1880 canteen

[Tjackstephens]

Don101, Thanks for posting. Several items caught my eye. TJ

[Trinity]

Guten Tag, Don!

That VRC site link you provided sure looks good ... and with VERY reasonable prices.  Makes a person wish they made more items.

Spaeter ... (Sorry - I don't have an umlaut [sp?]  on my computer. 

Doesn't everybody?  -ä-

[Tjackstephens]

Boys, I went back on the Crazy Crow web site. I liked that gourd canteen so well, I ordered it. May get the gourd jug for camp later. Thanks for posting that web site, lots of really good items. TJ 

[Rowdy Fulcher]

Texas Jack
That canteen looks great , I think we looked at those in Texas . They had them at Trail  Head I guess we should of picked it up then .  I went to all the sites and looked at all the canteens . I still haven't found exactly what I'm looking for .

[Tjackstephens]

My gourd canteen from Crazy Crow's came today. I really like it. Still thinking about the gourd water jug. If they install some showers at West Side for the National Shoot 09, Rowdy and I would camp out. The gourd jug would be nice to have at camp. West Side is having a shoot this Saturday, think I will try my new canteen out. TJ   

[Rowdy Fulcher]

Howdy Pards
Got a E mail from Ron Hamilton of Hamilton Dry Goods and they are opening a tin shop and will be making canteens ( Cowboy ) will keep you posted .

[French Jack]

Check out the offerings on this site:  http:// www.blockaderunner.com  -- they have a pretty good selection.

[Books OToole]

I find it interesting that there are no canteens listed in the 1897 Sears Catalog.

Books

[Dutch Limbach]

Nor will you find a canteen (of the water carrying variety) on the Sears website today.

http://www.sears.com/shc/s/search_10153_12605?keyword=canteen

[O.T. Buchannan]

Wow...hadn't realized that.  I'll go home and look in mine this evening....wonder if they have any in the Montgomery Ward?  I will look there as well....

[Books OToole]

O.T.   I did a quick scan of my 1994-95 Wards catalog and I didn't see any there either. 

But it was not a throrough search.  Let's know if you find any.

Books

[Will Ketchum]

I find it interesting that there are no canteens listed in the 1897 Sears Catalog.

Books

Mike, when I read that I had to check for myself and you are right.  Neither are there any in the 1895 Montgomery Wards or the 1886 Bloomingdale's.  The only mention of a canteen in the Wards catalog was for a "pocket canteen" which appears to be something for stoves.  No picture just a line about holding alcohol.  Now we know that there were tin canteens in the Civil War and wooden ones in the Colonial times.   Makes me wonder why none in the catalogs?

Will Ketchum

[Dr. Bob]

While antique shopping in PA a week ago, I saw an nice ceramic "stone ware" canteen labeled 19th Century for only $289.    Needless to say, I didn't bring it home with me!

I guess that canteen's were a military thing in this period.  You might find a nice 1/2 gallon stone ware jug to put water in.  BUT, I don't find them in the 95 Ward's catalog either.

[Dutch Limbach]

Just wonderin', I don't have any of those catalogs, but do they offer any other items for what today might be called the "outdoorsman" like tents, bedrolls, etc?

Also, could it be that local tinsmiths were still common enough that it wouldn't really have been profitable enough for the mail order outfits to carry canteens? Or that the demand for them in most of the country was so small (as St. George pointed out on page one of this post) that they weren't offered?

[Books OToole]

Dutch;    They have listings for just about everyting else:  tents, sleeping bags, complete camp cook sets, folding stools, chairs  & cots, etc.  No canteens.

I am assuming that canteens were pretty much a military item until we learned about micro-organisms.

Books

[Dutch Limbach]

I am assuming that canteens were pretty much a military item until we learned about micro-organisms.

Books

It sure sounds like it.

[Ima Sure Shot]

I remember something from a college microbiology class.  A common water bucket with a dipper that everyone drank from  was used. The dipper was often hung by the well/spring.  Any travelers were welcome to stop and draw a bucket of water and drink using the dipper. My great-grandmother's well was just such a place.  Travelers very seldom carried water with them. Most just stopped and drank from creeks and streams.  A bucket of water was carried into the kitcken and kept there all day uncovered with the dipper in it for any and all to use.  I think most chuck wagons used a water barrel the same way. The dipper could be store bought/ordered or could be home made.  Same for the bucket. The paper cup was invented and mandated by law for use on trains so that the common practice of everyone drinking from the same dipper could be avoided. Each person could dip their water from the bucket into their cup and drink.  This was done because TB was so rampet. Even as late as the 1950s here in Eastern Kentucky a bucket and dipper was  found in most homes and one and two room schools.Yep everyone drank from the same dipper and put it back into the bucket,  No washing!!  To "be clean" you threw out the water left in the dipper before you put it back into the bucket.  J.D. and I were just talking this week with someone about being one of the "Big Boys " and having the chore of carrying the water bucket and coal in every day and considering it a privilege....Ima

[Rowdy Fulcher]

Books
What did the Texas rangers use ? did they issue canteens or was that up to the individual Ranger ??
A man might need a drank of water while crossing Texas on horse back .

[Tjackstephens]

Ima Sure Shot, I can remember as a young boy while out hunting, I and everyone else knew where the good springs of water were. There was some kind of cup there. Most of the time the water ran from the spring in a pipe. It ran all the time, you got the cup full and drank. As a child our church had a bucket of fresh water and that dipper. I would think this was common practice here and out west also. When we traveled there were springs along the road and at people's houses, you stopped and got a drink, didn't have to ask. However most did ask. Times have changed, some for the good, some not. TJ

[Rowdy Fulcher]

Howdy
Does anyone have a wooden canteen from Blockade Runners . That is the one that I like . I wonder if Santa would bring a Cowboy one for Christmas . If any of you have this canteen does it do a good job ?? does it flavor the water .