Waxed gourd canteen

[Carper]

Gourd canteen: My son gave me a canteen made from a gourd that looked like it was grown in some kind of mold to flatten it a little. It has a wooden neck and a cork.  It inside is sealed with what looks to be and was told beeswax.  Not too long ago, I took a colt back into the hills and I hung this canteen on the offside of the saddle. After about a couple of hours of rough riding, when I took a pull, I got a mouthful tiny wax pieces and some gourd. Some of you must have used these canteens and will it eventually settle down? Thought about leaving it in the truck for a whille jar any  loose. As cool as it looks no one could stand its innards.                    Johhny

[lew wetzel]

here is a pic of the gourd canteen i made.i use pea gravel to loosen and take all the membrane out of the gourd before i treat them with beeswax.and it sounds like the one your boy got you didnt have the membrane removed brfore the wax was applied and it is pulling off the sides.they grow them between two boards nailed 6-8inchs apart to get that flat sided look.

[Randy Hedden]

The flattened round gourds that are used to make canteens grow that way. They are called canteen gourds and you can buy the seeds to grow your own. You can find these seeds on Ebay all the time if you can't find them locally.

You don't have much choice for sealing the inside of the gourd except for using beeswax, unless you want your water to taste like pine needles.

I have used these gourd canteens lined with beeswax and have never had the beeswax come off in the water. I can only think that either the gourd was not cleaned good enough or to much beeswax was used in the gourd.

I do know a couple of guys who got sick from using gourd canteens and all we could figure is that the gourd hadn't been cleaned good enough.

Randy Hedden

www.harddogrifles.com

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

I had a gourd canteen that I won at a blanket shoot once many years ago.  After a time, the water tasted awful, so I chucked it.  I now have a leather one lined with hard pitch, and it keeps water sweet for a long time.  It's heavy though.  I'll post a picture or two if anyone is interested.

[Carper]

Thanks gentlemen,   After reading your posts, I think I'll just  use the gourd canteen for looks. It looks great hanging up. I wanted something a little different for carrying water. I thought about a fith bottle that was encased in leather with a strap that I saw at primitive shoot but used on horseback I am a little afraid of glass.  Thanks for the information.   Johnny

[Larry Pletcher]

I'm not sure what I'd do to repair one that had wax applied over an uncleaned surface, but I have made a couple that turned out dependable.  I used crushed rock to rattle around inside and cut out the liner.  I didn't stop with that tho.  I kept using smaller rock and repeating just as you would go to finer grit when using sandpaper.  My last try was sand.  When nothing else would come out, I placed it in an oven to around 300 degrees.  and melted parafin that you seal jelly jars with.  I poured the wax in and rotated the gourd to get a good coating.  Obviously have to use hot pads or gloves.  I kept rotating until the gourd was cool enough to hold without gloves.  I have never had to redo it, and no taste.

Regards,
Pletch

[mdtnhunter]

I had the same problem with one that I had a few years ago.