What do you use for a canteen?

[fiddler]

I went to an army/navy and bought some sort of eastern european kidney shaped canteen. They are made of aluminum and have a cork stopper. Then I soaked some rawhide in water, stretched it and sewed it around the canteen. When it dried, it shrunk up tight to the canteen. Then I rubbed the whole thing down with a 50/50 mixture of neetsfoot oil and beeswax. Then i wove a strap out of jute. It came out looking pretty good if I do say so myself.

 

[Black Hand]

Copper has long been known to kill bacteria. Its one of the major reasons that boats have copper sheeting covering their bottoms- to kill off algae, and shell fish that would otherwise attach and grown there, harming the outer layers of the boat, and creating drag. It turns out that Medical science has just found out about this and there is serious consideration being given to recommend that the doorknobs on hospital rooms be changed from steel or brass, to copper- at least copper plated finishes. This would be an attempt to reduce the communication of staph infections, which occur more than 99% of the time, ONLY in hospitals, and is the result of unsanitary practices by the lowly paid, and poorly trained and supervised cleaning staff.

To start with, algae and shellfish ARE NOT bacteria. Bacteria can and do resist treatments that will kill most other organisms....

Agreed that copper, brass, silver and gold all have antibacterial properties, but with respect to water, unless you have a large amount of the dissolved metal salts in the water, it has little effect. High amounts of dissolved metal salts can be toxic to many creatures. While changing doorknobs may serve to reduce the transmission of staph infections a bit, it still does little to reduce the transmission from person to person which is the major route of transmission (primarily from the nursing staff and doctors (and visiting relatives) who are carriers and less to do with the cleaning staff).

 

[Muskeg Stomper]

Fiddler, post a photo if you can of the canteen that you covered. Looking for ideas.

 

[Stophel]

Copper will kill bacteria, but I wouldn't exactly say that it will kill "on contact"....

This is why when they find leather objects buried for centuries, the leather is usually in fairly good shape near brass buckles, rivets and studs, and the leather further away from the metal is in worse shape.

 

[mikee51848]

The added plus of a copper canteen is that the copper kills bacteria on contact.

Ok but do NOT put gatorade, or similar products in a copper canteen. :nono:

 

[brubincam]

-----WHY ?? I want to know-----

 

[crockett]

Quiet Thunder: I'm not sure about "mountain man" canteens. There is some documentation that you were supposed to be tough enough to make it to the next water hole without any canteen. There is talk about drinking up prior to crossing a desert. There is documentation of filling the bladder of a buffalo or stomach of a beaver, etc with water for the trip across the desert.
One of the few documented references is Jedediah Smith on his return trip "filling his horn". One book on this quote just has that quote and nothing else and that led to speculation on what filling the horn meant but another book went into more detail, they were given long horns in California and filled them. Diah speaks of his men not being able to last as long as he without taking a drink, etc. In any event all the horn reference does is establish something from California- not much help for a mountain man in the mountains.

So we must consider canteens. I hope someone else on this thread has a good reference to a 1820- 1830's model canteen. I have no idea what is or isn't pc. Most folks just pick something that "looks old".

I don't know how much canteen models changed over time. What was used in the AWI? War of 1812? Etc. What Tin models and wood models are correct for what times- a subject that doesn't get much discussion.

Now even if canteens aren't that common for a MM, it would be pretty hard to not have one so some sort of water carrier is needed. The glass bottle covered in leather- all those materials would be correct but would such a thing ever have been carried? I think Ft. Atkinson and Leavenworth were both military posts. It would be far more likely an outgoing MM bought/stole/borrowed a military canteen from one of these places so if any information is available on 1820's military canteens- that would be great.
After that- a "Rum" horn or 1 gallon Keg would be PC except use it for water instead of alcohol.
Yet another option is a "bladder"- you know the wine carrier that skiers carry- I think they are of basque original- if some sort of carrier like that but in the shape of a bladder or stomach could be made- that might be pretty neat. Maybe the end could be secured to a short piece of bone with a cork stopper.
You have touched on a good MM canteen issue- I hope others have some information as I too would welcome it.

 

[Stophel]

Acids work with the copper to form a poison. I BELIEVE that it is copper acetate, I'd have to look it up again. I think it's a fairly mild poison, but it will make you sick.

Water in copper: Perfectly fine.
Tomato juice in copper: not so fine.

This is why copper cooking utensils are tin lined, so that the acid will not contact the copper.

 

[flm_shooter]

"Canteens...I've made a feewwwww..."

With apologies to Mr. Sinatra.

This was my first attempt. I found an old canteen in a New York surplus shop. By the markings, is was some sort of USMC arctic canteen, it had an expansion chamber thingy on the neck. I knocked that off and put a leather wrap around it.

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I think this also qualifies as my first-ever leather working.

It is a great canteen but I worried about the authenticity. So I 'made' an empty bottle of Knob Creek whiskey and sewed up a leather cover for it.

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I really liked this one. But, living in SoCal, I wanted one wrapped in wool for cooling, and maybe a bit of extra protection from thicker leather. So I 'made' an empty bottle of Buffalo Trace and sewed up Big Daddy here:

.

This truly is a good canteen, but I find it too big for most treks. I tend to carry canteen #2 around most times. It has not been too loud, and has not yet broken.

Here is the family:

And for the record, "Making" the empty whiskey bottle is by far the best part of the project!

 

[fiddler]

Here's a pic of the canteen I made from a military surplus canteen that I covered with wet rawhide and then after it shrunk I coated with beeswax/neatsfoot oil.

 

[Quartermaster James]

A leather costrel.

Something like this or this .

 

[mikee51848]

Acids work with the copper to form a poison. I BELIEVE that it is copper acetate, I'd have to look it up again. I think it's a fairly mild poison, but it will make you sick.

Water in copper: Perfectly fine.
Tomato juice in copper: not so fine.

This is why copper cooking utensils are tin lined, so that the acid will not contact the copper.

Yes! One of the members of my rev war unit made that mistake and ended up in the hospital.

By the way, Newman's book on Battle Weapons of the American Revolution shows a couple dozen different canteens. Gourds, glass, wood, tin, etc.