K.G. No 3 Olive Drab – 1950+
The dry and crumbly KG3 was certainly a WWII product but it seems certain that the ‘hard and waxy’ KG3 – CLEANER WEB EQUIPMENT,OLIVE DRAB,BLOCKS – still easily found – was post-WWII.
http://www.cobbatoncombat.co.uk/sales/personal.htm for £8 a block or Soldier of Fortune for £12 a block.
The ‘hard and waxy’ block is such a radical development from all that had gone before that is does beg the question why it was made. It is certainly more practical to use – less messy, no dry powder to brush off. Later tinned paste/cream products are without doubt much more convenient to apply and so perhaps he block was stepping stone in the forming of a solution to a messy problem.
This theory is borne out by a magazine article of 1954 that announced the imminent adoption of the tinned ‘polish’. In it it describes War Office desires for something more practical and waterproof that traditional Blanco. It carried out world-wide trials of products before finally settling on the tinned wax-based product that Pickering would produce in five colours – four for the army, one for the RAF.
Given that stocks of ‘hard and waxy’ blocks of KG3 are abundant still, yet Blanco blocks or indeed even later Pickering tinned products aren’t, it does give weight to the theory that the waxy blocks were just the experimental product trialled world-wide. As soon as the tinned Pickerings product was available in the NAAFI from the end of 1954 the waxy blocks were pretty much returned to stores, languishing unloved and unused.
Photo: StigRoadie
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This block came from an original sealed wooden crate which was dated 1949:
(incidentally, it carries the exact Army stores code of HA 12802 that post war KG3 crumbly Blanco had, so as far as the Army were concerned it was just KG3 web cleaner whatever it’s composition)
