w_i_r | The obligatory intro post

My user name is

black_hound . I've been in reenacting for 25 years as an American Revolutionary War reenactor and I am in the ranks.

I am primarily an artillerist. I have been working black powder artillery for the bulk of those 25 years. When I field with artillery it is as a member of the Pennsylvania State Navy and their 3 pounder cannon, "Defiance".

I also field as a rifleman with the 5th Pennsylvania Regiment, Rifle Coy.

I'm not sure what else there is to say except I love black powder, I love live fire competitions, I love the history of the Am Rev War, and I love the hobby. Warts and all.

If you belong to a unit or civilian organization and they have a website, please post a link and I'll add it to the sidebar.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

sharpiefan

Hi! I'm

sharpiefan, known as Sharpie. I've been reenacting for about eight years as an infantry soldier of the Peninsular War. I started off as a Rifleman but these days I'm a redcoat in the 50th Foot (West Kent) - and I became the unit commander about two years ago. I've also done solo outings as a Royal Marine - standing on the deck of HMS Victory in a red coat is the most incredible feeling!

We've been on hiatus for a while, but I recently took two other members along to Detling, which was my first outing as the unit commander.

I love black powder, love history and think the hobby's great fun! I'll have to dig out some photos to share with you...

From:

black_hound

Dude. You totally need to dig out some photos. Especially the Royal Marine photos.

From:

sharpiefan

Done! :D

From:

sospan_fach

I've been re-enacting for 16 years as an English Civil War musketeer, and for the past few years also done Napoleonic as a fusilier in the 45eme.

Have been disgracefully inactive on both fronts for the past year or so, but now getting properly organised for next season.

Special skills: getting bounced on by redcoats; burning holes in greatcoats; the ability to render white kit shabby grey just by looking at it; rescuing woodlice from campfires.

From:

black_hound

omg ECW. Would you believe that I actually tried that over here in the States? For a couple of years there was a small surge in that time period and there were a couple of grand musters held at early 17th century colonial sites.

There was actually a whole kit in this house at one point. Matchlock and all. I was involved in a Roundhead regiment called Fortescue's Regt. of Foot.

From:

sospan_fach

Ah, I remember from my way-back-when Sealed Knot days* a couple of US guys on the forum, who did ECW in America! Did the upswing of interest last at all? (Shouldn't be surprised, I suppose, given the interest in ACW over here!)

Parliamnetarian, hurrah! I'm in ECWS Essex's these days. :)

*Don't judge me. :P

From:

black_hound

The upswing did not last past 3 or 4 years. Then folks settled back into their late 1600's/early American colonial militia impressions.

What seemed to really kill it was that the folks at the top organizing the events were totally into live wargaming and not so much into any other type of interpretation.

From:

sharpiefan

And just how did you manage to burn a hole in a greatcoat, of all things?! Those things are practically indestructible.

Also the ability to render white kit shabby grey just by looking at it will guarantee you'll find a home in the 50th (the Dirty Half Hundred) should you ever wish to defect and become a redcoat.

Also also. Did you make Detling? 'Cause my feet ached too much to wander over to the French camp to ask...

From:

sospan_fach

[grin] Also dropped my rucksack on a bench at Nottingham train station on the way to Newstead Abbey, and smashed the bottle of port inside all over my whites, which didn't help matters.

Greatcoat = freezing night at Wellington, so cold I didn't realise I was practically kneeling on the edge of the raised fire-pit until I started smouldering gently. (Felt quite guilty about that, because it was a conversion I'd done on an original 1953 RAF coat.) I now look as if I've been kneeling in treacle. :P

Sadly, I didn't make Detling (combination of bloody NA politicking and lack of funds), or I'd have tracked you down! Was it good?

I swear I'm going to run over and glomp you properly IRL one day! :D Are you doing any more this season? I'm sort of on hiatus till the habit-longue comes through, and poor old Cloporte needs a thorough going-over too, but I think there's a couple of dos left...

From:

sharpiefan

:D Newstead Abbey... Shame that's an NA event or it'd SO be on my list of events to do.

Detling was good, though we ended up with one musket that only fired part of the time - I think the frizzen needs hardening. I ended up with the halberd and looking after the Colours.

There was one point during the second day where a Frenchman had been playing dead and tried to sneak round the back of our line. I ended up pointing my halberd at him, and then the 41st's Sergeant came over and ran him through with his.

I don't know if there are any more events this season; I think we're going to get our insurance sorted for the beginning of next season, rather than waste money for a few months.

Are there any events that you're going to that are open for non-NA, independent units? (That politicking has rather put us off wanting to join the NA...)

From:

sharpiefan

Also. Dare I ask about the woodlice?

(Can't be as bad as finding six earwigs in the spigot you plan on using at an event, days before said event...)

From:

potboy

I mostly reenact the Saxons, but for the past year and a bit I've also been doing mid 18th Century civilian life with the Mannered Mob: http://www.manneredmob.com/
Currently a scabby peasant, I've just started putting together a family's worth of middling-sort kit, with the aim of doing some social climbing. But I'm still looking for a craft that I'm interested in enough to specialize in. The drawback is that my society does not allow cross dressing. Otherwise I'd do scrimshaw.

From:

black_hound

*dances around you*

Ya know, scabby peasants are the best kind of peasants. :D

I remember seeing pics of the Mannered Mob when you first joined. They look very very well turned out.

From:

potboy

Hee, thank you! I think this comm is a great idea :)

I like the Mannered Mob a lot - they really know what they're doing, and they have fun doing it. (I'm a real convert to Georgian food as a result. Good stuff!) But I'm also aiming to start making us sailor kit, so that we can join the Senior Service http://freespace.virgin.net/gc.hughes/senserv.htm

Lots of sewing in this hobby!

From:

black_hound

Oohhh. I've seen photos of the Senior Service. Those guys are just brilliant!

And yeah, SEWING. Which, in fact, I hate. *g*

I have some to do. Actually should have done it way before now. I need a new linen shirt posthaste. It's just all the handwork. OY.

*Hmmm... need to port my historic sewing icon over here from THE DREADED LIVEJOURNAL.*

From:

sharpiefan

I just sat down and did mine bit-by-bit in front of the telly. You can take sewing with you when you round friends' houses without being thought of as anti-social, too.

I got my pattern from Patterns of Time; it's a Kannick's Korner one and pretty self-explanatory.

Also, thanks for reminding me: I have a pair of trousers to finish at some point as well.

From:

black_hound

Kathleen Kannick's patterns are terrific. I used her workman's jacket pattern to make my coat for my Pennsylvania Navy impression.

Speaking of trousers. Are the Napoleonic trousers still fall front?

From:

sharpiefan

I've got her shirt pattern and now her trousers pattern.

And yes, Napoleonic era trousers are fall-front. (Remember Archie Kennedy's button flying off when he comes running down the companionway?)

From:

potboy

We're a bit far from Portsmouth to make a regular thing with the Senior Service, but they have shared events with MM, so I'm aiming to get there one day!

*g* I quite like sewing. As Sharpiefan says, it's good to have something to do with your hands infront of the TV. But having three people to make 18th Century kit for and 4 people to make Saxon kit for means it just takes forever. And shirts are worst of all, with all those gussets and reinforcements!

From:

black_hound

The gussets are evil. I don't mind so much putting them in as I mind finishing all the seams around them. I have yet to hit on a method that I actually like. I've done overcasting (linen still frayed too much), French seaming and a couple of other closed seam methods. Which are fine until you get to the gusset areas, and then it is like some kind of arcane origami to make it all work.

From:

sharpiefan

*checks gussets of sailor's shirt*

Looks like I did two seams enclosed - off-set then folded under - and somehow finished the other two as though doing the double-seam effect you find on jeans. I don't recall having that much trouble with them. (Not like the current issue I'm having with the fall lining of my trousers. Need to re-cut those and totally redo them, which is going to be a pain.)

From:

potboy

I know what you mean! I tend to hem all the pieces individually first before assembling.

From:

black_hound

That? Is an excellent idea.

And I'm still stalling on the shirt. Oy.

I love to knit. LOVE IT. And that always seems to trump the sewing. Yet I need to get with it because I really do need a new shirt.

From:

potboy

Knitting I can't do at all. I've learned three times and forgotten three times, which is odd, as I like spinning, I like weaving, I like embroidery and sewing. I obviously am just not cut out for anything that involves knots.

I would swap knitting for shirts, except that I already have a frock coat and posh waistcoat (for Andrew), a robe a l'Anglaise and matching petticoat (for Rose), two sets of pocket hoops and a woman's riding habit (for me) to make first. Also a full nun's outfit, a pair of trousers and an under-dress for Regia. And that will take me a couple of years, I'm sure!

From:

black_hound

Swapping knitting for sewing is actually a grand idea.

I did swap a thrum cap I made for some jewelry. So why not do it with sewing!

From:

sharpiefan

Sewing? I just finished making myself a sailor's checked shirt recently (I sort of 'do' the Royal Marines when I'm not expected to be places as an infantry soldier) from fabric I saw in John Lewis and fell in love with.

(Yes, I'm wearing modern trousers with it; the pic was only taken a few minutes after I'd finished it!)

It turned out pretty well, but I refuse to contemplate sewing anything completely by hand again for at least three years! :D

From:

potboy

Oh very nice! They're lovely shirts when they're made, but all those reinforcements and gussets under the arms, cuffs and collars and so on! You'd never imagine the amount of work involved.

From:

sharpiefan

I'm lucky I was only doing it for the heck of it. There's a reason I don't do anything earlier than the NapWar!

I'm also very glad I was using a checked fabric. Even though it wasn't folded quite straight when we cut it, so it wasn't cut quite on the grain, I ended up using the woven-in lines of the check to follow when sewing it.

I ended up doing one thing at a time - the cuffs, or setting in one gusset then the other - just following the pattern - without trying to do everything all at once. It took me about six weeks or so, in the end. The trickiest bit, for me, was working out which way round the collar went (I added the decorative backstitch suggested by the pattern version I was using). Even gathering the sleeves to fit the cuffs wasn't much of a problem - and I have tiny wrists!

I've got just enough for a second shirt, if I'm careful when cutting it. Though I want a drill jacket and greatcoat first - greatcoat especially after Detling. (It was cold in the evenings!)

From:

potboy

Yes, it's not that shirts are complicated, it's just that there's such a lot of hemming involved. Women's caps are similarly deceptive in that they look like you could run them up in an hour, but really there's days of rolled hems involved in the ruffles.

I was at Detling too, but I was there with Regia Anglorum. I know what you mean about the cold! I've just finished making a semi-circular cloak as a result of it :)

From:

black_hound

Detling is a time line event?

From:

potboy

I'm not sure if it's a time-line, it's more of a time-bucket. It's a multi-period show where the Ancient Greeks will be camped next to the 19th Century Samurai, next to the WW2 Spitfire, next to the Saxons. There may be a logic in the layout, but I haven't noticed it myself.

http://www.military-odyssey.fsnet.co.uk/mo/mo-f.html

From:

black_hound

Aha! Over her we call events like that 'timelines'.

One of the big ones here is Military Through the Ages (MTA) that is held every year in Jamestown. Everything from Roman Legions to Iraqi war reenactors.

From:

black_hound

I made myself a greatcoat some years back. I'll have to take some pictures.

I ended up just drafting the pattern myself. The pattern I bought must have been designed by the insane because the pieces didn't fit together and the sizing was all out the window.

I took the basic lines of Kannick's Workman's Jacket to get the double breasted front correct, and then just drafted the rest of it. I added in the tail pockets and constructed the cuffs based on what I learned from doing a civilian frock coat.