan 20, 2021 8:51 pm

Thank you. I truely enjoy rations and am working to apply institutional preservation and cataloguing methods to my collection. I also have everyintention of making the information i glean from my collection publically accessable.

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