'Chunky' bits of Shrapnel .... from what?? - all suggestions welcome

[kahu1]

my question would be why turn the outside of a bomb which could be cast or forged near enough, maybe a bomb boffin can pick up on this.

It does seem strange to go to the lengths of precision, but i would expect its all about uniformity. You'd want to know the dimensions, for carrier racks etc , and weights as well as capacity.Its just an engineering process in the end.

 

[kahu1]

The comparison of the large fragments to the smaller ones illustrates what I tried to communicate in my previous post. The arttillery fragments have many planed, irregular fracture lines, while the larger fragments are much simpler and less jagged. I don't think that most, except possibly armor piercing bombs, were heat treated or used special types of steel which were used in shells which were specialised into smaller , nastier chunks to increase the lethal effects. Compare WW2 fragments to those of WW1, which generally are larger, fewer and more blunt,showing the better design for lrthal effect between the 2 wars.Even with a higher ratio of expolsive to total mass of the bomb, you ger larger, smoother fragments.

Depending on manufacture methods, heat treating/pickling would often be part of the process.ie drawn or pressed.
Apart from light case bombs, most of the explosive content in heavier bombs is there to shatter the casing. So you get a 2 fold effect of blast and fragments,and fewer, heavier pieces would impart more local damage than many lighter pieces.

 

[highlandotter]

I totally agreee. Bombs for buildings and shells for soldiers,