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Post by brokennock on Nov 15, 2019 14:23:44 GMT -7
Colonial period clay pipes being as fragile as they are, how did (and how do you) folks carry their pipe on a trek, scout, hunt, or other small journey? I say small as I am not including moving all of one's worldly possessions as one relocates the family or homestead to other lands.
I've seen paintings and read posts of folks using their pipe to hold part of their hat brim up, but I don't like the idea of cutting slits or holes in something that is supposed to keep my head dry.
Any ideas? I have one, but think it a modern adaptation of period available materials.
Thank you.
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Post by artificer on Nov 16, 2019 11:20:49 GMT -7
I never liked the short white clay colonial pipes, as they smoked too hot for me. I smoked the later separate reddish brown clay bowls and reed stemmed pipes.
However, the neatest rig I ever saw for a white clay pipe was stored in a tin and surrounded by tow to protect it. The owner kept it in a belt pouch.
Sorry, that's the best I can offer.
Gus
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Post by brokennock on Nov 16, 2019 19:41:55 GMT -7
I have both styles of pipe. Interestingly enough, while I thought the reed stem pipe with it's more massive bowl material would be the tougher of the 2, that is the one to take damage. Where the reed enters the clay, a big chip came out the 1st time I used it.
I thought about a tin case arrangement. Seems like something else to clink, clank, and make noise.
Considering trying to make a container out of a piece of bamboo just big enough for the pipe to fit inside, padded with tobacco and maybe a tinder tube if space allows. Maybe split it lengthwise leaving a node at each end and use thin leather to make hinges on one side, tie it closed?
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Post by artificer on Nov 17, 2019 0:20:22 GMT -7
If bamboo grew in the area/s your persona lived in or traveled through, sounds like a good plan. If not, then maybe river cane? Though I'm not sure that would work. Spence might have some good input on that, as I think I remember he has used river cane for measures and other things.
Of course the old standby would take a large enough piece of wood to hollow out for the pipe and whatever you decide to use to protect it inside and then make a sliding top, or dovetail top or hinged top - whichever you prefer.
Gus
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Post by spence on Nov 17, 2019 7:57:13 GMT -7
Breakage of pipes was never a problem for me. When trekking I never used the long-stem churchwardens. The one I most often carried had a clay head and a reed/cane stem, and it was pretty tough. I also made and used a corncob pipe which basically couldn't be broken. The clay I usually just stuck in my haversack and didn't worry about it, but I did once try an idea. I carried my tobacco in a small leather pouch, so I just stuck the head of the clay pipe in the pouch and buried it in the tobacco so it was 'padded' all around. That worked, but I decided it wasn't necessary. My two trekking pipes, long since retired. I still miss a good pipe over a campfire of an evening.   Spence |
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Post by brokennock on Nov 17, 2019 9:26:25 GMT -7
If bamboo grew in the area/s your persona lived in or traveled through, sounds like a good plan. If not, then maybe river cane? Though I'm not sure that would work. Spence might have some good input on that, as I think I remember he has used river cane for measures and other things. Of course the old standby would take a large enough piece of wood to hollow out for the pipe and whatever you decide to use to protect it inside and then make a sliding top, or dovetail top or hinged top - whichever you prefer. Gus I've made bamboo powder measures that are hard to tell from river cane as the sizes are similar. I'm not sure cane gets big enough in diameter for this project. On wondering if any bamboo furniture or decorations, or other products made from it came over here given all the tea and spice trade that was being done? The British Europeans were trading with the orient before our colonial period. Maybe a busted piece of furniture or such got repurposed? |
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Post by artificer on Nov 17, 2019 12:15:25 GMT -7
There is plenty of documentation that in the 18th century, there was a "craze" for things made in China and the orient and imported here. While the list of items imported was long, I don't believe I have ever heard of bamboo furniture being brought here. That doesn't mean it wasn't done, but I can't document it. Maybe someone else can?
Gus
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Post by straekat on Nov 19, 2019 8:10:49 GMT -7
The popularity and stylistic timelines of clay pipes of British and American manufacture (and exportation) has been very well-documented. Determining the decade of manufacture is easily done, and some firms produced millions per month. The reeded variety of pipes were made primarily after 1850, and through most of the remaining decades of the 19th century. For anyone interested in the chronology of clay pipes, the link below provides a short and useful introduction into American/British pipes and how to date them. www.peachstatearchaeologicalsociety.org/index.php/12-pipes/157-kaolin-clay-trade-pipes |
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Post by straekat on Nov 19, 2019 8:37:42 GMT -7
Nock,
I've never been hooked on the demon-weed, so I can't provide any insights on how to carry and protect a pipe.
In my neck of the woods, deer are plentiful however they are also heavily hunted in Pennsylvania. Many hunters realize deer seem to have learned when hunting season takes place, can detect human scents and associated odors well enough that some odors may clue deer into where hunters are and avoid them. (Small game is another matter.)
People's noses tend not to register familiar smells that are part of their daily lives, although deer can and do know humans are around if they can smell soap, deodorants, and other odors (including tobacco) particularly if they are down-wind of a hunter. I know more than a few people who do everything they can to reduce their "odor footprint" in the woods when deer season comes around, that can include a personal (and hunting gear) sanitization program that would have had our forebears thinking we were absolutely nuts.
I've been thinking of where to start a thread or related series of threads) that discusses how the modern environment and ecological systems, and hunting methods used by Americans/Europeans and Amerindians, then and now are different. That would also include how game animals may have adapted their local behavior to adjust to new environmental conditions, and humans using entirely new hunting tools and strategies. What we think is the 18th or early 19th century world we are entering when we go out in the woods is not what existed then.
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Post by spence on Nov 19, 2019 9:03:21 GMT -7
straekat said: "The reeded variety of pipes were made primarily after 1850, and through most of the remaining decades of the 19th century." You might find this article interesting. www.jimmausartifacts.com/bethabara-pipes/Spence |
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Post by brokennock on Nov 19, 2019 10:02:23 GMT -7
Nock, I've never been hooked on the demon-weed, so I can't provide any insights on how to carry and protect a pipe. In my neck of the woods, deer are plentiful however they are also heavily hunted in Pennsylvania. Many hunters realize deer seem to have learned when hunting season takes place, can detect human scents and associated odors well enough that some odors may clue deer into where hunters are and avoid them. (Small game is another matter.) People's noses tend not to register familiar smells that are part of their daily lives, although deer can and do know humans are around if they can smell soap, deodorants, and other odors (including tobacco) particularly if they are down-wind of a hunter. I know more than a few people who do everything they can to reduce their "odor footprint" in the woods when deer season comes around, that can include a personal (and hunting gear) sanitization program that would have had our forebears thinking we were absolutely nuts. I've been thinking of where to start a thread or related series of threads) that discusses how the modern environment and ecological systems, and hunting methods used by Americans/Europeans and Amerindians, then and now are different. That would also include how game animals may have adapted their local behavior to adjust to new environmental conditions, and humans using entirely new hunting tools and strategies. What we think is the 18th or early 19th century world we are entering when we go out in the woods is not what existed then. You raise good points. Some of which I have alluded to in threads elsewhere about turkey hunting and chokes. The turkeys they hunted then were not the over pressured "educated" birds we hunt today. While I have called turkey literally into my lap, I've also quite often had them hang up just outside of cylinder bore muzzleloader range. They spook over seemingly minor things. Interestingly enough. My best hunting partner and I have not only shot deer while smoking, but I can picture in my mind (like it was yesterday) an even years ago when my buddy didn't get a deer because of his cigarette. It wasn't because of the smell. Our treestands were placed so that on the ground we couldn't see eachother but once in the stand we could, if we knew where to look. I watched him focus his attention and raise his bow, just short of his anchor point the string came down, the arrow clattered to the ground, and the deer ran off. He burned his hand on the cigarette he forgot to take out of his mouth. My theory is that deer are curious, and, they can get used to anything. They also learn. They know where we belong and where we don't. People say, oh hunting must be easy I see deer in my yard, or along the paved hiking/biking trail, all the time. I say, yup, try approaching one, step off the trail or into the yard, you will have their attention, then they will be gone. If a deer smells somethi6it is curious about, investigates, and nothing bad happens, I think they will ignore it or continue to investigate it in the future. If they smell something and investigate and get shot at and missed, they will avoid that spot and that smell from now on. I often use the smoke as a wind indicator, and in the early season, as mosquito and gnat repellent. Also, I don't smoke cigarettes. Gave them up over 20 years ago. Pipe or cigar, depending on weather and activity. I would be interested in you topic thread on the differences in the game, and places, we hunt between colonial times and now. |
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Post by straekat on Nov 19, 2019 10:13:39 GMT -7
Spence, The pipe style I was referring to is the redware with ribbing or "reeding" along the bowl, and made without a stem. In the literature, "reeding" has been referred to decoration on the bowl, and also vestigial stemmed pipes used with a wooden tube or hollow reed.
Stems were inserted into the base of the bowl after manufacture, and were often hollow reeds. There are variants of this type and design. This is an example of what Townsend calls "ribbed" while elsewhere it's been called "reeded."
 My house was a former tavern from the 1790's through to about 1815, and I've recovered broken long-stemmed kaolin pipes, redware "ribbed" or reed decorated pipes in the soil around the front and back of the house. Terminology and terms used to classify pipe types sometimes varies and there is a distinction between decorative patterns, and also stem types. I found a kaolin pipe that originally had a long stem. The stem had been broken close to the base of the bowl, and when I found it while doing yardwork there was a short hollow reed that was till sticking into the bowl. I was very surprised the hollow reed survived and was still attached to the bowl, particularly since other (soft) organic material older than the last hundred years or so, hasn't.
Although a reed had been used to extend the usefulness of the pipe, it was not a "reeded" pipe.
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Post by straekat on Nov 19, 2019 10:33:16 GMT -7
Nock,
You're spot on about deer being curious, and they are very quick to learn.
I think many animals that survive a dangerous situation such as being hunted or accidents, learn from the encounter, and may teach their young. Several years ago, my SO and I vacationed in Virginia Beach and stayed in a B&B. While setting on the upper deck, we watched a female squirrel climb a telephone pole and used the wire crossing the street to cross without being exposed to traffic, and when she was on the other side, used another pole to reach the ground. I talked to the owners of the B&B about the squirrel and they said she'd been doing that for a while, and was also using other utility lines instead of crossing open spaces on the ground. Somehow she learned crossing a street on the ground was dangerous and overhead utility lines were much safer even though she had to spend more time and energy climbing poles and doing a balancing act on phone lines, etc.
About four years later, we went back to the same place, and there were several squirrels now doing the same thing. The owner told me the mother squirrel taught her young to do the same.
Yep, animals can learn, adapt, and teach others.
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Post by spence on Nov 19, 2019 11:46:24 GMT -7
straekat said: "In the literature, "reeding" has been referred to decoration on the bowl...."
I didn't know that, you have 'learned' me something. Thanks.
Spence
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Post by Black Hand on Nov 19, 2019 13:38:53 GMT -7
My inclination would be to carry a pipe in a pouch around my neck which would also contain tobacco. Since I quit smoking some time ago, not really a major problem for me...  |
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