Author Topic: Pipe bags  (Read 6833 times)

Offline t.caster

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Pipe bags
« on: August 18, 2008, 09:51:10 PM »
I thought I would start smoking a pipe @ rendezvous again instead of cigars, which keep going up in price! I have an old beaded pipe & tobacco bag (gage d'mor) I made back in my mt. man days, but would like something more appropriate to the F&I thru Rev. era. What are you guys using? Pictures? Ideas?
I use a pottery bowl (excavated from Ft. Niagra I was told) with a bamboo stem, and I have a couple clay pipes too.
« Last Edit: August 18, 2008, 10:53:54 PM by t.caster »
Tom C.

Offline Randy Hedden

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Re: Pipe bags
« Reply #1 on: August 19, 2008, 01:52:56 AM »
Tom,

interesting topic. I don't believe I ever saw an 18th century pipe bag except for Native American pipe bags and during the 18th century whites were not prone to use Native American items. The only 18th century carrier for pipes, that I know of, were the tin pipe holders with the hinged lid on them.

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Lord Calvin

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Re: Pipe bags
« Reply #2 on: August 19, 2008, 02:15:31 AM »
Tom,    l smoke and carry my pipe a few different ways.  One way is to make a few slices close together on the upturned brim of your tri-corn, or
felt flop hat. Sometimes l tie my neck scarf in and over hand knot. And slide the pipestem down thru the knot.  l also have made my tobacco bag like an envelope, out of bag wieght leather.  And store the tabacco and the pipe together. And this l carry in my haversack.  l always carry at least 2 pipes when on the trail.  Just in case.  Take care.

Riku

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Re: Pipe bags
« Reply #3 on: August 19, 2008, 12:20:51 PM »

Offline t.caster

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Re: Pipe bags
« Reply #4 on: August 19, 2008, 07:48:26 PM »
Randy, thanks, I almost addressed this thread to you hoping you would comment! Cal, I respect your opinions too. Afterall you are the one who sold me on the advantages of a silk scarf many yrs. ago! I kinda figured on keeping my pipe & baccee in a leather pouch or tin inside my haversack or belt bag, but wanted to here from others more sage than I.
Randy, seems like every longhunter I see including myself carry a neck knife and wear leggins & garters and mocs, like the Indians did. Those items and customs seem to have been readily adapted by white hunters.
Tom C.

Offline Randy Hedden

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Re: Pipe bags
« Reply #5 on: August 19, 2008, 09:09:25 PM »
Randy, thanks, I almost addressed this thread to you hoping you would comment! Cal, I respect your opinions too. Afterall you are the one who sold me on the advantages of a silk scarf many yrs. ago! I kinda figured on keeping my pipe & baccee in a leather pouch or tin inside my haversack or belt bag, but wanted to here from others more sage than I.
Randy, seems like every longhunter I see including myself carry a neck knife and wear leggins & garters and mocs, like the Indians did. Those items and customs seem to have been readily adapted by white hunters.

Tom,

When I smoked a pipe I carried one with an easily removed rather short stem and carried it, with my tobacco in a small leather pouch that I wore around my neck. It looks like a later period medicine bag that is worn around the neck. Remember that the pipe was not smoked as much back then as it is today. Most guys today carry a pipe as a replacement for cigarettes and smoke the pipe all day. Back then a pipe may have only been smoked once or twice each day so there was not much need for a large supply of tobacco. The 18th century tin pipe holders I mentioned look pretty much like the hinged pipe carriers shown above in Riku's reply.

Sure, most modern day longhunters you see do wear Leggings, leg ties, mocs and carries a neck knife. Obviously some original longhunter types wore britches, and boots and shoes and you do see these items worn by some modern day longhunter types. That is not what I was talking about. Some Native American items were assimilated by the longhunters and other frontiersmen, but often they were different than what the NA's actually wore.

There is not much, if any, evidence that the longhunters wore quilled or beaded items like modern day longhunters do. There is also not much, if any, evidence that longhunter/frontiersmen had tattoos or ever wore trade silver. Sterling silver cone and ball earrings were just not worn by the original longhunters. The neck knives worn by todays modern longhunters are cute little knives that might have been worn by a NA woman, but neck knives worn by 18th century Native American warriors were actually full size belt knives that were worn in a sheath hanging on a cord around the neck. Try wearing one rigged up like that, flopping around and banging into you chest and just generally getting in the way every time you try to do something and you will soon be wearing it back in your belt. Mocs might have been the same style as those worn by NA's, but wouldn't have been quilled, beaded or otherwise decorated.  Of course, the everyday mocs worn by NA's wouldn't have been have been quilled either, but you do see them on some modern day longhunters. There are journal passages that indicate that the white settlers and hunters made crude leather shoes/mocs that were not much like NA mocs. In fact, the mocs made and worn by todays modern longhunters, where the seam goes down and under the  toes, were probably not the style of centerseam mocs that the NA's wore, even though that is what you see most modern day longhunters wearing.

The longhunters and others did bring back sterling, brass and copper jewelry as well as quilled items like neck knives, but the generally accepted theory is that they sold these once they arrived back in the settlements because there is not much evidence that they wore these items themselves.

Randy Hedden

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Offline Randy Hedden

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Re: Pipe bags
« Reply #6 on: August 19, 2008, 10:22:37 PM »
Cal, I respect your opinions too. Afterall you are the one who sold me on the advantages of a silk scarf many yrs. ago!

Tom,

You know Calvin?? You been hanging with that AMM bunch up in Michigan?

Randy Hedden

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Online D. Taylor Sapergia

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Re: Pipe bags
« Reply #7 on: August 19, 2008, 10:27:38 PM »
Randy, I found your comments to be enjoyable reading and enlightening.
D. Taylor Sapergia
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Art is not an object.  It is the excitement inspired by the object.

Offline t.caster

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Re: Pipe bags
« Reply #8 on: August 20, 2008, 12:10:17 AM »
Randy, yeah Cal and I were in the same primitive group, Brothers of the Wind, years ago. I'm still in it. I went to one AMM winter doins as his guest, GREAT TIME, but didn't have time to do it all the time like he does. He introduced us at a Kalamazoo show a few years ago. Don't you remember?
Oh, and I tend to agree with you on the lack of beads and quills and all that cute shiney stuff back in the old days. I think if they aquired a NA item they only kept it long enough to trade or sell it. I try to keep my longhunter outfit quite simple and unadorned.
Tom C.

Offline Randy Hedden

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Re: Pipe bags
« Reply #9 on: August 20, 2008, 12:26:55 AM »
Tom,

Sorry, I don't remember meeting you at Kalamazoo. but then I remember faces a lot better than I remember names. I started going to the big winter doins up there about 1989, but haven't made it up there for about four or five years. I don't even make it to the Kazoo show every year like I used to. Probably something about getting old?

Randy Hedden

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