Lead ladle

[Eric Smith]

I saw reenactor on YouTube  using a lead ladle that is small with a little twisted rat tail made to be mounted on a stick, convenient for a bag.. Larry Callahan makes a nice one but it is copper. I'd like to find one forged out of iron or steel. Anyone know of a source? Already checked EBAY.

[Chris Treichel]

http://www.smilingfoxforgellc.com/details.asp?id=90 they have a wrap arround kind... that looks pretty primitive.

[Dr. Tim-Boone]

http://www.cdlyles.com/



You name it Curt Makes it!!

[Eric Smith]

Thanks Doc. Thats just what I was looking for.

[cmac]

www.turkeyfootllc.com

[dannybb55]

I made mine like that but I broke my heel in 3 places yesterday so the shop has slowed down a bit

[KNeilson]

broke my heel

BTDT x 2      learned how to walk on my toes real well...  nice stuff in the pics thx for posting....     Kerry

[smokinbuck]

Contact kevin at kcalderwood@columbus.rr.com. He forges them one at a time with a folding handle attachment. Nicely done and reasonable.
Mark

[Eric Smith]

Doc, I spoke with Mr. Curt Lyles and he is making up a custom job for me. Thanks for the directions and thanks to everyone else for help.

[Hungry Horse]

I forged out a really nice sheet iron ladle for casting bullets, at events that require it. I used it once, and then sold it, because there was a guy at this event with one made of copper that would melt lead in half the time it took to melt it in my steel one. Thats why copper is better, its a better conductor of heat.

                         Hungry Horse

[Luke MacGillie]

Not to infringe on anyones artistic talents, but do these bag sized lead ladles look anything like the ones that survive from the period?

[Curt Lyles]

   Luke  page 189 of Neumann and Kravik book Collectors Illustrated  shows some ladles.  I suppose there were more than one style as there were more than one smith makin them. nothin wrong with using your own ideas when you feel like it.   Curt

[James Rogers]

I can't remember ever seeing any evidence of a pouch ladle. Is there any?

[Luke MacGillie]

I can't remember ever seeing any evidence of a pouch ladle. Is there any?

Thats what I would like to see, because a whole bunch of really talented people are putting lots of work into an item that was AFAIK, drempt up because people in the 1990's were trying to do something solo and on foot, not carrying a lot of excess weight, that folks back then were doing in groups of 12, on horseback each leading 2 pack horses.......

[Bob Roller]

I think there is a picture of Walter Cline,one of the founders of the NMLRA in frontier clothing and camp using a pouch ladle to mould balls for his rifle. The book is titled"The  Muzzle Loading Rifle,Then and Now".

Bob Roller

[Eric Smith]

Here is the one Curt made for me. I am very pleased with it.

[Hungry Horse]

The bullet ladles I seen in museums are for the most part too large to be a bag ladle. I have seen a few small ones that like the nice example pictured,  require some sort of a heat resistant handle be added. Most of the ones I have seen in collections are more like the example Hershel House makes in his blacksmithing video, and are vey small by todays standards. I believe since I live in the far west where supplies could be pretty scarce, they reused their lead as often as possible. I seem to remember seeing a small copper, or brass ladle in either one of the California Missions collection, or at Ft Ross, the Russian settlement on the California coast.

                       Hungry Horse

                                   

[Luke MacGillie]

I think there is a picture of Walter Cline,one of the founders of the NMLRA in frontier clothing and camp using a pouch ladle to mould balls for his rifle. The book is titled"The  Muzzle Loading Rifle,Then and Now".

Bob Roller

But Bob, I dont see folks trotting out their newest documented 1932 items

[rich pierce]

Luke, they were in 1932!   

I like using a ladle for running ball when I don't want to make a lot of them.  At a flea market in NYC I found a long handled, forged ladle that for all I know was used for plumbing originally.  I also found a great forged "eye loop" screwdriver at the same flea market.     Regarding the ladle, I sure would not want to tote it on my person, but maybe one ladle per packtrain of "longhunters" would serve a variety of purposes.  Useful for melting pitch too.

[Chuck Burrows]

Fred - Not necessarily 18th Century, but IIRC the Museum of the Fur Trade has some in one of the Mountain Man Sketchbooks - the sketches are based on the ones housed in the Museum. Give them a shout....

Dang I wish I could get to all my books that are still in boxes!

[T.C.Albert]

just playing devils advocate, but for an individual, casting all the lead at home and carrying it as round ball is lighter than carrying the same amount of un-cast lead "and" a ladle isn't it?

but then again maybe an individual hunter for a distant trading post etc....may commonly need to run a few balls when he ran out, especially if the post carried bar lead and his rifle threw an odd sized ball that  the traders didn't stock...in such a case having his own small portable ladle may have been the way to go.
tc

 

[Bob Roller]

Not trotting out their 1932 items? Well,  phooey and if not why not.
Actually,I hope that more of the younger guys and girls will read some of these older publications. I think the NMLRA had the Cline book for sale and might still have it available.
This book and Maj,Roberts books were written before anybody ever dreamed of the days we now live in and the word reproduction meant having babies. Cline writes about rerifling old barrels found under a cabin and restocking them and then shooting them with remarkably good results.
Everything that had to do muzzle loaders back then was all pre 1900 and some of it pre 1800.A whole industry now exists because of Walter Cline,Ned Roberts,E.M.Farris,Bill Large and others who put 50 cents in a fund to get the ball rolling.
I have a friend who frequently drives his 1932 model car and one day two youngsters pulled up beside him at a stop light and asked why he
was driving such a big old car. He told them his retirement had gone down the drain and it was all he could afford. The car is a Duesenberg dual cowl phaeton with a supercharged engine.
Current value well over a miilion dollars.

Bob Roller

[Hungry Horse]

I have a first edition of Walter Cline's wonderful book, and refer to it regularly. None of the information in this book starts out by saying go to WalMart/K-Mart and buy this. I've also worn out two copies of Fox Fire 5 for the same reason. These books don't
 teach shopping skills, they teach survival skills. 

                  Hungry Horse

[Eric Smith]

Digging back through my memory, seems to me I read about D Boone's first expedition into Kentucky, they packed all their supplies in on horseback. Then they "cached" them in several different locations to lessen the chance of them being discovered or stolen, leaving them without. Forged iron  ladles are more durable than copper ones and won't burn out. A new green sapling handle is available at any and all camps.

[Luke MacGillie]

If you do a google image search for "18th Century Lead Ladle" you get hundreds of hits that show trekkers folding ladles, and only one actual artifact:

http://www.nps.gov/museum/exhibits/revwar/image_gal/morrimg/shotladle.html

And I agee, reading the old books is important.  I had the good fortune to grow up near friendship, and attended with my Dad since way back, and remember the reverance and honor the founders of the Org were given. 

On the other hand, doing things differently than they did is not disrespect...........