Where Do I Start?

Where to Start?
You start with deciding who and what you are. Are you a seamstress or tailor, or are you a woodsman or woods woman? Your trade will give some indication of your place in society, are you gentry, or one of the middling sort? If you are a farmer you could be either. You could be a gentleman farmer with people working for you, or you could be a farmer of the middling sort and have to do all your own work and the same goes for the wife and children. Once you know who you are, then you can start to do some research and find out what clothing you would likely have worn, and what accoutrements you may have had. Regardless of your occupation, if you are male, and between 16 and 65, live in a community, then you would have to be in the militia, and that means more research to find out what is required of you in the militia.
Farmers were often also woodsmen, some doing more hunting and trapping and less farming, leaving the farm work to the wife and children. Others relied mostly on the farm for their subsistence and only went into the woods to hunt for meat. Either way, as a woodsman there will be certain tools of the trade that you will need.
Authenticity means factual, it means that if your clothing is authentic to your period, and to your persona (character) in design, manufacture and materials then it is correct. Why does authenticity matter? It matters to living historians because only in being authentic can they truly experience what life was like in another time, at least to the best of their ability. You can’t light a fire with matches and a firelighter and expect to understand what it was like in the 18th century to make fire. Basically you are cheating yourself and spoiling it for anyone who is with you.
There are three areas of research, 1) Primary information. This is a record of what happened at the time, written by someone who was there. 2) Secondary information is recorded by someone who was not there at the time but did record it in the same period. There is also the eye witness who does not record it at the time, but writes about it at a later date. Both of these are open to interpretation and may not be wholly correct. 3) Tertiary information is that written by a historian who has researched the period, and what he/she writes is their own interpretation of the facts. This may be found in magazine articles, books and other papers.
Experimental Archaeology is what all living historians do; we use the equipment of the period to accomplish period tasks. Sometimes we have to make the equipment first, and this is all part of our learning and understanding. Whether it be as big as building a period ship and sailing it on an original route, or as small as making fire with flint, steel and tinderbox using plant tinders we have prepared ourselves, sometimes it is the only way we can find out how something was done, or how a certain tool or method worked. This is not always as easy and straight forward as it may seem, let me give you a for instance.
Many people when making fire continually use charred cloth, and only charred cloth. Now charred cloth was used, but generally only in the home, or perhaps on a short journey. You would not expect a woodsman or woods-woman to use charred cloth for making fire whilst in the woods, they are far more likely to use what plant tinders come to hand. Some people who use charred cloth fold the charred cloth over the flint and strike the flint with the steel, the exact opposite of what was normally done, e.g. one strikes the steel with the flint to direct the sparks onto the tinder. You can only use this method of striking the flint with the steel effectively if you are using charred cloth, and it is my belief that this is not a common period method.
Many people do not use a tinderbox, and some of those that do, use a tin with a hole in the lid so that they can char cloth in it on a fire. The fact is that this too is not a period method. If they did their research they would know that the tinderbox was used to make fire, the steel is struck by the flint directing the sparks onto the tinder in the tinderbox. Although I reasoned this myself, I have since found period sketches showing this being done.

Tinderboxes were not made with holes in them, so I reasoned that tinder was charred by some other method. I reasoned that if tinder were charred directly in the fire, and then placed in the tinderbox and the lid closed, the smouldering tinder would be extinguished, just as it is when making fire using the tinderbox. The kindling or spunk is placed on the smouldering tinder in the box and blown into flame. The lid is then closed saving the unused tinder for later use. Some tinderboxes even had a lid that fitted inside the tinderbox to be pushed down on the tinder to smother it. This type of tinderbox could be made of metal or wood.

Did everyone use a tinderbox? I don’t know. If someone had no tinderbox how could they have charred tinder? Well I experimented with this and charred tinder directly in the fire and then buried it in dry earth. I also tried wrapping the smouldering tinder in leather and then buried it. Both methods worked, though using the leather was better than not. This experimentation took me further to find natural kindling instead of the teased rope fibres other people were using. By not taking the easy way out, by doing my own research and experimentation, I have learned a lot about making fire and about an 18th century lifestyle.
Having done your research and made choices of clothing and equipment, it is now time to start getting your gear together. Some people are better at making things than others, I think I fall somewhere in the middle! I can make some things but am not really good enough to make others, or I do not have the equipment needed to make some items. For instance I can build a muzzle-loading gun from a kit, but I cannot make all the parts from scratch myself. I can make my own clothing, but not half as well as my wife can! So I make what I can, plead with my wife heaps and get her to make my clothing, purchase what I cannot make but can afford. Also I have the option of trading for what I need.
Many items can be found in second hand shops, and many of the materials needed for clothing can be found in op-shops. Second hand woollen blankets can be used to make work frocks, leggings, mittens, blanket coats, shirts, weskit, breaches and breechclout. Leather coats can be used for moccasins, leggings, pouches, and bags. Linen or cotton table cloths and sheets can be used to make shirts and work frocks etc. Cruising shops like Spotlight can often net you specials on linens, cottons and wool material.
If you belong to a group or club, check if they have research information available. Groups like ours, the New England Colonial Living History Group, may have their own forum on the net. Ours is at http://neclhg.freeforums.net/ and is open to anyone who is resident in Australia. It is in a group’s own interest to help new members wherever possible, so don’t hesitate to ask for help.