Tis the season to Mess with the Dutchman...and for lock covers

 

The reason for the season...The Dutchman

Happy Feast of Duane Everyone! Its that time of year we all celebrate The Dutchman and his various miracles. One question I’ve received a number of times is about The Dutchman. To Answer them quickly: yes, he exists, yes, he is in on the joke and yes, I’m planning his eventual downfall. The reason I refer to him as “the dutchman” is because of his uber Teutonic last name, it’s alo because in looking at 18^th century narratives you often see people refer to others in their traveling party by their ethnicity. This was something I felt was lacking in the hobby and it annoyed him so hence “The Dutchman”.

                I’ve often seen folks looking for information on ethnicity in the 18^th century. You know the standard “I want to portray a Scottish firefighter in Lancaster” kind of posts. One good resource for these (and a great resource in general) is to simply check JSTOR for articles on a subject then mine the hell out of their bibliography for information. You can get a free JSTOR account and it gives you access to up to 100 articles a month. No this is not a sponsor Add it’s just something to help ppl avoid continually getting hooked into social media weirdness.

 For example to celebrate The Feast of Duane I looked up some Dutch stuff on JSTOR and came across the article “German Immigrant Problems in Eighteenth Century Pennsylvania as Reflected in Trouble Advertisements” Otto Pollak    American Sociological Review Vol. 8, No. 6 (Dec., 1943), pp. 674-684

Since I have a German Immigrant problem, I thought it might be useful. It was nice it looked at some runaway ads and other info from an 18^th century German Newspaper and translated them. Which was awesome because it led me back to a great book I’d forgotten about  Gottlieb Mittleberger's Journey to Pennsylvania in the Year 1750 and Return to Germany in the Year 1754 (great book gives a basic how to on folks emigrating to Pennsylvania in the 1750’s. all kinds of great tidbits of info from farmer clothes to keeping horn spoons in your pocket for eating at Taverns)  The article also lit a light bulb in my head about trying to locate more articles on those German newspapers to see if any hunting shirt details might pop up. That’s the best part of casting a wide net in looking for information you learn a ton of useless stuff along the way and many times what’s important to you might just be a throw away piece of information to someone else.

Heating the tallow up and the lock cover. Same process I use for moccasins

One question I was asked recently was how I grease up my moccasins for winter. Since I’d already finished the process and forgot to take some pictures, I’m going to show the same process but on my Cows knee (lock cover) in honor of the Feast. First, I warm up the leather but letting the cover sit on a heater. I also set my tallow (or sno seal or bear grease) near the heat as well to soften it up. I then after Ive let the leather warm up for a while (like 30 minutes) I take a linen rag rub it on the sealant and then start to rub it into the leather like I was polishing a shoe. I repeatedly put more tallow on the rag as I work it into the leather. I really make sure to focus on any seams and work it in.  Once finished I lay it back on the heat again to let it “soak” into the leather further. Like I’ve stated a million times this is something that needs done especially after you get your moccasins dried out after a hunt. You gotta keep oils in the leather to help keep it from splitting and cracking. This is what leads to having to sew soles onto your favorite mocs.

Tallow soaked rag 

A trick I learned from the dutchman is save the linen you used to filter your tallow. This rag is permeated with tallow and a quick tool for dressing your mocs or even using as an impromptu lock cover.  I’ve also left in some details of my Lock cover in case someone would be interested in making one. These are a definite NEED to have item when hunting. This one was made by his Dutchness. The center seam is welted and the tie attaches to the triggerguard so it doesn’t get lost once I remove it. A great list of goods lost by a war party shows they were used by native hunters as well:

Near Knoxville in April 1794, twenty-five Indians repulsed in a skirmish left in their wake "a rifle gun, a scalping knife, 1 blanket, a French chapeau, 8 ramrods, and 8 gunlock covers".

"cows knee" or lock cover

Inside seam of lock cover

To continue my little tangent from last week about safety here is an excerpt from Lyman Draper that shows just how quickly a camping trip can go bad:

While Stringer was busy one day in preparing a fire for cooking some of their wild meat for a repast Cleveland spread his blanket on the ground beneath a cluster of large white oaks to rest himself and soon fell asleep. In a few moments he suddenly awakened in a startled condition. why he could not tell and casting his eyes into the treetops above he discovered a large limb directly overhead nearly broken off hanging only by a slight splinter to its parent stem. He said to his companion pointing to the object of his alarm” Look Reuben and see what an ugly thing we have camped under!” “ It has indeed an ugly appearance” replied Stringer “but since it has apparently hung a great while in that condition it may very likely do so a good while longer.” “Ah” said Cleveland” as long as it has hung there there is a time for it to come down and I will not be in the way of danger” and gathered up his blanket to spread it in a safer place. As he was passing the fire he heard a crack above the splinter had broken and the limb came tumbling down plunging its three prongs directly into the ground where Cleveland had but a moment before lain. They pulled over the fallen limb and found its prongs had penetrated into the earth to the depth of fourteen inches Stringer congratulated his comrade on his fortunate awaking and removal for he added in one minute more you would have been inevitably killed Ah Reuben said Cleveland who was very much of a fatalist I always told you that no man would die till his appointed time and when it comes there can be no possible escape.

Its funny that not checking for dead limbs is a criticism that natives had for european camps. And finally, to show that messing with Dutchmen is a timeless activity:

in the wilderness securing pelts and furs which found a ready market. The heads of the Dan Staunton and Pig rivers in the region that subsequently became Pittsylvania County was a favorite resort for hunters and here young Cleveland reaped his forest harvests. Fire hunting at that day was a very common mode of entrapping the deer in warm weather when they repaired to particular localities at night in shallow streams where they could find succulent food and be less exposed to tormenting insects.  The torchlights of the hunters would so dazzle the fated deer's attention that he would stand in amazement watching the strange light while the wary hunter had only to blaze away at its glaring eyes and bring down the stupid animal. There was an old Dutchman in that region who had a good stand for fire hunting and young Cleveland concluded he would scare him out of it Pealing some bark from a tree he placed it in the water so as to represent a counterfeit deer. The next night he hid himself nearby where he could watch operations. In due time the Dutch hunter made his appearance, fired on the supposed deer without apparently bringing him down then repeated his shot and still the deer remained unmoved. The Dutchman now becoming alarmed exclaimed Its” de duy vil”  and quickly abandoned that hunting ground Cleveland chuckling not a little over the success of his stratagem.