Inside the Haversack/Wallet/Saddlebags

[Cole Bluesteele]

There were cap boxes, cartridge boxes for paper cartridges and later even cartridge boxes for metalic cartridges.  Most currently available reproductions are made to fit a 2" belt.  I use a Dyer cartridge box to carry metalic cartridge ammo to and from the loading table.  Cap box for caps and a paper cartridge box for balls.  Other items fit just fine in a CW shoulder slung cartridge box for rifled musket ammo.  I can bring these for your inspection as well.

Cole

[Dutch Limbach]

kflach,

Another thing you might find handy are tins like Altoids come in. A friend of mine that I used to rendezvous with would take them and throw them in the campfire to burn the Altoids design off them. Then he's clean them up some with the polishing wheel on a Dremel tool. I've known other folks with less energy to simply spray paint them a solid color. They would work well for Wonder Wads, cleaning patches, etc.

I also came across some smaller tins at a buckskinner gun show like Yuma mentioned. I used one for ibuprofen. While that usage is not document-able, for someone with leg problems it has come in handy on a few occassions.

[James Hunt]

Kflach: If your period is mid to late 1870's and you are using a cartridge belt, I would want to document the use of additional belt accouterments beyond a knife (Tom Selleck movies aside). The availability of commercial pouches has been documented by my good friend Brass, and of course there are military cap pouches adapted for cartridges. As previously discussed I use the former, but I  place myself in the early 1870's and use it to store my cap tin. I do not recall any written information, and can not recall frequent images of belt doodads on a cartridge belt suggesting that if done it was less than common.

If the approach is it could be done the answer is yes, but you'd have to also ask if this was reality and not just a Saturday afternoon, would you want to or need to be carrying stuff attached to a belt already weighted down with cartridges and iron. It's a long pull up into a wagon or onto a horse with an extra 20 lbs. on your middle - particularly when you are our age (you are "our" age aren't you?).

Regards Jim - who at 60 has a fondness for short critters, 14 hands is plenty good for me and will you please hand me that rifle after I get seated?

[Delmonico]

kflach,

Another thing you might find handy are tins like Altoids come in. A friend of mine that I used to rendezvous with would take them and throw them in the campfire to burn the Altoids design off them. Then he's clean them up some with the polishing wheel on a Dremel tool. I've known other folks with less energy to simply spray paint them a solid color. They would work well for Wonder Wads, cleaning patches, etc.

A piece of sandpaper glued to the bottom of one works good when you fill them with Lucifers.  BTW a lot of craft suppliers have them and other kinds of tins unpainted, often for less than a buck.

[Texas Lawdog]

I need to find some of those small tins and try to talk Del into making me about 4 of those small cloth bags.

[Books OToole]

I need to find some of those small tins and try to talk Del into making me about 4 of those small cloth bags.

TL;

Hit the thirift stores.  They always have an assortment of decorative tins.  A few drops of stripper and a little steel wool turns them generic.

Books

[St. George]

To be clear:

'Bullets' are the projectile to be fired - not 'balls' - so you can put your bullets into a pouch of your own making, or even one of a military manufacture.

If you're reaching into your bag to get at your balls - best be resigned to the fact that no one's ever going to shake hands with you...

'Cartridges' are a self-contained and those are what are in the cartridge loops - they also filled those same pouches before loops were supplied (there's a separate thread on 'those'...).

A 'poke' is what one carried gold dust in - 'Poke Salad' being Collard Greens - and was often made of leather.

You might see a sheath knife attached to said cartridge belt - along with a holster - but you didn't see them outfitted like military web gear.

As to your weapons-cleaning equipment - you're over-thinking everything.

Since probably 99% of all weapons maintenance is done off the tailgate or trunk of whatever vehicle you'd used to get to a shoot - there's no real need for cleaning rods.

If you want to minimize your equipment - buy a pull-through.

You can find commercial examples - or you can buy military surplus German gear that works quite well and takes up no more space than a can of pipe tobacco.

If you can't find stuff at the thrift stores - you're just not looking.

Buckskinners all seem to love all these little pouches, and a Blackpowder-related gun show is an excellent place to find that sort of thing - as is buying a copy of the Dixie Gun Works catalog, and getting out your credit card.

Your Impression is one of a town-based individual, so get a decent carpetbag, or small valise, but if you own a horse - then a pair of saddlebags will fit everything - and saddlebags of the era were 'not' the massive things you see on a full-dress Harley - rather, they were about the general size of today's throw pillow, and often had bellows sides.

Vaya,

Scouts Out!

[Don Nix]

 Sorry but Poke salad is not Collard greens,Far from it in fact.
As some one who eats a lot of greens let me enlightened you.
Poke or polk salad is a tall plant with broad green leaves and bears clumps of purpleberries or ink berries. These plants are toxic and xan be found growing in cow lots and barn yards in the south.
As rge plant matures the stalks thicken and turn red.
The leaves are edible if pulled early before the stalk turns red. Some say you can boil the mature leaves 3 times and they will be alright but I 'll stick to to what I know is  that red means dead.
I am not a poke salad fan but eack spring my wife picks sevaral bushels for folks th the chuch.
Collards on the other hand are a broad leaf l plant of the cabbage family. 
I find them to be best used along with turnip greens. I mix them 50/50 in a pot and boiled with a ham hock or a mess of ribs is a meal fit for a king. Corn bread and fried taters will cure what ails you..

[St. George]

I was always told that that was what they were.

Since 'greens' weren't something I was ever interested in ingesting voluntarily - I never paid a bit of attention.

You know - in my career field, we're sometimes referred to as 'snakeaters' - and the very thought of doing 'that' gives some folks a peculiar look when they think about it - picture 'that' look on my face if faced with a mess of greens...

I agree about the use of ham hocks or ribs or bacon, though - with enough of those - you can cook  anything and eat what fell off the top of it as you separate it with a fork - even snakes...

Vaya,

Scouts Out!

[Books OToole]

You know - in my career field, we're sometimes referred to as 'snakeaters' - and the very thought of doing 'that' gives some folks a peculiar look when they think about it

Vaya,

Scouts Out!

Snake is not bad.  If properly prepared, it can be quite good.

Books

[St. George]

'I' always thought so - and that was long before Bear Grylls could even 'spell' the word, much less turn it into a staple.

Eating them in a survival situation can leave a lot to be desired, unless you can cook the meat thoroughly, and if you have a bit of salt (true of most wild game) - but eating them otherwise can produce a pretty tasty meal.

At Fort Bragg, (or Panama or Okinawa or someplace else) - in our talking about different 'survival' foods we'd eaten - and/or knew how to catch and prepare, if needed - we all agreed that the hungriest guy on the planet had to be the first one to decide that a lobster looked edible.

Bless him...

Vaya,

Scouts Out!

[Dutch Limbach]

...Buckskinners all seem to love all these little pouches, and a Blackpowder-related gun show is an excellent place to find that sort of thing - as is buying a copy of the Dixie Gun Works catalog, and getting out your credit card.

Actually, a leather pouch is as easy to make yourself as a cloth one is. Maybe easier since you don't have to worry about the edges fraying. If you have a leather shop near you they usually have a bin with scraps for sale. Another source for leather is second hand shops. Look for leather purses, brief cases, etc.

I've been doing leatherwork for 20+ years now. Here are a few tips:
1. Buckskin and other light leather can be sewn on a sewing machine. To hand sew you'll want to get either a "Glover's" needle, or a pair of "Harness" needles and an awl. (I personally favor what is known as the "saddle stitch" so I use the harness needles with an awl. Most of my early projects were for the pre-1840 time period so I consider using a sewing machine sacrilegious.)
2. When sewing keep your stitches as far away from the edge as double the thickness of the leather. Also the distance between stitches should be double the thickness of the leather apart.
3. You'll be sewing the pouch inside out, so if you want to take a ball point pen to mark your stitch line feel free.
4. Take your time and have fun.

[Professor Marvel]

A variety of Tins, pouches, and pasteboard boxes or small wooden boxes can be used for your gear. Wooden boxes should not be overlooked, and can be easily made by anyone.

But even better is the leather tool roll - remember the giant canvas tool roll full of long guns Lee van Cleef used?

this handy device will not only hold your turnscrews, chisels, pliers and wrenches, but can accomodate surgical tools, knives, writing tools, pocket mirrors, nearly anything!
http://www.traditionalwoodworker.com/default.php?cPath=39_175_230&gclid=CMuI9e-Ggp8CFQ4NDQod0mI29w

By making your own with different size pockets or pockets covered with flaps one can create entire "kits" such as a "toilet kit" holding your mirror, razor, brush, soap, and comb. Another for your tools, Yet another for medicinals in period bottles.

and the bottles for medicinals, oil, Hoppes cleaner,  etc can be found at many Herbal shops
http://www.mountainroseherbs.com/supply/glass_bottles.html

yhs
prof marvel

[Jed Cooper]

Professor Marvel,   Great site!  At those prices I'm gonna stock up on assorted cloth bags,& glass bottles.   Thanks, Jed

[River City John]

Professor Marvel, thanks for new sites , they are bookmarked.

www.papermart.com/Product%20Pages/Product.aspx?GroupID=18970
www.specialtybottle.com
http://www.csa-dixie.com/villagetinsmith/d.html

Here are a couple of others I have used. It is amazing what is out there.
The 7oz. swing top porcelain closure bottle under the Swingtop/Corked bottle section on the Specialty Bottle site would work great for carrying moosemilk in a leak-proof container, even better if you put it in its own little bag. I know from experience that a plain corked bottle can leak or the cork work loose. The porcelain top bailed stoppers are best. Sometimes you can find brewer's ceramic bottles with this type of closure in second hand shops that are small enough to carry that work well. The key is to pick up some spare rubber gaskets to replace the old, less pliable ones or the ones that have developed an imprint memory and do not seal reliably.
RCJ

[Professor Marvel]

You are quite welcome, Jed ..

I am rather fond of the cobalt blue bottles cuz they are so pretty....... our local apothecary's has a style of cap
that includes a "stick" dripper which makes for a fine oil bottle.

and thanks to you, Monsiuer River City John! the bittke site has all my favorites and fascinating tin boxes;
whilst the Village tin ware site has most fascinating cigar and match tins! far more appropriate to a working stiff than the more popular silver plated items.

yhs
prof marvel

[Texas Lawdog]

That strip dripper would be a great oiler.

[Trinity]

Well, doggone it!  I got so excited over RCJ's link to www.specialtybottle.com that I think I broke it.  I had a bunch of different things in my shopping cart and then *POOF* it died.  Still dead today.

Anyone else having the same problem?

[Texas Lawdog]

Trinity, I just finished placing an order with them on line. I did not have any problems.

[Trinity]

OK, TL musta fixed it. 

Order placed.  I got one of each of the round tins as well as an assortment of bottles.  I don't have any specific need right now, but I wanted to judge quality.  The tins look exactly like what I've bought from sutlers for never less than $2.50 each!  The tins were still worth it even at that price because they are so useful, but the prices on that website are just ridiculously cheap.