What's everyone working on?

[A Mayer]

[Iodo]

Those arrows are amazing

[A Mayer]

Those arrows are amazing

Thanks Iodo,
They're not fancy but they fly true.

[Iodo]

Thanks Iodo,
They're not fancy but they fly true.

You are most welcome

[ChoseyChas]

Made a nicer belt pouch recently (~a month ago maybe) with it's own toggle from the scrap of the project, really happy with how it ended up.

[Iodo]

Very nice work

[Elleth]

I've gotten hardly anything done at all this year - there have been far too many commitments for much fun.

I did manage to wrap up that Mark Baker inspired "knapsack from a converted haversack body" though, and got out into the forest with that and some other old-timey toys:

merf-18thc-baker-knapsack-01.jpg (155.64 KiB) Viewed 48044 times

merf-18thc-baker-knapsack-02.jpg (146.38 KiB) Viewed 48044 times

I think it's very Hobbity in its own way.

Most of my forest time this year has been rangering of a more practical sort - tracking down all the reservoirs of Oriental Bittersweet in our woods and hacking it up before it can kill the trees. The stuff is nasty! It grows super-fast, snakes up tree trunks, then crowds out the canopy while slowly strangling the trunk. It's a terrible terrible vine that will turn pleasant forest into a Mirkwood in no time, horrific!!

There was time for a more pleasant task - scattering wildflower seeds! It's been very nice to see blue cornflower in our fields this summer - the lore-minded might recognize it from a certain sigil.

merf-cornflower.jpg (85.19 KiB) Viewed 48044 times

[Wilhelm]

I've gotten hardly anything done at all this year - there have been far too many commitments for much fun.

I did manage to wrap up that Mark Baker inspired "knapsack from a converted haversack body" though, and got out into the forest with that and some other old-timey toys:

merf-18thc-baker-knapsack-01.jpg
merf-18thc-baker-knapsack-02.jpg

I think it's very Hobbity in its own way.

Most of my forest time this year has been rangering of a more practical sort - tracking down all the reservoirs of Oriental Bittersweet in our woods and hacking it up before it can kill the trees. The stuff is nasty! It grows super-fast, snakes up tree trunks, then crowds out the canopy while slowly strangling the trunk. It's a terrible terrible vine that will turn pleasant forest into a Mirkwood in no time, horrific!!

There was time for a more pleasant task - scattering wildflower seeds! It's been very nice to see blue cornflower in our fields this summer - the lore-minded might recognize it from a certain sigil.

merf-cornflower.jpg

That's a nice bag. My I ask what your canteen is made from?

[ForgeCorvus]

Wilhelm, it looks like an ACW tin canteen... I hadn't noticed it prior to your asking though, so its not screamingly obvious as non-Middle Earth.

Elleth, I think its the ticking that gives it a Hobbity vibe. I could imagine Samwise or the Gaffer wearing a ticking workshirt while puttering around a garden. Is the canvas waxed?

[Wilhelm]

Wilhelm, it looks like an ACW tin canteen... I hadn't noticed it prior to your asking though, so its not screamingly obvious as non-Middle Earth.

Elleth, I think its the ticking that gives it a Hobbity vibe. I could imagine Samwise or the Gaffer wearing a ticking workshirt while puttering around a garden. Is the canvas waxed?

Thats what I assumed. Great way to disguise it.

[Elleth]

ForgeCorvus, good eye! You're right, it's a reproduction canteen for the American Civil War era - it came covered in that wool, and was carried that way in period as well. This one's a cheat though - it has a stainless steel body, since real tinware can rust so easily. I'm not MERS-picky about everything.

For those newer and younger folks who didn't learn about this kind of canteen as a kid - the idea of the wool cover is that you wet the wool, and as it dries the evaporating water helps keep the water in the canteen cool. It's not a thermos by any means, but it does help. (This was still common knowledge for '80s kids, but I think outside of traditionalists like this crowd that's a thing that's been largely been forgotten in this age of camelbacks and nalgene.)

Also, this pattern has a pleasant shape - it's nice and flat and just doesn't stick out and get in the way like - say - a nalgene bottle or a modern government-pattern canteen does. That said, it isn't really stable standing on it's side like that... if it's full, you really want to hang it up if you can - especially this older pattern with a cork instead of a screw top.

While I suppose this pattern could have been made in period - and certainly could have been made of tin-lined copper instead of tinned sheet iron - it still doesn't feel really Middle-earth appropriate to me, even for hobbits. (They used leather flasks as I recall... though I might be more inclined to use a leather-covered glass bottle were I to ever do a proper hobbity outing.)

edit - oh, and yes the pack outer shell is waxed. It's not canvas though, just plain shirt-weight linen that I had on hand - which is why I lined it with a nice heavy linen ticking. Effectively, the lining handles the weight of the contents, and the outer linen is just a water-resistant "skin." I don't think I'd trust it for serious use, but for a lightweight daypack it's just fine. And I'm sure back in the day they also sometimes just made do with what was on hand.

[ForgeCorvus]

ForgeCorvus, good eye! You're right, it's a reproduction canteen for the American Civil War era - it came covered in that wool, and was carried that way in period as well. This one's a cheat though - it has a stainless steel body, since real tinware can rust so easily. I'm not MERS-picky about everything.

For those newer and younger folks who didn't learn about this kind of canteen as a kid - the idea of the wool cover is that you wet the wool, and as it dries the evaporating water helps keep the water in the canteen cool. It's not a thermos by any means, but it does help. (This was still common knowledge for '80s kids, but I think outside of traditionalists like this crowd that's a thing that's been largely been forgotten in this age of camelbacks and nalgene.)

I have a couple of British Army Chagal waterbags, they use evaporative cooling too but because they're canvas they don't need to be wetted down....... I don't think I could get away with using them though

edit - oh, and yes the pack outer shell is waxed. It's not canvas though, just plain shirt-weight linen that I had on hand - which is why I lined it with a nice heavy linen ticking. Effectively, the lining handles the weight of the contents, and the outer linen is just a water-resistant "skin." I don't think I'd trust it for serious use, but for a lightweight daypack it's just fine. And I'm sure back in the day they also sometimes just made do with what was on hand.

Very Hobbitty then, the Shire is not a big place and you'd never be very far from an inn..... Or a relative's house

[Wilhelm]

It is starting to cool down here so I will be reopening the arrow factory mid October. I have quite a few to make. I figured out how to do it.