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"New Age" traditional/colonial tradecraft

NMSbowhunter said:
Have you thought about getting a mold and casting your own round ball?
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Since you brought it up:

I've got a .490 bag mold on order and should have it next week. The Lee and Lyman double molds are nice for volume but doesn't fit the theme of this. Still debating but will probably make my own casting ladle.
 
MNFarmHunter said:
Since you brought it up:

I've got a .490 bag mold on order and should have it next week. The Lee and Lyman double molds are nice for volume but doesn't fit the theme of this. Still debating but will probably make my own casting ladle.
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Bullet Casting Alloys - RotoMetals

A good source for pure lead. Buy as much or as little as you need. There are 7000 grains per pound so it's pretty easy to figure up how much you want to get based on the number of finished products you want.
 
MNFarmHunter said:
Char cloth.

Char cloth was the first true ready made tinder for fire starting. It's also so stupidly simple to make that this post involved exactly 1 photo.

Any 100% cotton item will work for char cloth. For this, I used scrap canvas that I had left over from other projects. To make char cloth, you need the following:
- Shoe polish or Altoids tin
- Heat source
- 100% cotton

Step 1: With whatever tin you're using poke a SMALL hole in the lid. As explained on various sites, the hole should be big enough to poke the lead of a sharpened pencil though but not big enough to poke any part of the wood though.

Step 2: place the cotton flat into the tin and close the lid. Make sure there are no folds or crumples in the cotton.

Step 3: Place on heat source and allow to smoke or flame until all smoke/flame are gone. Remove from heat and allow to cool.


View attachment 78100

Here's the entire char cloth making kit. I'm a huge fan of the SnoPeak stove as it's small, lightweight yet puts out alot of heat. On top is a shoe polish tin with a small hole poked in the top and filled with canvas. Total cook time (outside as this will produce alot of smoke) is under 10 minutes. Once cooled for a few minutes, you'll be left with char cloth (small black squares).

The char cloth readily will take a spark and these 1.5"x1.5" clothes will hold an ember for about 2 minutes.
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The best char cloth material I've ever used is cheap wash cloths, by the dozen at dollar store. Those tiny loops in the cloth will catch the smallest spark. We've won some competitions w/it. You can also char those little shelf like fungus that grows on the side of a tree (name unknown).
 
Blacksmith said:
The best char cloth material I've ever used is cheap wash cloths, by the dozen at dollar store. Those tiny loops in the cloth will catch the smallest spark. We've won some competitions w/it. You can also char those little shelf like fungus that grows on the side of a tree (name unknown).
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Chaga, horse hoof and cracked cap can all be used as tinder fungus. Basically, any tree fungus sticking out of a tree like a shelf and is hard will work but those growing on Birch or Black Locust seems to work the best.
 
Blacksmith said:
The best char cloth material I've ever used is cheap wash cloths, by the dozen at dollar store. Those tiny loops in the cloth will catch the smallest spark. We've won some competitions w/it. You can also char those little shelf like fungus that grows on the side of a tree (name unknown).
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Fomes fomentarius. Hoof fungus, although I think most shelf polypores can he charred
 
NMSbowhunter said:
Bullet Casting Alloys - RotoMetals

A good source for pure lead. Buy as much or as little as you need. There are 7000 grains per pound so it's pretty easy to figure up how much you want to get based on the number of finished products you want.
Click to expand...
Don't know how pure it is but I've cast some horse tail weights w/used wheel weights. Worked well for that.
 
Blacksmith said:
Don't know how pure it is but I've cast some horse tail weights w/used wheel weights. Worked well for that.
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Clip on wheel weights usually have an antimony content to them and make fine projectiles for cartridges if you keep them under about 1100 fps. They can also be hardened by water dropping them right out of the mold. The little glue on wheel weights that are square are generally pure lead and are soft. For a muzzle leader round ball, I think you will want to use a soft, pure alloy.
 
NMSbowhunter said:
Clip on wheel weights usually have an antimony content to them and make fine projectiles for cartridges if you keep them under about 1100 fps. They can also be hardened by water dropping them right out of the mold. The little glue on wheel weights that are square are generally pure lead and are soft. For a muzzle leader round ball, I think you will want to use a soft, pure alloy.
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I'll use the stick-on softies to soften alloys; it's probably pure lead but as an unknown I don't want to risk it in my muzzleloaders. I'll use Rotometals lead, or scrap lead from plumbing or roof flashing; mostly Lee .50 REAL but I've got a round ball mould somewhere too. Wheel weight goes for pistol or rifle boolits. The Cast Boolits form at https://castboolits.gunloads.com/ is a great resource for this hobby.
 
One thing I’ve noticed while building everything out, which tailors to so many other threads on this forum, is overpacking.

The hunting bag is the period correct size yet as I’m putting everything together, it quickly ran out of room. The answer is the yet to be made haversack which everyone would have carried if heading out for more than an afternoon.

The hunting bag is the bare minimum for HUNTING. The haversack in turn carried everything else.

For example, the fix’n wax in the pellet tin, which is a minimum size for long duration, is stupid for a hunting bag. Instead, a lip balm sized tin is more than enough to lube 24+ patches, which after all is all you really need for a hunt or militia activity.

Same with the ball bag. Why carry 30 or more balls if you only need a dozen-ish for hunting or militia purposes. End result, the ball bag gets moved over to the haversack and a yet to be made small tube will go in the hunting bag.

So much of the stuff we carry hunting in modern times is ridiculous compared to the 1700’s, yet they survived just fine.


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Been busy with a bunch of small waxed canvas utility pouches but finally had time today to make a haversack.

Looking at numerous pictures and sizes, this should be close to period correct. The strap came from a Mosin Nagant sling that was bleached then redyed brown. The haversack received the same waterproofing treatment and overall turned out better than I expected. Still debating if I should add a deer antler button or leave the flap loose.
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I have dabbled in some of these, are you registered on bushcraftusa.com? Lots of knowledgeable people over there to learn this sort of thing from (but keep coming back here to post pics too pls!)
 
Thanks for the link @thedutchtouch and I'm not going anywhere.

Overall, it's been a busy weekend. In addition to the haversack and remaking the ball bag, I made a cow's knee, a few more waxed canvas bags and finished the sewing kit using another antler point as a needle holder. Tapestry needles have a large enough eye to use leather thread (faux sinew) which'll work fine for all emergency repairs. Also gone is the kerosene lamp for a cheap tinned candle lamp. Still not perfect but at least closer to the 1700's.

Still have alot to do/make but am making progress.
 
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Starting at 12:00:
-Tin lamp. Not necessarily correct but far better than the kerosene lamp
-Pouch with fix'n wax tin and cotton strips for patches
-Pouch with antler/horsehair brush, brass patch brush cut and shaped to scrape the breech plug and a worm/screw
-Flint wallet which'll be remade eventually
-Ball bag holding about 25 50cal balls and a leather plug
-Pouch with sewing supplies holding an antler awl, antler needle case and faux sinew (waxed leather thread)
-Pouch with firestarting supplies (not complete) with a shoe wax tin for making/holding char cloth and extra cloth
-Pouch with bulk patch making supplies with a tin with fix/n wax and bulk strips of cotton
-Pouch for medicinals currently holding fix'n wax and will eventually contain yarrow, aspirin and a few other natural medicines

On the to-do list includes:
-Cooking/eating kit
-Bullet making kit
-Belt and small belt pouches

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Latest work has been minor blacksmithing using a propane torch, vice and a hammer. It's far from ideal but did manage to make a few blanket pins.

I still need to soak them in muriatic acid to strip off the remaining zinc plating, smooth out a few rough spots then blue them. In keeping with everything else, you won't see these being sold in a store but $1 and 30 minutes of work makes a working multi-tool.
ce067f58a1c398e6-photo.JPG

Edit:

Doing some quick looking online, I found posts where people were using citric acid. About 1/3 jar of canning citric acid and hot water has the zinc bubbling off the metal nicely.
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MNFarmHunter said:
Been busy with a bunch of small waxed canvas utility pouches but finally had time today to make a haversack.

Looking at numerous pictures and sizes, this should be close to period correct. The strap came from a Mosin Nagant sling that was bleached then redyed brown. The haversack received the same waterproofing treatment and overall turned out better than I expected. Still debating if I should add a deer antler button or leave the flap loose.
View attachment 78321
View attachment 78322
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Nice. Is that a Pedersolli Poor Boy?
 
Blacksmith said:
Nice. Is that a Pedersolli Poor Boy?
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Took forever to track down the exact model but it's a Frontier. I lost the rear buckhorn sight and since I couldn't hit anything anyways, I swapped the sights to fiber optic. Certainly not period correct but I'd rather have a usable firearm.
 
Update on the citric acid stripping zinc.

It took about 2 hours but did very well and the bare steel quickly took the blueing.
 
New idea based on the 2023 gear wish list thread.

Take a USGI or similar wool blanket which provides warmth, sew in a polyester, windbreaking liner, and create a windbreaking cloak that is warm in any weather yet can be pinned in such a fashion as to make an effective ground blind. Done right, it would be lightweight, packable, easily deployable, warm and effective.
 
Stopped by CC Military Surplus yesterday and found they had just stocked 85/15 wool blankets for $40. Bought 1, should’ve bought more as they’re nice blankets. Cut 2’ off an end to make a cloak and then split the 2’ in half and sewed (2) scarves out of it.


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