Hand grenade

Hand grenades were used off and on since the invention of black powder, appearing in small numbers in such conflicts as the American Civil War. However, they did not really come into common use until the trench warfare of World War I made them invaluable.

Interestingly, the glass Civil War model led to an intruiging peacetime use - the glass bottle fire extinguisher grenade. Made from the mid 1800s to the early 1900s, these glass bottles were filled with water and fire retardant chemicals. They were to be thrown into the fire and shattered. The water and chemicals would mix and produce a retardant gas.

In World War I, enterprising troops began to make primitive grenades with jars filled with gunpowder, rocks and a simple, often unreliable, fuse. The ideal fuse burned about three to five seconds -- enough time to throw the grenade into the opposing trenchlines, but not enough time for it to be caught and returned.

As the utility became obvious, standard grenades started to appear. The german "stick" grenade was tossed more like a knife, as opposed to the baseball-like American models.

The tendency of a grenade to explode messily, killing anyone nearby leads to the expression "Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades" - although in the modern era we have many other weapons of mass destruction that qualify for similar reasons.

For those of you with destructive endeavors, this might be for you. But keep in mind, making this is probably illegal, and not very nice.

Don't blame me if you see many one-eared bunnies, flopping around helplessly.

This specific model was used quite a bit in WW2, mostly by desperate snipers.

You will need:

• A tin(steel) can.
• A chisel, or large knife, or even a pointy rock.
• A stick of dynamite.
• Rocks or broken glass, or anything that hurts, when propelled at high speeds.
• A match or lighter (presumably)

1. Open the tin can by making a 'X' at the top and then pulling the corners away from the middle.

2. Discard of any contents that may have been in the can. If your can had any botulism in it, good for you, just another way to hurt your opponent.

3. Hold the stick of dynamite in the center, with the stick not touching the bottom.

4. While holding the dynamite, fill the rocks or broken glass in around the stick.

5. Once the can have been sufficiently, but not overly filled with the propellents, fold the corners of the cut tin can back in place. Do this while taking care to secure the dynamite stick in place with the sharp corners of the can.

6. Light the dynamite.

7. Throw the can, with propellants and dynamite. Throw it far away.

8. Run away.

You have just made and used a very destructive hand grenade.