Here are some WWII mess kits with hand-engraved art. The most common method was what is called “rocker engraving.” Almost any sharp tool can be used for this. A steel nail with a tip filed flat and sharp like a tiny chisel is very effective. The markings are made by pressing the tool into the aluminum surface and rocking it back and forth, pushing it forward. A lot of stuff like this was made by in POW camps but some field soldiers did this in wartime as well.
“Inventory” by Günter Eich
Written in a POW camp 1945
This is my cap,
this is my overcoat,
here is my shaving kit
In a bag made of linen.
Food can:
my plate, my cup,
I have in the tin-plate
scratched my name.
Scratched here with this
precious nail,
that from covetous
eyes I protect.
In my bread bag are
a pair of wool socks
and a few things, that I
reveal to no one,
thus it serves as a pillow
for my head at night.
This cardboard here lies
Between me and the ground.
The pencil-lead
I like the most:
In the day it writes the verses
that I thought up at night.
This is my notebook,
this is my Zeltbahn,
this is my hand towel,
this is my thread.
