About Waffenkiste Designs
Waffenkiste Designs (WkD) is the brand name for my art studio, founded in late 2013. Waffenkiste is German for "weapon crate". Some of the best ammo boxes I have seen are made in Germany, from World War II to the Cold War. For something that at times is used as a throwaway container by soldiers, the German boxes are incredible for their craftsmanship.
I enjoy these full-size art projects as a part-time woodworking and art hobby, so I do not have regular products offered for sale Mostly I look for inspiration in old photos or online references is creating my next box. If I find that a particular type of box is popular, I'll make more of them. I also tender custom box projects; please see my Custom Work page for more details. For now, I am selling these under my eBay personal account (krbaylor).
WkD's studio and workshops are located in Fairfax Station, Virginia, USA, a suburb of Washington, D.C. For some projects, I am using an Ideal No.2 stencil machine built in the 1920s to create the custom 5/8-in. stencils used to illustrate box contents. I am also using a 1950s-era Ideal No. 3 to cut 1/2-in. custom stencils. (See Fig. 1 below.) Most recently, I purchased an almost brand-new 1/4-in. Ideal No. 4 stencil cutter. Finally, I have some 1-in. brass individual letter stencils surplused from the USG for certain words. As I find more vintage industrial printing tools, I will add them and their output to WkD designs.
I am especially interested in learning more about the large custom printing stamps used by wooden crate manufacturers. I purchased a deluxe HP-200 porous hand printer, several kinds of ink, and three distinct Arial font sizes. And to finish a large graphics need on a project, I created a custom-made, massive 17x7.5-in curved rubber stamp out of wood to handle the RIBtype fonts (Fig. 2).
As for other box parts, I am currently trying to source original U.S. ammo box hinges, latches, and swivels, as they have been made on the same Picatinny Arsenal machinery since the 1940s. I think it would be very cool to offer these boxes with this original U.S. military hardware as details. (Let me know if you know any sources or surplus sales of these items.) I am also trying to find the oversized latch used on European military crates, especially the French Army boxes, but they may have stopped making them in the 1960s.
It also appears from market research that the WkD workshops (Fig. 3) are the only one in the United States (and perhaps the world) fabricating these kinds of boxes as art. I have found several places used by military re-enactors that create exact copies of vintage military crates, but no one else is taking these to the level of industrial art--except WkD. That's quite an accomplishment...or the sign of a very small market. But niche product markets are the tail end of the demand "hockey stick" and supposedly manufacturing's future, so I'm in good company.
These unique new WkD products are created with the original military containers as inspiration. While these artistic creations never saw military service, they look like they should have been “over there.” And while some of these items are not built to U.S. Army MIL-DTL-2427, Type 1, Class 2 specifications, or really any formal specifications at all, I believe they are very close to the original military examples in durability and construction. As I tell myself, "It's art. As long as they are solidly built, I can make them look like anything."
Fall 2024 Update: I have suspended the WkD website, and any custom manufacturing projects, after not doing anything here for the past three years. It's time to move on to new adventures in military history.
Twitter: WkD had a presence on Twitter at @WaffenKiste
Thanks for your time in reading about WkD.
Do you need to contact me? I can be reached by e-mail via robert -at- krbaylor -dot- com.
I enjoy these full-size art projects as a part-time woodworking and art hobby, so I do not have regular products offered for sale Mostly I look for inspiration in old photos or online references is creating my next box. If I find that a particular type of box is popular, I'll make more of them. I also tender custom box projects; please see my Custom Work page for more details. For now, I am selling these under my eBay personal account (krbaylor).
WkD's studio and workshops are located in Fairfax Station, Virginia, USA, a suburb of Washington, D.C. For some projects, I am using an Ideal No.2 stencil machine built in the 1920s to create the custom 5/8-in. stencils used to illustrate box contents. I am also using a 1950s-era Ideal No. 3 to cut 1/2-in. custom stencils. (See Fig. 1 below.) Most recently, I purchased an almost brand-new 1/4-in. Ideal No. 4 stencil cutter. Finally, I have some 1-in. brass individual letter stencils surplused from the USG for certain words. As I find more vintage industrial printing tools, I will add them and their output to WkD designs.
I am especially interested in learning more about the large custom printing stamps used by wooden crate manufacturers. I purchased a deluxe HP-200 porous hand printer, several kinds of ink, and three distinct Arial font sizes. And to finish a large graphics need on a project, I created a custom-made, massive 17x7.5-in curved rubber stamp out of wood to handle the RIBtype fonts (Fig. 2).
As for other box parts, I am currently trying to source original U.S. ammo box hinges, latches, and swivels, as they have been made on the same Picatinny Arsenal machinery since the 1940s. I think it would be very cool to offer these boxes with this original U.S. military hardware as details. (Let me know if you know any sources or surplus sales of these items.) I am also trying to find the oversized latch used on European military crates, especially the French Army boxes, but they may have stopped making them in the 1960s.
It also appears from market research that the WkD workshops (Fig. 3) are the only one in the United States (and perhaps the world) fabricating these kinds of boxes as art. I have found several places used by military re-enactors that create exact copies of vintage military crates, but no one else is taking these to the level of industrial art--except WkD. That's quite an accomplishment...or the sign of a very small market. But niche product markets are the tail end of the demand "hockey stick" and supposedly manufacturing's future, so I'm in good company.
These unique new WkD products are created with the original military containers as inspiration. While these artistic creations never saw military service, they look like they should have been “over there.” And while some of these items are not built to U.S. Army MIL-DTL-2427, Type 1, Class 2 specifications, or really any formal specifications at all, I believe they are very close to the original military examples in durability and construction. As I tell myself, "It's art. As long as they are solidly built, I can make them look like anything."
Fall 2024 Update: I have suspended the WkD website, and any custom manufacturing projects, after not doing anything here for the past three years. It's time to move on to new adventures in military history.
Twitter: WkD had a presence on Twitter at @WaffenKiste
Thanks for your time in reading about WkD.
Do you need to contact me? I can be reached by e-mail via robert -at- krbaylor -dot- com.
Fig 1. The two vintage Ideal stencil machines.
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Fig 2. The large 17x7.5-in. rubber stamp I built.
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Fig 3. Some of the woodworking machines in the WkD workshop.
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