Milsurp After Hours

Trench Art letter openers made from artillery shell dfriving bands. The completed one has "France 1918" on one side of the blade and my Grandfathers name "Art Kilker" on the other.

How and why did they get them off the artillery rounds? How about a photo with something for size comparison?
They are really cool, have never seen that type of letter opener.

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I'm sorry about the scale thing. They are bout 9-10 inches long. Not a clue if all from same type of round, I think not as bands width and depth are different. If you google WW i trench art letter openers there are some similar ones listed.

I was wondering how they came off of the shells in 9 or 10 inch pieces when the shells exploded. How did they keep from being blown to bits? I did some internet key punching and those bands from WWI look to have been larger than more modern round equivalent bands, and since they were softer metal, apparently sometimes weren't shredded by jagged fragments of exploding shell. Interesting trench art items. Never knew such things existed.