Advice from our mentors for newcomers please

My first suggestion is: Don't impulse buy! (The only exception might be books...)

The second is: Don't trust what a vendor or vendor description says. Through ignorance or counting on customer gullibility, vendor information may not be correct and much is purchased that isn't as advertised.

Third: People have best of intentions and may be full of information that they are willing to share. The saying of "Trust but verify" is paramount. Double-check any information you receive with period sources or other trusted sources of accurate information.

I think you just nailed what I've been trying to say for a long time in the arguments about hc/pc stuff and asking for documentation/verification over at the MLF. Too much bad information keeps getting passed along because, "so and so said so, and he heard it from... and that's the way we've been doing it since 1972..."
Trust, but verify.

Thing I think all the answers thus far are spot on. I wonder what it would take (beyond an enormous amount of trust) to start an on topic communal library of the better books to be shared? Many of the books that new folks are often told, "go read.... then come back and we'll talk," are very expensive and hard to find. How about a list of books and/or authors that we feel can be trusted? Books proven to be "questionable?"

How about a list of "cheats." Things one can do on a budget to modify or adapt items that don't make the grade so that they are at least passable at a glance until the real correct item can be made or purchased?
Thanks for the responses thus far.

CONT...
 You've basically given a man a fish to feed him for a day instead of teaching him HOW to fish.
 I've been looking into the American Long Rifle Association (ALRA) and they have a recommended reading list that I wish I knew about when I started!

www.longrifle.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=18

A word on how-to instruction: I'm not sure if its a failing or not but I learn more quickly and retain info longer if I can see it and/or follow along and rewind to see again (and again) in a video. The only thing better is having it done right in front of me, live and in person.
 I have learned more from Keith Burgess's in 10 minutes than I could've learned banging my head against a book trying to figure out what the hell they mean!!
 Other videos have also been a great help and a list of them in the library would also help the Noobs like myself.
 If I were to give advice to a Noob myself, and I am not qualified to do so in my own opinion, I would say you need to decide "when you are first, who you are second and where you are third". Your research then has target areas...

 The Sicilian

I can help a little with the research. Some things which have been helpful to me....

REFERENCE, GENERAL

Seedtime on the Cumberland, by Harriette Simpson Arnow

Flowering of the Cumberland, by Harriette Simpson Arnow

The Voice of the Frontier: John Bradford's Notes on Kentucky, edited by Thomas D. Clark

Collector's Illustrated Encyclopedia of the American Revolution, by G. C. Neumann & F. J. Kravic

The History Of Weapons Of The American Revolution, by George C. Neumann

The Age of Firearms, A Pictorial History, by Robert Held

The Frontier Rifleman, by Richard B. LaCrosse, Jr.

Tidings From the 18th Century, by Beth Gilgun

Lewis and Clark Among the Indians, by James P. Ronda

Undaunted Courage, by Stephen J. Ambrose

George Rogers Clark and the War in the West, by Lowell H. Harrison

The Long Hunt, by Ted Franklin Belue

Foxfire Series (especially No. 5), edited by Eloit Wigginton

Sketchbook '56 series, by Ted Spring

Sketch Book '76, by Robert L. Klinger

The Longhunter's Sketch Book, by Dr. James A. Hanson

The Mountain Man's Sketch Book, Vol. 1 & 2, by James A. Hanson & Kathyrin J. Wilson

The Frontier Scout and Buffalo Hunter's Sketch Book, by James A. Hanson

Books of Buckskinning, I-VIII, by Muzzleloader Magazine

Flintlock and Tomahawk: New England in King Philip's War, by Douglas Edward Leach

Travels, by William Bartram

Histories of the Dividing Line betwixt Virginia and North Carolina, by William Byrd

The Road to Guilford Courthouse, by John Buchanan

Arms and Armor in Colonial America- 1526-1783, by Harold L. Peterson, 1956

Firearms in Colonial America- The Impact on History and Technology, 1492-1792, by M. L. Brown

Sons of a Trackless Forest, by Mark A. Baker

Border Life: Experience and Memory in the Revolutionary Ohio Valley, by Elizabeth A. Perkins

The Spirit of Seventy-Six: The Story of the American Revolution as Told by Participants, by H. S. Commager & R. B. Morris

The Hunters of Kentucky: A Narrative History of America's First Far West, 1750-1792, by Ted Franklin Belue

Letters from an American Farmer and Sketches of Eighteenth-century America, by J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur

Crucible of War, The Seven Years' War and the Fate of Empire in British North America, 1754-1766, by Fred Anderson

ACCOUTERMENTS

The Kentucky Rifle Hunting Pouch, by Madison Grant

The Knife in Homespun America, by Madison Grant

Powder Horns and Their Architecture, by Madison Grant

American Engraved Powder Horns, The J. H. Grenville Gilbert Collection, by Stephen V. Grancsay

A Brief History of Bullet Moulds, by Codman Parkerson

Tomahawks Illustrated, by Robert Kuck

How to Scrimshaw and Carve Ivory, by Blackie Collins


Dress & Accoutrements of the Overmountain Men, 1775–1783. Andy Thomas, 2000

SHOOTING, HUNTING
Black Powder Handbook, by Lyman Products, C. Kenneth Rammage, editor

The Complete Black Powder Handbook, by Sam Fadala

The Black Powder Handgun, by Sam Fadala

Blackpowder Loading Manual, by Sam Fadala

Black Powder Hunting, by Sam Fadala

Sam Fadala's Muzzleloading Notebook, by Sam Fadala,1985

The Advanced Muzzleloader's Guide, by Toby Bridges

Muzzeloading For Whitetails, by Toby Bridges

Black Powder Guide, by George C. Nonte, Jr.

The Bullet's Flight, by F. W. Mann

Understanding Ballistics, by Robert A. Rinker

The Muzzleloading Rifle Handbook, Published by NRA/NMLRA

The Muzzleloading Shotgun Handbook, Published by NRA/NMLRA

The Muzzleloading Pistol Handbook, Published by NRA/NMLRA

The Improved American Rifle, by John Ratcliffe Chapman, 1848



BIOGRAPHY, JOURNALS, Etc.

Old Bill Williams, Mountain Man, by Alpheus H. Favour

Journal of a Trapper 1834-1843, by Osborne Russell

Wah-to-yah and the Taos Trail, by Lewis H. Garrard

The River of the West; The Adventures of Joe Meek, by Francis Fuller Victor

Bill Sublette, Mountain Man, by John E. Sunder

Jim Bridger, by J. Cecil Alter

Jedediah Smith and the Opening of the West, by Dale L. Morgan

Across the Shining Mountains, by Christian McCord

The Life of Daniel Boone, by Lyman C. Draper, LL.D, edited by Ted Franklin Belue


FICTION

The Kentuckians, by Janice Holt Giles

Oh, Kentucky, by Betty Layman Receveur

Carry the Wind, by Terry C. Johnston

Borderlords, by Terry C. Johnston

One-Eyed Dream, by Terry C. Johnston

Winter Rain, by Terry C. Johnston
Cry of the Hawk, by Terry C. Johnston

Dream Catcher, by Terry C. Johnston

Dance on the Wind, by Terry C. Johnston

Buffalo Palace, by Terry C. Johnston

The Last of the Mohicans, by James Fenimore Cooper

The Big Sky, by A. B. Guthrie, Jr.

Drums Along the Mohawk, by Walter D. Edmonds

The Red Badge of Courage, by Stephen Crane

The Canebrake Men, by Cameron Judd

The Overmoutain Men, by Cameron Judd

Boone, by Cameron Judd

The Rifleman, by John Brick


HISTORICAL FICTION-BIOGRAPHY

Long Knife, by James Alexander Thom

From Sea to Shining Sea, by James Alexander Thom

Follow the River, by James Alexander Thom

The Red Heart, by James Alexander Thom

That Dark and Bloody River, by Allan W. Eckert

Blue Jacket: War Chief of the Shawnees, by Allan W. Eckert

The Court Martial of Daniel Boone, by Allan W. Eckert

Johnny Logan: Shawnee Spy, by Allan W. Eckert

A Sorrow in Our Heart: The Life of Tecumseh, by Allan W. Eckert

The Frontiersmen, by Allan W. Eckert

The Conquerors, by Allan W. Eckert

The Wilderness War, by Allan W. Eckert

Gateway to Empire, by Allan W. Eckert

Wilderness Empire, by Allan W. Eckert

Twilight of Empire, by Allan W. Eckert

Northwest Passage, by Kenneth Roberts

Arundel, by Kenneth Roberts

Rabble in Arms, by Kenneth Roberts

Oliver Wiswell, by Kenneth Roberts

The Battle of Cowpens, by Kenneth Roberts

March to Quebec, by Kenneth Roberts

Captain Caution, by Kenneth Roberts



VIDEOS

Hershel House Building the Kentucky Rifle (2 vols.), by American Pioneer Video

Hershel House Building the Hawken, by American Pioneer Video

Wallace Gusler, The Gunsmith of Williamsburg

Wallace Gusler,  The Gunsmith of Williamsburg, Engraving and Carving

Mark Baker The Longhunter Series (4 vols.), by American Pioneer Video

Contemporary Kentucky Rifles vol. I & II, by American Pioneer Video

John's Muzzleloader Shooting, by John Marotzke
*****************
\Work your way through those and I'll give you some more. 

Spence

woodsrunnersdiary.blogspot.com/2010/09/where-do-i-start.html


woodsrunnersdiary.blogspot.com/2012/12/researchresearch-research.html


woodsrunnersdiary.blogspot.com/2012/01/research-authenticity.html



On the left is the tin lined brass kettle as purchased from a trader, on the right is the same kettle after I have cut it down to a correct period size. 18th century kettles of this type are wider than they are in depth. Straight sided copper kettles are quite large, NOT the small type that many traders sell. Straight sided copper kettles of the correct size would be too large to carry in a pack.


The main thing to remember, is that you must never stop researching. New evidence is coming to light all the time, & if you are a writer, then what you wrote several years ago may not be completely correct now. The research I have done on kettles I think still holds true, but who is to say that a tinsmith somewhere did not produce a brass kettle taller than it is wider, & it just has not been found yet.
Always do your own research. 
Keith.

 A thousand Thanks Spence and Keith !!