Debarking Dead Trees, Shelter Roofing, Cordage Material & Bush Tucker B...

Debarked standing tree using a steel hatchet. This could have been done by a Woodsman or an Aboriginal.

At least two sheets of bark were removed from this standing tree using a stone axe, probably done by an Aboriginal.

Carrying Water in The 18th Century. Glass Bottles.

Carrying Water in The 18^th Century. Glass Bottles.

To date I have found no evidence that glass bottles or saddle flasks were ever carried in a leather harness. Leather, wooden & ceramic water bottles with built in loops for straps & cordage are well known, but not so glass bottles. This is not to say that no one ever attached cordage or leather to a glass bottle in order to carry it slung from the shoulder, only that no primary documentation of this has been found to date. 

Glass wine bottles are believed to have been reused as water bottles & for carrying vegetable oil, but I must assume that these were either carried in the hand, or they were carried in a pack such as a knapsack, haversack, snapsack or market wallet. The name “saddle flask” given to a certain type of flat sided glass bottle suggests that it was carried in saddle bags or packs.

Pennsylvania German wooden costrel with strap lugs.

Leather costrels with carry strap lugs dated 1730.

A ceramic water bottle with carry strap lugs, 1601-1700 ad.

18^th century wine bottle.

A 16^th century glass costrel covered in embossed leather. This one I would have expected to have leather carry strap lugs included, but no sign that I can see. Research continues on this one.

American 18^th century leather covered saddle flask.

18^th century saddle flask.

18^th century leather saddle flask with what appears to be a leather carry strap attached that has been folded & pushed into the spout.

One of two modern glass bottles the author covered in leather to replicate saddle flasks.

The author’s haversack that he may use to carry his two saddle flasks.

The author’s knapsack with his market wallet secured under the flap closure. A water bottle or flask could also be carried in this market wallet & one in the knapsack, but they would not be easily accessible on the trail.

The author’s snapsack. If the top were to be left untied, then this too would be a good way to carry water bottles or flasks.

Early American glass. The first factory in what is now the United States was a glass plant built at Jamestown, Virginia, in 1608. The venture failed within a year because of a famine that took the lives of many colonists. The Jamestown colonists tried glass making again in 1621, but an Indian attack in 1622 and the scarcity of workers ended this attempt in 1624. The industry was re-established in America in 1739, when Caspar Wistar built a glass making plant in what is now Salem County, New Jersey. This plant operated until 1780. http://www.texasglass.com/glass_facts/history_of_Glass.htm

http://historical-american-glass.com/hilltown-glass-works-bucks-county-pennsylvania-1751-1766.html

http://historical-american-glass.com/glass-house-whimseys-1750-to-1880.html

http://historical-american-glass.com/wistarburgh-glass.html

Carrying Methods. Australia.

Australia.

 “The women make string out of bark with astonishing facility, and as good as you can get in England, by twisting and rolling it in a curious manner with the palm of the hand on the thigh. With this they make nets ... These nets are slung by a string round their forehead, and hang down their backs, and are used like a work-bag or reticule. They contain all the articles they carry about with them, such as fishing hooks made from oyster or pearl shells.”

- From the diary of an early 18th century settler in the Port Stephens area.

http://www.tear.org.au/target/articles/they-dont-know/2009-1

Rope Making.

Cumbungi, for food & cordage & more.

Cumbungi/cattail/bulrush grows in many parts of Australia, America, England & Europe, so again is worthy of note. A good supply of this plant will keep you fed year round.

"As well as the rhizome, the young shoots which appear in the spring and the raw young flower-stalks were also eaten (Beveridge 1883, 36, and 1889, 20; Robinson 1840, 996), and the bases of the mature shoots and leaves always remain soft and edible.

Cooking

Two main methods of cooking are recorded--roasting in the ashes, or steaming in an earth oven. Mitchell, on the Lachlan River, described roasting as follows (1839, vol 2, 53, 60, 384):

The natives gather the roots and carry them on their heads in great bundles

within a piece of net ... The root is taken in lengths of 8-10 in., they

peel off the outer rind, lay it a little before the fire, then twist and

loosen the fibres, when a quantity of gluten, exactly resembling wheaten

flour, may be shaken out. This gluten they call balyan.

Notice that the less-productive outer cortex was discarded before cooking. Although Mitchell described it first as cooked by being laid on the fire, later, starting down the Murrumbidgee from the Lachlan junction, he described `lofty mounds of burnt clay or ashes ... [in which] the balyan is prepared' (1839, 80-81). On the lower Murray River, the rhizomes were cooked on a heap of limestone which had been heated by fire, with another layer of heated stones and wet grass laid over the top, the whole then enclosed in a mound of sand (Angas 1847b, 85). Krefft (1865, 361), on the middle Murray, said it was harvested probably in late summer, and lived on for several months. It was cooked in a hole in the ground, and was carried about as provisions. Beveridge, at Tyntynder, on the Murray River below Swan Hill, remarked that more of it could have been used, but `it requires considerable labor to dig'; he indicated that it was cooked in an earth oven using balls of clay as heat retainers and gave a detailed description of how the oven was made. A hole, 3 feet in diameter and 18 inches deep, was dug by the women. Any pieces of clay about the size of cricket balls were placed to one side. The hole was swept out with grass or boughs, and filled with firewood, which was then set alight with the clay balls on top. When the fire had died down, the clay balls were removed with two sticks used as tongs, and the ashes were swept out. The hole was lined with moistened grass on which the rhizomes were placed, more moistened grass was used as a cover, and the baked clay nodules placed on top. The whole was then covered with earth until the food was cooked (Beveridge 1889, 19). Mounds still remaining on the flood-plain are full of these baked clay balls (Coutts et al 1979, 60, 69; Frankel 1991, 74-82) and were certainly cooking sites for Cumbungi and other foods. The action of earth ovens is to steam the food, and is an efficient way of cooking for a group. The technique was subject to minor variations (see Browne, in Finnis 1966, 42, for example). J Mathew, on the Murrumbidgee River, described very large earth ovens holding `half a ton' of rhizomes, prepared for large gatherings of people:

A hole of circular outline 3-4ft deep and 15-20ft across was made. The roots were placed in the centre on a pile of dry wood. On the surface
were

strewn layers of long grass and light sticks. The fire was lit and the excavated earth returned as a covering. The time for cooking might be several days. When done, water was poured on the oven to cool it. (Mathew1899, 91)

After cooking, the practice was to strip off the cortex, chew the central part of the rhizome to remove the starch, and to spit out the fibres, which could then be retained for making string.

In the Brisbane area, the rhizomes appear to have been chewed raw; the fibre was discarded (Petrie 1904, 92). In southern Western Australia, the rhizomes were cleaned and pounded between flat stones into a paste, presumably to break up the fibre, and then made into a cake and baked (Grey 1841, vol 2, 291; Moore 1884, 81). Morris (1943, 169) said that the pollen was used for food in Victoria, but gave no reference. It is certainly produced copiously. In New Zealand, the Maori ate the pollen, made into cakes or gruel, and also the centres of the rhizomes and the young leaves (Crowe 1981, 107-08"http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb3326/is_1_1999/ai_n28742509/pg_7/

Cattail Pond in Wychwood Forest where I live.

This plant is also note worthy for its use as thatching & matting for shelter use inside & out.

Primitive Skills DVD.

I had a phone call from a chap in West Australia a while back saying that he had heard of me but had no computor to view my videos, & could I please produce a skills video for him. Well I have, & can just about fit all my videos on one DVD. I gave him a price of $10.00 off the top of my head, & he seemed pleased with that. So the outcome is that I can now offer these videos for sale if anyone is interested.

Making Cordage From Stringybark.