I will admit the photo is terrible. The ball starter was carved from what was definitely an old deer antler. It is very smooth and worn from age. The wooden holder for the .32 cal. balls is darked from oxidation and exposure to the air. The screwdriver is definitly hand wrought from iron and has a gray patina typical of careful storage, but no rust. The bag itself is not as old as the items contained therein. The bag was probably some type of storage bag pressed into service. It was stitched together with cotton thread (loose thread burned but did not melt). I showed it to a fellow officer from my precinct who is a French and Indian/Revolutionary War buff and re-enactor. He agrees with my assessment of the items and also pointed out to me that the balls were made from a hand held mold, judging by the remnants from the sprues from the mold. The seller is a gentleman that I have become familiar with over the past two years. He has sold me three original Russel Green River Knives, two scalping knives that he acquired from Indian Reservations, a string of Indian glass trade beads, and a very old hand hammered patch knife. Upon receipt of the scalping knives in particular, I sat down with a Curator with the Garvies Point Museum, which houses an impressive collection of Native American artifacts. He concluded that the knives were fron the mid to later third of the nineteenth century and, get this, one was made from the blade of a U.S. Military cutlass that was cut down. I am not writing about this in order to brag. But the seller is a gentleman from western Kentucky who walks along rural towns going door to door buying antiques from "old timers". He told me that the bag was purchased from a 90 year old man who, only recently, decided he did not need it anymore because he was too old to hunt. Well old and authentic or not, I am happy with it which is really all that matters. I wish there were an easier way to authenticate such pieces as these.
