Fur Caps are always worn during the Feast of Duane

Well Happy Feast of Duane everyone! I’m hoping all of you have been cleaning your rifle guns and sewing new gear and repairing the old stuff for the next great holiday Late season Muzzleloader hunting season! Ive been busy sewing up tears in my gear and making sure everything is a go for the opening day. I was heading out the door for a quick hunting trip with Levi but the railroad gods decided to put a stop to that. So now I am putting off sewing a pair of new mittens and shaving down a ramrod to write this.

One item I’ve been messing with for quite some time is a fur cap. Ive found several references over the years and seen them pop up in images to the point I know they are common.  Its funny in a lot of circles such a totally European garment is ignored because of the fact wearing one might make you look a little too rendezvous to a modern mindset.  Ive spent hours talking to the Bertolino about this very subject.  If you want to see an angry Italian just post a progressive event guidelines and watch him go. Its like watching Sharks feeding.

                Its appropriate as this is the Night of the Bertolino in the Feast of Duane. So lets go into a weird cap that would look appropriate on the head of the living embodiment of Yukon Cornelius.  Looking for original fur caps I’ve found some awesome originals but not what many would call a “Canadian cap”.  Since the construction of the workman’s cap has come into question, I thought I’d look more into this. Digging for images on the cap I thought I’d start with the source for all things American Furry and strange, Benjamin Franklin. His sporting of a fur Marten skin cap became a symbol of America.

                Looking at images made of franklin at the time you can see the wool of his cap just sticking out above the fur. Since there was no evidence of a front slit, I assumed it was not made like the surviving Jefferson or Jefferies fur caps but rather “turban” fashion. This style was also shown being worn by Hogarth and tucked into images by Hogarth. The thing that stood out to me on these images is that no seams were present like the way we have traditionally done the Canadian caps (you know the triangles sewn together) but it seemed to have more in common with the night cap (gathered at the top)

                So I simply made a wool broadcloth “night cap” and sewed a lining inside the way 18th century hats were done and attached beaver fur to the outside. If I was to do this again, I would have the fold of the cloth reach higher on the outside and attach the fur at the top as well as the bottom and possibly put a line of interfacing in it as well.

 This attempt is simply an educated guess and just how some of these caps may have been constructed. Im by no means saying all fur caps were made the same.  I’m still on the hunt for original Fur caps  in museum collections as the number of times these pop up in images is crazy and with the amount of pelts being shipped to Europe during the little ice age some more construction info has to be out there.

               

was just sent this image Germany 18th century

    This one is way more comfortable then one I had made years ago using the triangle method and the lining and lack of multiple seams gives it more “give” to adjust it while Ime wearing it. I’m still trying to get more info on the construction of the Jefferson/Jefferies hat as wearing a bobcat skin cap is just the level of ridiculous I’m personaly Ok with.

The source of the Fur for this was simply an old  beaverFur cloak I picked up at an antique store that was pretty damaged so I didn’t feel bad cutting it apart. I plan on using some of the fur to line a pair of mittens and perhaps make a Fur Muff.  One thing that. Itll come in handy with talks with the public in showing them a beaver felt hat versus a beaver fur cap. Like I alluded to tons of pelts were being shipped to Europe for the garments industry and showing the public just what fur was used for really helps nail down the global impact of the fur trade. Its also important in my modern trapper mindset to educate people of the use of sustainable items like real Fur over the use of petroleum based Faux fur (that’s as modern political as you’ll see me get on here). Yes Kids Faux fur is bad for the environment and is just terrible.

                So I hope your Feast of Duane is going good and you are ready for the real season of reenacting…The Winter!

"Strive not to shoot often, but Strive to shoot well" a change is coming...

 

                So yeah, I’ve been quiet for a minute or two, I mean its pretty standard at this point for my readers to expect a giant gap in material.  This is normally the point I talk about my ADHD or something else but the truth is I have been writing it is just not for my blog. Back In May at martin’s station Jason Gatliff asked me to be a staff writer for Muzzleloader Magazine. SO, as a result, I’ve been doing a lot of writing but just not for this space.

                I didn’t want to write something here that I could have given Jason and hit a much wider audience because lets face it as far as I know right now the only people reading this weirdness is The shirt tail mess (they invoked this demon) Jason, The dutchman, my daughter Cindy (why aren’t you studying?)  Tony’s creation Ray, Bill/Heather and Mark Lewis (he likes watching axes being ground or something…who knows why limousine liberals do what they do) And so far I’ve been able to rework on a larger scale some of my past write ups, A lot of new information  and a few hunting trips/ treks.

                My current plan is to Add information here to articles that appear in “Muzzleloader”. This way in fair use I can use images and artifacts that I wasn’t able to in the article.  I can also add information that I have dug up after the issue went to print. The nice thing about my blog for me has always been I was able to add documentation I’ve found in real time and since I’m prone to weird fits of reading at any given time of the day.

                So I hope going forward if you’ve enjoyed my weirdness you’ll jump over to the muzzleloader magazine site and subscribe www.muzzleloadermagazine.com . Support a magazine that has given to our hobby for decades and is willing to take a chance on research based trekking/woodcraft/hunting/bad ideas like this blog.  I’ll still be here yelling at windmills but you’ll be able to hear the whole weird rant there. Plus, you’ll be able to say hipster phrases like “I was into the buffalo trace before it went mainstream and lost its edge”.  We’re not Punk rock we’re new wave…

Anyhow so to keep rocking with that…its December so that means Pa muzzleloader season is right around the corner. That for me means how do I stay warm while running around looking for a deer. If you are like Levi my wife will buy you a vest that looks like something Marty Mcfly would wear in back to the future. Seriously folks the women in my life are so jealous of this dog they are trying to kill his hunting instincts.

Poor Levi looking like Marty Mcfly

blanket surtout,,,snuggy with pockets

                To add to last years jacket info I did an article on capotes, great coats and blankets coats. Two examples Ive made for myself are more on the line of a great coat…or if a great coat and a capote had a baby. The first example I took off of a mid 18^th century image of a group of Canadians.  It’s a bound blanket coat with a collar. Right now my plans for it are nothing more then trying to wear it to look more pimp like then the dutchman (the guy has a fur collar on his great coat, I’m done with him trying to pass me off as an unlicensed trader) 

1770s canadian image

The 2^nd example is from a runaway ad and was a nice find for my coats made of blankets file. I used a Rob Stone blanket to make my “surtout”. A surtout is basically a great coat without a cape. Just a large straight bodied overcoat. The blanket was one I had used for awhile so this is going to be my new goto overcoat.  Another set of pockets and a wearable sleeping bag make this a great garment for late season camping. The more I study working class clothes the more use of blankets as cloth I find. For someone working outside before central heat this makes total sense and is a nice view on just what working class /backcountry folks wore in cold weather.

                Now the next level of weirdness in this post…We are on the eve of the 250^th of Dunmore’s war. Right now I’m planning on hitting two Dunmore’s events this summer so for the next few weeks I’m going to take a page out of Jim Mullins handbook and post a few kit building posts to get folks into the mindset of the best of the 250^th events. Using the Mckorle store lists show folks some common purchases leading up to that campaign (hint time to rehash blue leggings and ozenbrig hunting shirts)  as well as some other gear that pops up.  I’d also like to toss out that I’m planning on doing a Dunmore’s trek in Western Pa in late July. If you are interested drop me an email at thebuffalotrace1765@gmail.com

So yeah stuff is changing here but if it didn’t keep moving forward would it really be worth reading?

                And before I forget to say this…Thank you for reading this. If it wasn’t for you guys reading this for years, I wouldn’t have been given a chance to go to a bigger audience. The emails, questions, comments, feedback have all helped me keep being weird and writing. Thank you

Long hunter brand bags and Knives or the Mystery of Symmetry

 

18th century sporting image. good idea for basic bag shape and size

                 

simple edged bag (possible belt pouch) 

So Lets keep this ball rolling. Keep the Brains working and the ideas flying. The next Long Hunter brand item I’d like to talk about is Knives and bags. I mentioned this a little bit about the penny knife post but to be honest there is SOOOO many bad knives floating around labeled as “long hunter” its tough to know where to begin. Ok so if there was A knife that was common to the virginia longhunters, the market hunters from Fort pitt, Natives, the men of new England and everyone in between it would have to be 100% the Cutteau Knife.  Jim Mullins broke this down some time ago in his blog. https://ofsortsforprovincials.blogspot.com/2013/03/cuttoe-knives-revealed.html

Modern school of knives might have all the same working parts as an original knife (deer parts, cutting edge etc) but that in no way alone makes them 18^th century. By far the go to for most new folks is a woodbury style knife because it “looks old timey”.  You cant swing a dead cat and not come across someone making their version of this knife and labeling it “18^th century” or “long hunter style”. Calling it as it is these knives have way more to do with modern black powder culture then they do the 18^th century.

 antler handled knives are made in the 18^th century in fact everytime this debate comes up someone wll dig up the one with the sheath marked “1758” and proclaim the debate over. Problem is antler handled knives were made by European knife makers (the factories) and they looked very little like the common knife on the modern market. That particular example is more proof of factory made knives then the work of a backcountry smith. Look at Madison Grant’s book on Knives and one detail you’ll notice is that most of the knives have NO attribution apart from “old knife”. Grant was famous for marrying pieces together he thought looked good and using a process that was simply the uglier the item the earlier it had to be. This was due to the fact that obviously anything ugly must have been made on the frontier in a rush because why not. He ignored the crazy amount of ready-made cutlery being shipped to the backcountry because it didn’t fit his mindset. Plus, we cant ignore the amount of research done on the subject since his books were published. A lot of information we have easy access to was simply not available to these early collectors and they often did the best with just what they had on hand.

A lot of this is also the product of the “longknife” idea of 18^th century backcountry folks. I broke this down a number of years ago in a separate posting. The basic run down is that this was the name given to the virginia governor by natives and was then applied to virginians. It has nothing to do with carrying giant knives. Later in the 19^th century this name does start to affect the fashion of “frontiersman” and big knives become a mark of a “frontiersman” so you really see big knives take off.

https://buffalotrace1765.blogspot.com/2011/09/long-knife-described-your-clothes-not.html

The problem with a lot of these knives is like bags there is really no way to date most of them and if Simon Kenton owned a big knife when he was in his 80s and this knife is in a local historical society labeled “simon kenton’s knife” to many this is evidence that it was carried by him in his 20’s. despite the fact the knife’s shape etc is all in line with knives from the 19^th century. You see this a lot as well with rifle’s etc. To put a fine point on this, The coke bottle you drink out of today is not gonna be the same as the coke bottle from 1976.

So just how do you solve this? Ask the maker questions, ask them for documentation. Ken Gahagan and Ken Hamilton are two knife makers I know of that will provide you with a packet of information when you buy stuff from them or at the least will break out a folder of info to show you just why the knife you are interested in is documented. To me this should be the Norm for makers and buyers in this hobbie. If a guy cant provide you with research and just says “ it’s a Long hunter knife”  then maybe you should keep looking for makers and info. great resource for some knife s and knife making images can be found here https://www.scribd.com/document/274582394/Food-Service-Utility-Clasp-Knives

 

18th century antler handled knife...funny I know but this blade shape shows up in the archeology 

So now that ive angered all the knife makers lets go after the bag makers. Often bags are based off just what the current reenactor fab is at the moment. Road kill bags inspired by the Madison grant idea “uglier is earlier” was the norm for a number of years. Now it seems to be the more scrap pieces of leather you can sew together the better. It all needs to be topped off with an angular piece of bark tan that still maintains the nastiest part of the bark tan hide. If that flap is symmetrical then you have obviously failed as a person and your bag is wrong.

I know I sound like a broken record on certain things but that is one idea I just can’t get over. Its like ok these folks made all their own stuff but they obviously didn’t have access to a straight edge when they were sewing up their bag? If you’re an individual then why does all that stuff look the same? Quit using the frontier as an excuse and dare to be different, dare to use documentation.

These are just a few of the bag images that are out there. As in a very few. Looking at sporting images, trade cards the background of larger paintings are all ready resources for folks looking for images of bags. No they don’t give you construction details and you always need to look at the context of the painting. Is this an 18^th century image? Is this a reworking of another image (this was before copyright laws)?  Do I know of an original bag this basic shape?

Ok to show this in action I'll go to a native bag and an image that pops up quite a bit. Ok so here is a 1770s image of Robert Rogers.

To alot of folks this is now documentation that rogers carried a large native bag and is also documentation for super big native pouches. Except you have to look around and you'll see quickly this image is simply a period rip off of this image.

SO you can see some very clear similarities. Also the bag pictured and used ALOT by Benjamin west does exist and is currently in the brit museum. The problem is the scale of the original bag is way off compared to the bags in the images:

And here is the original and it measures 6.5 inches by 7 inches. So the native wearing that bag would have to have been a super small guy. West took some liberites with scale to show the bags details and the other artist just tried to add the bag to his version of rogers because it looked "american". This is why doing your research and casting a wide net is so important in doing period reproductions. ALl of this was dug up in less then a half hour with some web searches. If you find a piece your interested in Jump in the rabbit hole. Dig, look around, ask questions more often then not you'll learn something in the process. Not always the info you started looking for but its something.

I love using original bags but the problem is with most they have no way of knowing just when they were made and the basic style of shot pouch never really goes away. If you compare some of these 18^th cent images with photographs of black powder shooters from the 20^th century you really don’t see a difference. For example, my favorite original bag that is at the king’s mountain historic site was NOT collected there and has no real connection to the site apart from being an “old” bag. The reason I went with that specific bag was it matched in shape a rev war era sketch of a rifleman.  SO, it’s a guess but its also an educated guess. I could have just stitched together a coverlet and old piece of leather and called it a day but I couldn’t find an original done like that or in an image so…

I used this pouch with the construction of the King's mountain pouch to come up with my take on this shot bag

my take on the kings mountain pouch and the gear I carry in it

Also as with knives you gotta always be aware of the creep of 19^th century items backward into the “surviving” examples. With the number of frontiersman who lived into the 19^th century  there are a number of bags out there attributed to someone BUT is very clearly made for them later in life. Super fringed bags, cut outs, double bags etc. while they might be great for the shooting match do they really belong at an 18^th century event?

Larger bag in this image. Just a dutchman frustrated with shooting

    Ok so everyone is good and riled up. There will be many harumphs and groans reading this post. This

 is what happens when I spend way to much time in the hotel so you have the railroad to blame. Now 

that I’ve done a few negative-ish posts I'll be jumping back into stuff on the helpful side. maybe a few 

how to's and some camp craft. I’ve also asked a few makers if they’d be up for Q&A's on their gear to 

help folks find some quality stuff. I'm now going to try and weave while keeping the threads away 

from a puppy. Levi is a ball of chaos that has been keeping me on my toes but he already has a small 

wallet for dog food with his name on it for treks and he’s pretty pumped about that..

 

Oh and some shameless  promotion for the Altoona Rifle and pistol clubs " Rifle Frolic"  its a great event put on by some amazing folks. A great time to just get out and shoot.

Avoiding the "Long Hunter" Brand name Trap (garter weirdness)

     

Heddle loom made by Matt stein based off original works great for making bartlett sash things

Linen tape, wool tape and buffalo wool tape made on the loom all used for garters for a very long time now

        When starting an 18^th century  back country Kit its really easy to quickly just become overwhelmed by ideas and information from vendors and just start buying everything labeled “longhunter”. Quite honestly it drives me nuts that this has become a brand name. “longhunter shirt”, “longhutner hat”, “longhunter knife”, “longhunter bag” and some “longhunter toilet paper” and you are ready for a trek. All in various shades of brown or “rustic” and off you go.

                I’m not big on blanket statements but here’s one for new folks…If it’s got the label “longhunter” attached to it, don’t buy it. I’d say 99% of the time you’ll be avoiding a mistake. SO since the last post about gear got such a response I thought I’d go a little more into it.

      So Garters are an item that has developed into its own thing in the “longhunter” uniform. Often its simple a piece of woven material with leather tabs on each side, these then tie with a leather thong on the back. The info on these existing is sketchy at best. Garters in the 18^th century came in a wide variety from leather with small buckles to hand embroidered silk strips of material.

 What I think most of us are trying to focus on is what you may have found on folks in the backcountry. You often find “garters or “gartering” being sold at stores. This was strips of wool/linen that was woven on intricate looms a little outside of just what can be made on modern inkle looms. You can see some done with stars, lettering etc.  Examples of this can be found in surviving swatch books from the 18^th century.

Examples of 18th century "gartering"

So, what does that leave us with? Well one go to is a simple worsted wool tape garter. We know this stuff matches some period items out there is relatively inexpensive and is carried by a number of vendors. This has been my go-to for a while because even though I finger weave and own a tape loom its an example of the cobbler’s kids. Every time I make a set I end up selling them. Its sad at this point I only own a sash because I burned a hole in it when I was sleeping in a hearth at Prickets fort. Yeah, you read that right I was sleeping IN the hearth…Long story.

The other Fix for the backcountry is tape loomed garters. Examples of these exist in period archaeological contexts from lower class people. In eastern Pennsylvania there are examples of tapes being sold to local merchants in exchange for goods. A decent number of period tape looms and heddles exist. It was something that could be made at home with relatively simple looms. For years myself and other guys from the ACM purchased tapes from Judy the resident weaver at Pricket’s fort.

The Mifflin family and a tape loom

The other great thing about tape looms is the tape can be used for many different functions. From women’s apron strings, powder horn straps, tying up blanket rolls, ties for food pouches I mean the list is endless. It’s an item easily available to lower class people over a wide geographic area. For folks really into the “we made everything” mindset about the frontier if they were spinning their own wool and linen and weaving their own cloth why wouldn’t they made their own garters in pieces larger then 12 inches long?

Our boy doddridge was a weaver himself:

I was possessed of an art which was of great use. It was that of weaving shot-pouch straps, belts and garters. I could make my loom; and weave a belt in less than one day. Having a piece of board about four feet long, an inch auger, spike gimlet, and a drawing knife, I needed no other tools or materials for making my loom;. ...

                While not much better then “in the common fashion” of a description you get an idea of what he could weave. To me he could be describing making a rough rigid heddle loom that you is basically a tape loom without the nice little winder.  However, it does point that it was not an inkle loom as they did not exist yet.

                Ok next question I’ll get is going to be “what did an 18^th century sash made by a white guy look like”.  The simple answer is, we do not know 100%. An educated guess however would be something akin to the linen tape being woven on the tape looms. Doddridge mentions making garters on his loom and we know what woven garters looked like ergo why would the sash look different then this?

Bartlett sash thing 1 7/8 inch wide by 9 feet long

One possible example is the Nathaniel Bartlett sash/strap thing. This was collected with a powder horn and was formerly in the Guthman collection. The item is 1 7/8 inches wide by 9 feet long and was woven on a heddle. The letters/numbers are made by dropping/picking up certain threads as you weave.  Its narrow by our modern standards of sashes but 9 feet is a lot of wraps around a waist. Once again though the idea we have in our head is based off modern preconceptions of just what a sash looks like our buddy bought from a vendor selling his take on 18^th century white guys sashes.

So hopefully I gave you something new to think about and I cant stress enough for new folks to avoid the “Long Hunter” brand items.  For anyone looking for tape Besides Judy at Pricket’s fort I’d recommend Stonehousehistory.com. Update on the 15 yard tomahawk throw after a few crazy tosses I zeroed in on a release point and am starting to stick my hawk in the block on a semi regular basis. Also I have a new trekking buddy and member of the family. His name is Levi, he’s a 9 week old mountain cur and he’s a little ball of chaos running the show in my house right now. He’s taken away any excuse I had before about getting up and just taking a walk. 

Levi our new spokesmodel

Levi my anti Dutchman dog

                

Quick shelters and pocket bottles

 

Blanket roll, pocket bottles wallet and kettle...pretty easy pack

So funny story about doing videos for youtube…They hate me. Ok not really a story as much as my opinion right now but hey it is what it is. I’ve attempted to do two separate videos so far in the  woods and the first one it was raining so hard the Microphone didn’t even help and the second one…well I busted a seam in my breeches that wasn’t readily observable until I watched the footage and it made it more of an only fans video then youtube how to.

                So to save something from those two self-inflicted disasters I thought I’d just put out the content here and try and shoot the video again in a more PG fashion (3rd times the charm?)  SO to keep being productive here is simple shelter trick based off a number of period descriptions.

“”a blanket stretched upon poles sheltered them from the storm, while a good campfire served the double purpose of cooking their bear meat & keeping them warm. A little camp kettle, a pint tin cup, and a spoon or two of hickory bark or buffalo horn: to these and the tomahawk axes the ever needful bullets, his rifle, …” George Bedinger

 

Beddinger camp

The process I use is simple I tie my tumpline (hoppus) between two trees and drape the blanket over the line. I use the direction of the wind to determine the side I drape the blanket too. I tie each corner using a “grommet” made of a rifle ball and tie it using leather wang. On this set up I simply removed the ties from my spare moccasins.  To tighten the slope I will sometimes use a forked pole in the center to tighten up the blanket.

rifle ball grommets ties with moccasin ties.

                While this will not give you a 100% rainproof shelter the blanket will keep the rain off and help you sleep in a more comfortable manner. This is why I carry either two blankets or a blanket and a blanket coat. This gives you something to cover up with while sleeping. It also helps to pile up leaf debris or pine boughs to sleep on top of. This helps gets you off the ground and a little more comfortable.

                You can also accomplish this by lashing poles using your moccasin strings or rawhide cordage if you don’t carry a hoppus.  All the materials for this you carry on your person and can then focus your time on getting a fire going rather than spread out and try and gather up enough material for a debris shelter.  While not 100% waterproof it is 100% documentable versus say the diamond shelter you so often see being used at events by “backcountry” folks. Also if you tie this up under say a large tree or group of pine trees it really helps keep the water off and can make life that much more comfortable in the woods.

                The other alternative is to simply “go cresswell” and stash all your gear under some bark, strip down and just ride the rain out until it stops. Honestly this is the best method I’ve found for quick summer thunderstorms as you dry out quicker then your gear but in the fall and spring when temperatures can fluctuate rapidly I prefer the blanket shelter method.

                So a question I received after the last post was about the “pocket bottles” I mentioned in the gear break down video I did with the Frontier Trade company video. Ok so here is a quick rundown on that. In looking at purchases and inventories canteens are actually a pretty hard Item to document for non military folks. In the Kentucky probabte inventories the only ones I’ve come across were also in the list of goods that also contained obvious military gear (regimental coat) and in purchases at Fort Pitt the only canteen I see being purchased is by a native. So before I go any further I want to say this loud and clear….This is a case of personal safety. In our modern world carrying water is a 100% need. So if you want to carry a canteen by all means go for it. I’m not encouraging dehydration or Giardia.My point in this all is to document what I can and provide the information.

                Ok now that being said I kept looking for what I could find on documented water containers. The most common item I could find apart from regular glass bottles was Pocket bottles. These appear in various sizes. What’s really interesting about them is I find them in a number of purchases, probates and mentioned a few times in passing in narratives. Also, an example can be found in the archaeological report on the Fletcher site (so one in a native context).

                A great quote about a fellow carrying one is about Joesph Ogle sr.

 “quiety seating himself with his rifle across his knee he drew forth from his side pocket a single morsel of jerked Venison and a tickler of pure water, from which he drew a refreshing draught”

Pioneer Sketch Joseph Ogle Sr. page 106 The Illinois Manuscripts Volume 1Z of the Draper manuscript collection Transcribed by Craig L. Heath

                Period dictionaries state that a “tickler” is a small bottle that held about ½ pint of liquid. These can be found in a number of sizes and purchased all over the place in the 18^th century. For example at Fort Pitt ion June 24 1768  they had for purchases:3 dozen pocket bottles at 1/1 each 3 dozen pocket bottles at ¼ each.

                The nice thing about these bottles is there are a number of reproductions out there available for purchase for under $50. The Met Museum in New York did a run of a bottle in their collection at one point and a number of vendors carry these. While smaller then a canteen I have been carrying one for awhile now and for most hunting trips they are great. Some folks are leary of carrying a glass container but Its something ive been doing for some time and I’m really hard on my gear.  We live in such a "single use" world that we often forget that items like glass bottles could and were reused in the past. Why do you think we see so much glass on archeological sites? 

Bottle slides into kettle onto hard bread

                For larger amounts of water Ive been carrying a mallet bottle in my pack as well. The one I carry slides right into my kettle in a wallet and over the shoulder. It doesn’t sound like an army tank clanking around in the woods and I don’t notice the weight at all. This doesn’t however mean don’t use a canteen or water filters or purification tablets. We live in a modern word and we need to be safe.

    I've got quite a bit more information on both these items and Im working on something a little more comprehensive but I just wanted to get this out now. Hopefully soon my thought process on all this will make sense. But until then just remeber that the Dutchman is evil and is not to be trusted.

Gear to avoid or "The dutchman might cheat at cards but he wouldn't sell ya a penny knife"

 

Talk on Long hunter gear at Martin's station

Yes I’ve been quiet on here but I’ve been anything but laying low. Over the past few months I ventured from my secret lair and did a few events and met some great people. I was able to finally meet Simeon England at the School of the longhunter this year. Its funny we had both done a lot of the same events and never met and we bonded over the John Redd interview and now he’s stuck having to talk to me forever. Also fun fact I learned is that Blacksmith’s only strike with their right arm when forging so if you decided to arm wrestle Simeon go for the left arm it’s a sure win.

Simeon and Alec at school of the longhunter

                A conversation we had that weekend was the fact that more needs to be done by the hobby as a whole to encourage new folks to get into this weirdness. It was something that we both have been active in for awhile now (why do you think I keep writing this thing, ok a big part is purely Duane related cyber bullying)  This came up during longhunter when Alec from Frontier Trade company on youtube approached me about doing a video going thru his gear and helping him fine tune it. I’ve been talking to Alec for over a year now helping him out and pointing him towards sources to help him out but I was a little apprehensive about doing this. There is a fine line between helping and criticism and I really did not want people thinking I was sitting there being a bully to a new guy. So after we talked it over I decided to give it a try and as of him posting the video it looks like he’ll have over 1,000 views in the 1^st 24 hours.  Frontier trade company

The Dutchman Teaching the basics of whist at School of the longhunter

The dutchman marking cards to cheat me out of money at Martin's station

   So to keep that going I decided to post a few things today on gear for new folks to avoid so they can steer clear of mistakes a lot of us made right out of the gate. I’ll also be nudging the old hornets nest a little because some stuff needs to be said loud and repeatedly.

 

1.       Penny Knives

Ok so a lot of the pieces of gear I’m going to point out suffer the same problem of the turned handle Penny Knife. It’s the complete lack of evidence of their existence during the 18^th century in North America. Looking at archaeological reports from homes, battlefields, native/European settlements you can see a wide variety of cutlery. When you start parsing that down into folding knives you see some killer examples of French folders and Cutteau knives. A variety in sizes on both and blade shapes. What you don’t see is any examples of the “penny knife”.

                Some French folders have a similar shape but they also have that little “stub” on the back to keep the blade from pushing into the handle. Also the handle is more in line with the Siamese knives you see. What few knives you see in “collections” have no other provenance then “old knife” and where more then likely married to a shot bag or collection by a 20^th century collector. From talking with Knife collectors this style of knife pops up in the late 19^th early 20^th century in North America with the migration of folks from Italy. Much like the “Chinese razors”  that you see floating around collections. Its an antique but not the type we are looking for.

 

2 “Penanular Brooches”

                So these became popular in the 1990’s as a way to hold a matchcoat on. They had been in the hobby for awhile creeping in from the SCA/Scottish-esque side of the world. Once again while they are functional for holding on a blanket there is simply NO evidence, they existed here during the 18^th century. Not on “Scottish sites” not on “scotch irish” sites not even on sites you see on ancient aliens once occupied by the Knights Templar.

                The best way to hold on a “matchcoat” is to simply wear one and get used to it. Tucking an end in a button hole, held on with your bag straps, using a gun worm as a pin, buffalo tug tied around your waist. All of these are things that you can find in journals or by trying them in the field. If you want to reenact Elves hanging out with hobbits Penannular brooches are probably great but I think it’s time for us to just say no to them in the hobbie.

               

3 The bizarre haversack hybrid things.

                Ok this is a pretty straight forward one. Hide/coverlet/waxed linen giant possible bags are nothing more then a weird fever dream came up by folks into bushcraft and the 18^th century. There is 0 as in NO basis for these things in the actual 18^th century. No amount of squinting while looking at an image is going to make these correct. Paint whatever slogan you want on a bag with an always crooked piece of scrap leather it doesn’t make it correct.

                I think over 20 years of sharing information I have shown that wallets are the go-to for common folks. That along with sacks (as in just a big linen bag) are the go to for carrying your gear. If you have more gear then will fit into your knapsack or wallet maybe its time to rethink what gear you are carrying? No need to invent something out of thin air. Solve the problem with a period solution.

 

4 Stop using the “frontier” as an excuse

                This is more of a mindset then it is piece of gear. However, it has led to some odd concoctions of linen and leather. The information is out there and we live in the best time Ive seen for finding narratives, journals, ledgers etc.  for free online. You can pick a part of colonial America and find resources for your region with just a little looking. You do not need to reinvent the wheel every time you need a piece of gear.

                The 18^th century backcountry did not exist in a bubble, it was not a place that was walled off from the rest of the world and turned into some kind of post-apocalyptic wasteland. The narratives and journals show folks moved back and forth with surprising regularity. For example, Felix walker’s guys might not have had spare moccasin awls on their journey but they had busted  shoes and fishhooks to switch up into items for making new moccasins. They didn’t just invent some kind of new furry barbarian boot. They made do with what they had on hand to make a known piece of gear to solve the problem. 18^th century problem, 18^th century solution

 

Quick camp set up this spring

I know this is a little bit of a downer as far as tone. No worries I’m not falling back into some anger filled hate post. However sometimes its important to replant your flag to let folks know what you are standing behind.  I’m super excited to see the new folks putting out 18^th century content but with new folks comes the rehashing of the same problems with gear and I’d rather see a guy save his money to buy a good tomahawk then spend it on a top-of-the-line Damascus penannular broach. If you’re looking for a good tomahawk I know a guy…

                Speaking of tomahawks I was recently turned onto a narrative that was new to me by Gerry Neilands. Its Tiger Dunlop's Upper Canada : comprising Recollections of the American war 1812-1814, and Statistical sketches of Upper Canada for the use of emigrants by a Backwoodsman  Now not only did this reignite my drive to finish my 1812 gear( Buffalo Trace 1795?  Too much? ) but his account of tomahawk throwing was pretty insane

They also when there opponents were 15 to 20 yards in advance of them threw their tomahawks with unerring aim and great force bury the hatchet up to the eye in the body of their opponents.

 I afterwards requested the Chief to show me how he threw the tomahawk. He accordingly cut a small chip out of the bark of a tree, and standing some fourteen yards off, and taking his tomahawk with its pole to the front, he threw it, and it was buried some inches into the oak, with the handle upmost, it having turned round in its flight.

 

                Ok 15 yards…that’s crazy.  So being curious I looked up the NMLRA rules on throwing hawks since it’s really the basis most of us use for throwing tomahawks “A minimum of 1 full revolution of tomahawk or knife is required (12 feet minimum)”  From the shoots I’ve gone to and most throws at events seem to stick within this distance.  Throwing a tomahawk at this distance is how the majority of folks I know learned how to throw hawks.

                This brought up a few questions in my mind. Is this another case of our hobbie teaching us the wrong technique for achieving a period goal? To throw a hawk 15 yards you need to put some serious English behind that sucker. 

                And Two to be honest most of us learned how to throw tomahawks using the same type of hand forged “tomahawks”. You know that hawk that most vendors sell for like $20-30 with the replacement handles. The ones that are ¼ inch thicker then the “original” its possibly based on. My first hawk had the weeping heart cut out in it, it was awesome I bought it with money I made for cutting the grass and I regret nothing!

                Anyhow you look at the size of original Poll axes(or simple tomahawks) and they weigh significantly less then our go to throwing hawks. Just something to think about when the next “did they throw tomahawks” debate pops up around the campfire. I’ve already marked off 15 yards from my throwing block and my wife has taken out a new life insurance policy on me so we’ll see how this goes.