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Haversack Material
- Thread starter musketman
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freetrapper20
40 Cal.
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Had some of each kind. Canvas seemed to be the one I grabbed most. Still use it mostly at rondy's, etc. Use it to carry just 'bout anything, No fuss no muss, strong, durable......Got rid of the hide bags. Still have a small linen one that I carry stuff to work in, and a leather one I use when I'm tramping round my property to put the things I find in.
CrackStock
69 Cal.
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Most of the Rev War haversacks that I see are of linen. Our group has documentation that this was the most common material actually used. I have one and like it quite well. Might not be as rigid as canvas, but works well.
CS
CS
Guest
Do you want paper or plastic??
Are you using it to look pretty (fat chance MM), impress the walnut brigade, or carry rations.
They were origionally intended for toting rations, not ones tooth brush, comb, mirror and makeup case.
Haversacks were food sacks, not fasion accessories.
This indicates grease, oil, occasional bloodstains, crumbs of hardtack, spilled cornmeal/flour/parched corn all settled into the bottom of the bag and rained on several times during a campaign.
Haversacks were consumable items. You used them until they were too rank to stand or sprouted maggots and you threw the tattered, stinking remains into the fire.
They were something your wife/daughter/mother made for you to tote food in, from the cheapest remains of fabric they could find. They stiched your initials on it so no one would steal your food and sent you out the door, never expecting to see the sack again, or expecting it to be in tatters if they did.
Hemp was the cheapest fabric around "back in the day", followed by linen. They are the most expensive today, so replace them with the cheapest thing you can find.
We put way too much emphisis on the pretty, long lasting, hard wearing, exact size, PC issue when they treated these things like we do plastic grocery bags.
Can you imagine the reenactors two hundred years from now arguing over the more superior historic merit of a plastic Target bag over a paper Kroger bag, then trying to mount two nylon shoulder straps on it and make it last five or ten years?
:crackup: :crackup:
Are you using it to look pretty (fat chance MM), impress the walnut brigade, or carry rations.
They were origionally intended for toting rations, not ones tooth brush, comb, mirror and makeup case.
Haversacks were food sacks, not fasion accessories.
This indicates grease, oil, occasional bloodstains, crumbs of hardtack, spilled cornmeal/flour/parched corn all settled into the bottom of the bag and rained on several times during a campaign.
Haversacks were consumable items. You used them until they were too rank to stand or sprouted maggots and you threw the tattered, stinking remains into the fire.
They were something your wife/daughter/mother made for you to tote food in, from the cheapest remains of fabric they could find. They stiched your initials on it so no one would steal your food and sent you out the door, never expecting to see the sack again, or expecting it to be in tatters if they did.
Hemp was the cheapest fabric around "back in the day", followed by linen. They are the most expensive today, so replace them with the cheapest thing you can find.
We put way too much emphisis on the pretty, long lasting, hard wearing, exact size, PC issue when they treated these things like we do plastic grocery bags.
Can you imagine the reenactors two hundred years from now arguing over the more superior historic merit of a plastic Target bag over a paper Kroger bag, then trying to mount two nylon shoulder straps on it and make it last five or ten years?
:crackup: :crackup:
I don't understand what you are saying. They used hemp and linen because it was cheap......but you are suggesting using the cheapest we can find, which would most likely be cotton......which happens to be one of their most expensive, to make authentic haversacks. :huh:
This one's a little more than a food bag. It's jute with a canvas liner and a buckskin flap cover. I like a small hunting pouch and a generous haversack.
Same natural/blue herringbone jute is in my bag and pouch strap.
Guest
I don't understand what you are saying. They used hemp and linen because it was cheap......but you are suggesting using the cheapest we can find, which would most likely be cotton......which happens to be one of their most expensive, to make authentic haversacks. :huh: [/quote]
I'm saying that we spend way too much time and money on an item that was considered disposible in those days. They made haversacks out of unidentifyable scraps.
Linen was cheap, cotton was high, hemp was common, silk wasn't, but the scraps from all of it wound up as haversacks. Even today I do not go out and buy fabric if I want to make a cloth sack, It gets made from whatever the wife is about to throw out.
Use any tough scrap fabric you have available, canvas, jute, burlap. It really dosen't matter. It is one of the minute details we get our shorts in a wad over that the folk of that day would laugh themselves to death if they could hear us!
That fancy bag of Stumpkiller's is bueatiful! Can you imagine dumping a chunk of salt pork, a big square of cormbread and a fresh deer liver in there and carrying it for half a day. Of course not, it's way to prettty to mess up carrying food!
We have turned the haversack into a pack when it was ment to be a food sack. This is a Bakerism of the first degree, unknown in the 18th century. They had packs and they had haversacks as seperate items.
:front:
I'm saying that we spend way too much time and money on an item that was considered disposible in those days. They made haversacks out of unidentifyable scraps.
Linen was cheap, cotton was high, hemp was common, silk wasn't, but the scraps from all of it wound up as haversacks. Even today I do not go out and buy fabric if I want to make a cloth sack, It gets made from whatever the wife is about to throw out.
Use any tough scrap fabric you have available, canvas, jute, burlap. It really dosen't matter. It is one of the minute details we get our shorts in a wad over that the folk of that day would laugh themselves to death if they could hear us!
That fancy bag of Stumpkiller's is bueatiful! Can you imagine dumping a chunk of salt pork, a big square of cormbread and a fresh deer liver in there and carrying it for half a day. Of course not, it's way to prettty to mess up carrying food!
We have turned the haversack into a pack when it was ment to be a food sack. This is a Bakerism of the first degree, unknown in the 18th century. They had packs and they had haversacks as seperate items.
:front:
Why, that's why you carry a square of oil-cloth and a couple pokes. The food goes inside them, then in the bag.
Though, :redface: I must admit, the deer heart and liver usually go in a plastic hospital organ bag I got a supply of from Screaming Eagle (Paul Brunner - the 8th dwarf) back years ago. I've only got two left.
Salt pork? What flatlander carries salt pork? The jerked venison goes in a muslin rice bag, next to the rice in a muslin rice bag. Toss stuff like cornbread in loose and you got nuttin but a trail of cornbread crumbs on your backtrail after two miles.
Squirrels, bunnies and grouse get hung on the outside as they drip and are generally carrying passengers.
Guest
Period Haversacks are made from Linen, Canvas, Hemp...sometimes they can be lined with various materials, I also have seen hunting haversack pouches with leather flaps and the boday made of Linen or canvas..............
Guest
Hemp is good, Betsy Ross just happened to make our flag out of it also. Here's one place where Hemp material can be purchased. http://www.hempsupply.com/fabric/
My self, I would use linen thread, www.jas-townsend.com to sew it up with. With Hemp fabrics being a little pricy today, I would also go the extra and hand sew. Don't cheat, you'll have a few bucks in it and won't be as proud as you should.
My self, I would use linen thread, www.jas-townsend.com to sew it up with. With Hemp fabrics being a little pricy today, I would also go the extra and hand sew. Don't cheat, you'll have a few bucks in it and won't be as proud as you should.
