Canvas Bag made by David Robinson

This squirrel hunting rig was made by David Robinson for his .32 caliber rifle. It is a double bag of Mr. Robinson’s design and made from heavy cotton canvas with three coatings of beeswax, trimmed with deer skin and sewn with waxed linen thread. The pouch is lined with a vintage cotton cloth. The strap is buff leather and has a forged buckle and a buff leather patch knife sheath attached. The pouch measures 10 inches in width by 11 inches tall. The horn was made by Mark E. Elliott, who is a well known Virginia gunstocker and horner. The horn is 2 1/2 inches in diameter at the butt and 10 3/4 inches around the outside curve.

I really like pouches in canvas. I am sure this one will last a lifetime.

Thanks for reading,
Rick Sheets

The Hartley Horn Drawings: A Collection of Powder Horn Drawings by Robert M. Hartley. A book review.

The Hartley Horn Drawings: A Collection of Powder Horn Drawings by Robert M. Hartley
79 Pages
11″ X 8-1/2″
Softcover
Full-color illustrations and photographs
Presented by The Honourable Company of Horners
Published by the Scurlock Publishing Company

This review of The Hartley Horn Drawings (more commonly called The Hartley Book) is by me, a novice horn maker and the webmaster of The Honourable Company of Horners website. I know more about web design than horns, but I am doing my darndest to close that gap! And this book helps immensely.

What do illuminated script, calligraphy, folk art and history have in common? They all come together in a practical object used by our ancestors in the form of an engraved powder horn! Robert Hartley was inspired by these unique objects used by our ancestors.

Robert Hartley was a prolific collector of Americana and antiques and an amateur historian. He saw a need in the mid-1930s to document French and Indian War powder horns. His technique was to copy the complete three dimensional horns as flat drawings. (Imagine peeling-off a product label from a can and displaying it flat. That is not a great description, but I hope you get the idea.) In the process of copying the horns, Mr. Hartley created his own art that we get to enjoy today.

In the mid-1940′s, as least forty of these powder horn drawings were given to the Margaret Reaney Memorial Library in the Village of St. Johnsville, New York. There they were conserved, but they had not been published.

John Proud, a Master Horner, became interested in the drawings and thought they deserved to be seen by everyone in the form of a book. The result is a 79 page book with color illustration and photographs of the actual horns in a few instances. The book is pre-pended with a history of The Honourable Company of Horners and an informative article on how to render your own powder horn drawing.

This publication has become one of my new favorites. I highly recommend this for your library or as a gift for the lover of history.

Thanks for reading,
Rick Sheets
By the way, please see the review written by my friend, Rich Pierce, as it appears on the HCH Blog. Click here to see it.
To purchase the book, go to Scurlock Publishing. Click here to go to the publisher’s site.

The Hartley Horn Drawings. F&I horns are drawn "flat."

James City County Militia encampment at the Yorktown Victory Celebration 2010

The Yorktown Victory Center delivers on its promise to inform the visitor of the collective American and French defeat of the British under the command of George Washington on October 19, 1781.

I had the pleasure of visiting during the Yorktown Victory Celebration on October 16^th. The museum invited Revolutionary War re-enactors to display camp life, cooking, fife & drum music and militia drill. I was awed by the spot-on impressions and the exact nature of the participants.

I spent a bit of time with the James City County Militia. These folks are actually a Roger’s Rangers Battalion that also provides a Revolutionary War impression when they need to.  If their Roger’s Rangers portrayal is as good as their Revolutionary War impression, I want to experience it!

Dennis Loba Militia Private

Dennis Loba portrays a private in the James City County Militia. Dennis described the use of a flintlock fowler by this member of the Militia. Note the forestock is cut-back to accept a bayonet. Dennis’ powder horn was made by Lee Larkin, who is a master horner with The Honourable Company of Horners (www.hornguild.org).

Bruce Roberts Camp Artisan

Bruce Roberts is the camp artisan. If his company needs a horn scrimmed, a sheath stitched, a flintlock made or anything bodged at all Bruce is their man. Bruce’s alter ego is Gideon Lott.

Gideon Lott His Horn 1756

Now this is a neat powder measure arrangement. The measure is on a thong threaded through a hole in the stopper. You cannot lose your stopper!

William Blair lights his pipe.

William Blair’s persona is that of a common soldier, today he is a camp cook. Note his patched over-shirt protecting his clothing.

There are about thirty members of the Jaeger’s Battalion in Virginia, see their website at www.rogersrangers.com.

The website for the Yorktown Victory Center is www.historyisfun.org.

Old Salem, NC a haven for old-time gunsmithing and Moravian History

My girlfriend, Pam, and I went to Old Salem for a fun day In September. It was a beautiful day with low humidity for the Piedmont, which is always welcome. We hit the MESDA (Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts) and various artisan and craftsman venues offered there.

Drew Neill is the shoemaker. Drew was kind enough to tell me about the brogan or work shoe of the 1840’s period. Here is Drew explaining how the “last” would be built up with leather to be the same shape as the customer’s foot so the finished shoe would be a custom fit.

As a fan of such things as antiques, Moravian and North Carolina history, flintlock rifles, leather working and wood turning where else would I want to be on a beautiful North Carolina day? (And I want to thank Pam for never rushing me though museums or living history events.)

Here is just a little bit about the history of Old Salem. It was founded as Salem in 1766 by the Moravians, who were ex-Europeans who came down the Great Wagon Road from Pennsylvania, to establish a religious community. While Old Salem is not an operational religious community today, it retains its Moravian flavor through the painstaking restoration of the original buildings, the staff in period clothing and their sharing of the town’s history.

Our Old-Salem day began at the MESDA. Our guide through the museum was Jenny Garwood. Jenny was conversant on anything I asked about. The museum has many period interiors from simple to quite fancy antique southern homes. You begin the tour in a simple room with simple furnishings and wind your way through doors leading from one reassembled interior to another. The rooms are filled with antiques and art that are appropriate to each room’s period of history. The tour ends with seeing the MESDA’s collection of longrifles and shooting accouterments. You will see super rifles from makers such as Kennedy and Vogler.

No pictures are allowed in the museum so you won’t see any here.

Here is the exterior of the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts. (Copyright pamlappegardphotography.com)

Bill Bailey is a real-deal gunsmith working in the Vogler Gunshop across from the MESDA. Bill’s historical impression is of an 1840’s gunmaker. He nails it! (Copyright pamlappegardphotography.com)

Bill Bailey tells the history of the Vogler Gunshop. (Copyright pamlappegardphotography.com)

Here is Bill's personal powder horn and bag. (Copyright pamlappegardphotography.com)

Blake Stevenson is the guy in charge of the Vogler Gunshop. Blake is a hands-on interpreter as well as the department head. Here is Blake with his copy of a Vogler rifle (with the iconic eagle patchbox). It is a shooter and has not been babied. It could pass for an original.

Here is Blake’s Personal horn with his own engraving. He says that his scratching is better these days, but I really like the folksy quality of this engraving.

I am lucky that Old Salem is just an hour and a half from me so I can go back soon. There are other artisan shops that I have not written about, but I will when I go back next year.

Here is the link to Old Salem. www.oldsalem.org

Thanks for reading,
Rick Sheets

John Shorb’s Personal Pouch and Horn

“In 2001, I was getting read to go on a buffalo hunt and I decided I needed a good hunting bag that would compliment my English Sporting Rifle.  So, one afternoon, I sat down and started thinking about what features I wanted it to have.  I didn’t want it to be too big, but I didn’t want it to not be able to carry what I wanted, either.  It had to have a tie down flap and a belt loop as well so it wouldn’t be flopping around on my side.  I wanted it to carry a few speed loaders and some basic stuff, as well.  And it had to have a pocket on the strap that would carry a powder measure and a capper and a loop to carry a short starter as well.

So, I designed it with an accordion fold in the gusset so it could expand or contract according to the amount of stuff I was carrying.  It is built with a generous belt loop on the back and the strap is easily removable so it can even be carried as a belt bag.  The double pocket on the strap carries a Treso 40-200 grain adjustable measure and a Tedd Cash Musket Capper.  Inside the pouch are three loops to carry speed loaders in the main area and a back pocket to keep cleaning patches and a little tin of grease in.  A loop is sewn on the face of the bag to carry a musket size nipple wrench.  It is covered by the flap, which is secured with a lace that ties around a pewter button.  While hunting, I carry the speed loaders, an 800 grain round brass flask, a 2 OZ bottle of cleaning solvent, 3 extra round ball, 3 extra patches and 3 extra cushion wads so I can reload the speed loaders if needed.  I also carry a Leatherman’s tool and a Hawken Shop Flinter’s tool as well as a ball puller in the caliber I am shooting and a brass “T” handle for the ramrod.

In carrying on with the English motif, I discovered that Track of the Wolf sells an English style powder valve, similar to the old Dixon type.  I got one of those and affixed it to a horn.  I turned a maple base plug for it and installed a brass finial.  I feel the horn style is ideal for use with an English Sporting Rifle or a shotgun.”

Jeff Bibb Pouch and Horn together at last.

Rick Sheets with Jeff Bibb pouch and horn.

Hello Reader!,
This is Rick Sheets and I want to thank you for visiting or coming back to this blog. I am kicking off a new category called, “Show Us Your Rig!”

I will start it by showing off my Jeff Bibb Southern Pouch and Horn. Jeff made the pouch for me last year and the horn has followed a few weeks ago. They compliment each other perfectly and will never be separated.

The pouch started out as an English saddle that I skinned and sent the pieces to Jeff. He did a fantastic job of making a fringed Southern bag out of the parts. Jeff describes the horn as a single banded Carolina horn. The horn features a screw-off tip made of redbud wood and a pine stopper. Jeff can be reached through his website at: www.jeffbibbpouchesandhorns.com.

SHOW US YOUR RIG!
Please share pictures and a brief story about your kit. Just email the images and particulars of  the origin of your pouch and horn. If they are contemporary pieces, we need to give proper credit with contact information if the artisan is taking orders. Email: rick@blackpowder411.com.

Thanks for reading!, Rick Sheets