I have some US military canteen cups with various codes between the 2 handles.

The 1st one is stainless steel weighs 244g and says "US RJS",
the 2nd one weighs 224g and says "US 88 PAC FAB",
the 3rd one weighs 238g and says "US 89 WWM"

Can anyone tell me what the codes mean?

The first is definitely stainless steel the other two have never been used,I'm not sure if they are aluminium they feel too heavy.
How can I tell what metal it without drilling a hole in them.

I believe that the US is for "United States", the other initials are that of the manufacturer, and the numbers represent the contract year ("88" = 1988) which may or may not be the year they were actually manufactured.

Chris

what if you got " ICO 55/56 " on your cups ? i don't even know from wich country they are, i do know they aren't britich or dutch cups....
the markings on mine cup stand is much more clearder: US 89 Pac. fab 8465-01-250-3632.... and i know that one is made from aluminium, no idea what the cups are....

Hmmm.

You have me on those. I would think that the "55'56" marking would mean that it is british. I think that they had a Type 55/56 kit designation but I could be wrong.

Chris

these cups looks like the american once, the british are a little diffrent shaped, right ?

To be honest, I am not sure. My father is a history buff and has done work/research for a military museum in the past. This is how I have gained what knowledge I have about military equipment. Maybe someone else here has a better answer.

Chris

I am not an expert but generally the US ones are either Aluminum (older versions) or Stainless in the newer versions. THey are generally curved to fit to your body better and match the canteen they fit in. The Brit pattern was "pattern 58" and they are more oblong and rounded if that makes sense. Here is a pic of the british version http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2180112417&category=588 The US cup looks like this in the aluminum version http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2180368462&category=4721 The differient letters you have found probably denote the company that actually made them. Hope that helps. akraven

Ter,

All of those numbers and letters are gobbledygook to me, but if you have a magnet you should be able to tell which are steel and which are aluminum. I hope the method is obvious.


Take care,

Andy

ade, I have tried a magnet on the cup I know is stainless it's not magnetic.None of the others are magnetic either.

I"ve tried a heat test by boiling water in them ,the definitely stainless one takes a little longer to reach boiling point.The others don't feel like aluminium but they are a little lighter than the stainless one.

Ter,

You learn something new everyday. Maybe. I dug out my canteen cup and took a magnet to it. No go. So, ASSUMING (as I am), that the thing is made of stainless steel, not all SS's are magnetic.

My apologies if I insulted your intelligence. I thought anything called "steel" would be magnetic, even if there is a "stainless" in front of it. Some "stainless steels" are magnetic, some, apparently, aren't. Go figure.

Any metallurgists out there who can explain this? Slowly? In laymen's terms?

Take care,

Andy

Iron comes in two basic forms: ferrit and austenit. Ferrit is magnetic, austenit isn´t. When you heat iron above a certain temperature it becomes austenit (when you make a nail red hot it´ll lose it´s magnetic properties as long as it stays hot). Due to the alloy metals low carbon stainless steel stays austenitic at room temperature therefore it´s not magnetic. As a side effect it can´t be hardend by heat treatment.
Hope that helps.

terrier,

The newer canteen cups should be aluminum. They have been that way for a while (at least 8 years) as they are lighter than stainless steel, but I have been known to be wrong

As far as the letters in the middle, they are lot numbers. The numbers may be a year or what ever, and the letters are the manufacturer and the lot designation. I looked at mine and I gave: US PAC FAB. I am sure that is the Manufacturer. Not all US military gear is made by one company as you know, so each company gets to stamp their info into the cup. To tell you the truth, I rarely use mine at all in the field. I keep it in my canteen pouch to keep it open when I pull out my canteen and put it back in.

Garrett

When it can be steel or aluminium, you could judge using the density. When the cups have approximately the same size and weight, the aluminium one has to have walls that are three times as thick as the walls of the steel one. That should be easy to determine.