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Thanks for the reminder about bamboo backing on bows. I had forgotten entirely about it. One further bit of info on bamboo is that the outer layer, the enamel, is usually planed or sanded off of the final product. It protects the bamboo while it's growing but adds nothing to its resiliency or...

Bamboo and "river can" have the same basic make up or three layers. The inside soft stuff is called pith and it does nothing for the fishing rod or the dart except add weight. The next layer is composed of power fibers which appear as brown dots. These fibers run the entire length of each...

If you use them for Atlatl darts, you can straighten them pretty easily with heat. I used an alcohol lamp with "denatured" alcohol (because it flames at lower temperature than any other alcohol) to straighten bamboo. After a lot of practice with bamboo strips, I treated the the sets (permanent...

When I joined MLF back in about 2004(?) I came across a long discussion on this and one of the moderators shared his concoctions called "Stumpy's Moose Snot" and "Stumpy's Moose Milk". He used the Moose Milk for patching pre-treated material he kept in a strip for patching and Moose snot for...

Well, from one Washingtonian to another, a flintlock should definitely be in your future. There's just nothing like it and if you don't already appreciate it, there's just nothing like the smell of burnt black powder in the morning...or afternoon...or evening... It is a bit of an acquired...

When I lived in Vermont, you'd always see deer with hide on hanging out by the house. Snow was on the ground and that 3-day hang with hide on was commonly used.

That's actually a pretty ideal situation for the distance you were shooting. Your lead ball expended ALL of its energy inside your quarry. And it killed him pretty efficiently didn't it. If your round ball goes through and through, then it didn't dump most of its energy inside the quarry and...

Prior to the Revolutionary War, iron and wrought iron were tightly controlled with most manufacturing of items in iron were prohibited by law. Britain wanted the iron to be shipped to them, they would make items like gun locks out of it, and then ship it back to sell in the colonies. It's not...

They are both "percussion caps" Typical sizes are 10 and 11 for most percussion arms. Musket caps are bigger and hold more powder so they burn hotter. It's easy to see the difference because the musket caps have 4 strips flaring out from cap itself, looking almost like a top hat. It was an...

As does a simple soap such as Ivory Soap (99.44% Pure). The detergent based soaps don't work, but plain old Ivory Soap does. A lot of different things can be used to finish the tanning before smoking it for waterproof suppleness. Just has to have emulsified oils needed for tanning, which is...

absolutely totally WRONG! It was primarily done for balance and ease of handling. I have two flintlock longrifles. One is the Traditions Pennsylvania Longrifle that I got back in the early 2000's, which has a 40¼" long straight barrel. There is no question that it is nose heavy and hard to...

Smoothbore could be much larger, but that would NOT be a longrifle as smoothbores are not rifles. Capt. John Warner of the Vermont Green Mountain Rangers (formed in 1777 disbanded in 1778) was reputed to have a 7-foot long, longrifle. That's extreme. There's a story about him hunting a...

So does that mean that the reenactments at Fort Ticonderoga can no longer be held? Folks from all over the east coast and Canada participate in that. And what does it mean for transporting the 10 or more cannons that often show up there for an event? Or is this just a law for New York City?

Slice a tomato with it and rub the face of the cut tomato all over the blade. Let it sit out overnight and you will see the blade has already darkened. I have an Old Hickory paring knife that I like to use because, being carbon steel, I can get it really sharp. Being carbon steel, I have to...

I had that happen often enough with my Traditions Pennsylvania Longrifle that I finally pinned it in place. Otherwise you have to remove the barrel from the stock to put that lock screw through the little loop at the end of that bent spring. Here's a shot of where it is. I just drilled a hole...

Absolutely if you catch them early enough, train them to shoot with the same hand as their dominant eye. I am left-eye dominant and right-handed. I didn't even realize it at first, and once I did I was already an adult. And I started shooting at about 5-yrs. old. I just can't change to shoot...

I would have thought that 50grs. was not enough. My first longrifle was (still have it) a traditions Pennsylvania Longrifle. It is actually most accurate with a 95gr. load, which is a heavy load. On the other hand, my Early Lancaster rifle by a private builder is most accurate with an 80gr...

I typically just swab at the end of the day when I'm cleaning my rifle after a day of shooting. The trick for me is using Stumpy's Moose Snot for my patch lube. When you finish making it, it's about the consistency of a can of Kiwi shoe polish. I keep mine in a rectangular tin box with a...

Lead wrap on the flint is what was used on ALL the British muskets. Over the years there have been some rather long and intense discussion about whether leather or lead are better for use as securing flint in the jaws of the cock. Search on "lead flint wrap" and you will get at least 10-pages...

Not a factory liner. If you want to see the factory original vent liner go back to my earlier pictures that show the factory liner on my Traditions Pennsylvania Longrifle. it is nowhere near as large as the one on the OP's liner. When most of that liner was obscured by the pan it appeared to...