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The first pipe I ever bought was a long-stem clay pipe at Williamsburg, VA in 1964 when my Dad drove us from California to New York for the New York World's fair in 1964. We stopped at Williamsburg for 2-nights/1-day and stayed for 4-nights/3-days before continuing on up to New York City. I...

Latakia has a very distinctive taste to it. It is often blended into other tobaccos and once you've tried it on its own, you'll recognize it in a blend. Use to get these flat tins of tobacco when I was in college (late 60's/early 70's) and I bought one of those one day. I liked it but actually...

Yes. It's not a lot of fun at first but if you don't do it this way, you won't build up the carbon cake on the interior walls of the pipe that make it smoke cool with little or no bite. When you first start smoking the pipe fill it no more than 1/3 way fool (tamped down). Light it and smoke...

That's a nice side effect. And yes, that was a Calabash Pipe! Mine is a small one. They were generally used in the large size with a smoking jacket, an easy chair, and some type of alcoholic refreshment in-hand. They also usually have a big bowl that holds about twice as much tobacco as a...

Lead oxide on lead balls is a powder. It may perhaps be abrasive, but that powder comes off on your hands when you handle it and it doesn't feel abrasive. It's certainly not harder than lead in that powder form. Since we're shooting patched balls, I wouldn't worry about it at all because that...

The silver smith marks say definitely Birmingham 1910. The shop that sold it said he was an officer during the Boer War although I thought the Boer Wars were of an earlier date than that. Yet that does predate WWI. So, I don't know for sure. I did not get a certificate of provenance with it...

I rarely smoke a pipe anymore. I will smoke a clay pipe around a campfire at reenactments, but there aren't a lot of those in Washington State. Was more frequent during the times I lived in Vermont and Virginia (18-yrs.). Cool thing about clay pipes is that if they get "tarred up" you can...

They'll shoot just fine in your revolver, just don't put them in your mouth. That lead oxidation is poisonous and can make you sick... also, don't lick your fingers after handling them unless you wipe or wash them off.

Those original rifle barrels were hammer forge-welded from a flat skelp of wrought iron. They started by putting that skelp on convex forms, heating, hammering, and slowly bending that skelp into a "u" shape. Then they put a mandrel inside that cupped skelp so they couldn't accidentally hammer...

Permethrin on clothing and gear is superb! I have a number of Buzz-off clothing (now known as Insect-Shield) that are impregnated with it and used them extensively when I was a fly-fishing instructor and guide. They work wonderfully well. Do not spray it on you or you will have a bad...

Good to hear that. It was a tough thing to put up with. I was playing in a touring nightclub group and we played there for 2-weeks. As long as I didn't go outside, it was fine. From 2005 until 2015 I lived in the Blue Ridge Mts. just south of Roanoke, VA and I would fish the Jackson River...

Beware of the paper factories in the Tri-Cities of WA. Haven't been there in many years because I avoid it. I was in a touring nightclub group in 1971 through 1973 and we played the Red Lion Inn in Richland. Everywhere we went in a car in Pasco, Kennewick, or Richland, we had to keep the...

If you want to make period correct cartridges and just carry those instead of a powder horn, they were doing that all the time in the Rev War. Here's a shot of an actual French cartridge from the American Revolutionary War. They kept these in cartridge boxes riding on their right hip and the...

Must have been very early in the morning as it wasn't even light yet. Bacon in the morning was one of the things I enjoyed most when I was a member of the Virginia 7th Regiment at their reenactments. We had one member, Private Drummond, who always brought his spider-skillet with him (cast iron...

yeah that's the stuff in the old can. I bought some in 1969 when I bought a Pedersoli cap and ball Kentucky Pistol. For some reason, I stored some of it in a quart jar. Then in 2004 when I got my first flintlock, I couldn't find any black powder so tried Pyrodex RS, which didn't work at all -...

Cold water by itself works fine, hot water better, but watch out for flash rust. which comes back as rusty color on your wet patch. I just use cold water when I run out of my MAP solution. I don't remember whether it's warm water, or boiling water that causes flash rust...might be boiling...

The MAP mixture I've used for the past 20 years was equal parts of each. I mix 16-oz. Murphy's Oil Soap, 16-oz Isopropyl Alcohol (rubbing alcohol at least 70%, 91% even better), and 16-oz Hydrogen Peroxide). I mix it in a 48-oz. plastic container with air-tight seal for storage at home. I buy...

That's real true, I broke a wooden one myself. Luckily didn't go through my hand and I learned to take short strokes with the ramrod (9" to 12" at a time) to seat the ball instead of trying to seat it with one or two stokes. Be aware, that during the Revolutionary war the ramrods for rifles...

That part of the movie was inspired by two battles. First was the Battle of Cowpens (January 1781) where General Daniel Morgan had taken 600-men of General Greene's Continental army and 400 militia and headed northwest in North Carolina. British General Cornwallis split off a contingent of...

Once you get it clean you can use hydraulic pressure to keep it clean. My first longrifle was a Traditions Pennsylvania Longrifle and it uses a patent breech. I still use that same method with my Early Lancaster Rifle from a private builder (was "tg" from the forum) although it has a standard...