Gentleman of Fortune

Hey guys. Its been a while. Every so often, I like to check in and see what everyone is up to. There use to be a thread called, "You in your Pirate Garb" or something like that. I can't find it. Anyone know where it went off to? Or, you can just post em here!

Its true. I handed the keys to magic buckle land over to M B some time ago. Even sold him a ton of original buckles as well, so he is officially the new buckle King. But, I can sleep soundly at night knowing that there are at leas 100 folks walking around with the right buckles on their shoes. sigh....

Greetings Without a long preamble of the whys and hows, the reality is that I don't have enough time effort and energy to maintain the gentlemenoffortune.com website. I created and have maintained the GOF site for about 8 years now but really haven't put my heart and soul into it for the last year... so maybe it needs a new owner with fresh ideas. The site generates anywhere from 6000-7000 visitors per month... which I think is pretty good considering its been running itself for over a year. Most of the folks that sail into GOF's port are looking for authentic clothing and weapons (according to the awstats) So if you have been thinking of starting up (or already have) some sort of Pirate Business, here is an opportunity to have a web presence that guarantees traffic without having to start from scratch. I just renewed the domain name and hosting services, which annual amount to about $60. You get all the files, and rights to photos on the site, and I'll mail you back ups via CD Rom of everything that I have up and was even thinking about putting up. I don't even know what to ask... but I know I will never recoup the 100s of hours spent on the site. You can pm me here or use my gof @ gentlemenoffortune . com address if you want to discuss it further. Cheers and fair winds

Wow! Great idea, outstanding execution. Best of luck!

I jump in with Foxe on this one... In the time frame we are talking 1680-1720 The "Cutlass" was defining itself. It was the result of needing a specific style weapon for its intended purpose. A hundred years later, its defined, and a Cutlass, is a Cutlass... or what a non-historical geek would think of when they hear the word. At the same time in history, sailors trousers are being defined. Slops, Slop Hose, Sailor's Trousers, Petticoat Breeches, Breeches all are evolving into what 100 years later are ubiquitously known as slops. Its interesting stuff though.

Sent picks of the grapplin' hook. Can't wait to see the results.

The other thing to consider is, in General, we are talking a smaller FASTER pirate ship against a larger SLOWER Commercial Vessel. So the speed and maneuverability edge is in the pirates favor. Next is numbers. A pirate ship would have 40, 60, 120 men or more on board... the "Victim" would probably have just enough men to sail her... 12, 20, 32? So the scenario is that a Smaller Faster Ship with a crew that outnumbers you 4 or 5 to one says, "Stop where you are or we will catch you and kill everyone of you" Your average sailor on the commercial vessel really doesn't have a dog in the fight... its not his ship or his cargo.... so, you can have it.

I was going to suggest the grappling hook as well. They should be easy to make (says the non-metal worker) and right now, nobody else is doing them. So strike while the iron is hot... so to speak. The other thing that would be neat are heads for boarding pikes. If you can make one in the 17th/18th century style, that would fill a niche too. You can let folks get their own wood to put your head on. Even simple stuff like period nails would be cool to have in/around camp.... The trick is researching all the little nick knack everyday stuff that nobody else is doing. Cheers! PS If you need pictures of period graphooks or pikes, shoot me a pm

Check out Track of the wolf 1636 French Rifle http://www.trackofthewolf.com/Categories/partDetail.aspx?catId=12&subId=78&styleId=266&partNum=AAE-808 Dutch Club butt http://www.trackofthewolf.com/Categories/partDetail.aspx?catId=12&subId=81&styleId=284&partNum=AAH-809 French Smoothbore http://www.trackofthewolf.com/Categories/partDetail.aspx?catId=12&subId=81&styleId=284&partNum=AAH-408

Guys... In your excitement, you failed to look at the date of the post... It was almost 2 years ago. I'll look around though, and see what I can find. That one is looooong gone!

Greetings. I have revived this post, as I have received e-mails requesting I make more... so, if you are interested, send me a pm and we can work something out.

I would expect that most craft felt is acrylic, or at least some part synthetic. My guess is that you want a brim like a donut with hole, and then "sew in" a dome? interesting. If you really want to delve into the hat craft, I still think you should get some caplines and then a hat block for the size(s) you intend to make. A friend made his own block by cutting circles of 1" thick plywood and gluing them together. Fortunately, for our period. Hats were "round" and not oval/headshaped back then. cut a plywood donut to slip on top of the block to help shape, and with a little steam/heat/pressure, you'll be on your way. I think you can still order hat blocks... but they are pricey. http://www.hatblocks.co.uk/ Wool Felt http://www.localharvest.org/jacob-wool-felt-dark-gray-C13654?r=fr http://www.sefelt.com/ Good luck regardless

I think you need to learn the lingo of what you are looking for first... I don't mean this to be a slight... I am just trying to help. Depending on what you what to do with them.... For Example... Make a Tricorn... Try Searching/Googling Fur Felt Hoods or capelines Those are are "shaped" wool felt bodies. Check here too http://www.hatsuk.com/hatsuk/hatsukhtml/bible/feltmanu.htm as it will give you some more ideas. Here is a hood Here is a capeline

Ok, friends in the UK. I used to live about 30 miles from Ipswich sigh..... Cannon : Two of them!

Can't go wrong... Bagley or Stirling would have been my Recommendation and by the way, if you want them made out of 100 year old hand woven linen... let me know as I am sending a package to MB tomorrow.

More Coming

Revived Post

They are reproductions made with an airport friendly ceramic material. 10 cm in diameter, 20mm fuse hole. Handmade wooden fuse, covered in linen/hemp twine and waterproofed with wax. Here they are sitting next to an original that I USED to own

SOLD! Keep a weather eye out, as I will be posting some antique linen next week! GoF

Outstanding deal then... I don't think I'd machine sew one for $75. Cheers!

We all have in our heads what a pirate flag is... and a lot of times its a concotion of our own fantasies blended with what Hollywood has told us. This is not meant to be a treatise on Pirate Flags, but as an opportunity to try and get as close to "authentic" pirate flags as we can. Fox has done some interesting work in the field of pirate flags, you can check it out a the Pirate Mythtory Flag Page Not all pirate flags were black, it seems that in the begging, most were RED. But I am digressing and I swore not to do that. My speculation is that there was not a Pirate Flag Store in Tortuga. Pirates probably fashioned a flag from the flags that were already on board the ship. Ships carried all kinds of flags to signal each other or to wear a nations colors. Logically then (at least to me) other flags would be cannibalized to make a pirate flag. There are already some great threads here at the pub about Pirate flags, so I will direct you there Pirate Flag Construction Pirate Flag Size Back in my Halcyon days of pirate Re-enacting, I thought it would be cool to have an authentically made pirate flag for display purposes. The tricky wicket of course is where to get 1x2 ply Wool Flag bunting. I contacted some wool manufacturers but the set up cost and sheer number of yards and colors that needed to be order put the project out of reach. Then, at a military antiques market, I thought I found my answer. In a box were some WW2, possibly pre-ww2 wool flags. They were signal flags, in Naval Alphabet Letters. My idea was to do what I thought Pirates did... cannibalize the flags to make a pirate flag. As one of the flags was already damaged, it provided enough inspiration to buy the boxed lot. Each of the flags is made from a series of panels, which I am sure "original GAOP" flags were constructed. I can't remember what the size of wool bunting panels was for the GAOP, but remember reading something about naval flags from the latter part of the 18th century and I believe they were about 20"(?) For all practical reasons, I am out of the pirate game. If you want to pick up where I left off, you are more than welcome. I have 5 flags and one is already partially disassembled. All are approximately 7 Feet x 6 Feet First is the letter "F" Second is the Letter "X" Next is the Letter "G" I have two of these, only one is pictured Lastly, is the partially disassembled letter "F" the red square is 4.5' x 4.5' These flags were about $75 each... i got a little better deal buying them all. I'll let them go for $200 Shipped and Paypal'd I would imagine that as WW2 flags, they are probably worth more than what I am asking, so I'll probably list them on eBay if I don't get a sale here.

These are kind of on hold for a buyer who I am waiting on a yea or nea from. If you are interested, PM me and I will offer it on a first come, first served basis.

SOLD With the best intentions, I bought the blankets to make short jackets or some other bit of sailor clothing.... These are vintage blankets... I am guessing most are at least 20-30 years old at least... some maybe twice that. SOLD Paypal is best for me. WB-1 & WB-2 88" x 65" Old wool blankets make great short jackets. I am a big guy and I got a short jacket out of one of these easy with room to spare. 100% blankets are getting harder to find... so I'll make it easy for you. These blankets are basket woven and have been washed multiple times in their careers. They have that nappy tight woven-ness that was great for nautical clothing during the GAoP. With two, you could make a long frock coat, great coat, or Justaucorps. Or just a neat short jacket. WB-3 80" x 60" Same as above but tighter woven and more nappy and a little smaller. Light blue. Would make a sweet sailor's jacket WB-4 $15 78" x 62" Same as above but really think and Nappy. Its pink... or "salmon". A popular color (it was an easy color to dye/achieve in the GAoP). I made my short jacket from this blanket's brother (or sister) WB-5 84" x 64" This blanket is a little thinner than the above, but still a nice piece of fabric for your progject. This one is a mint green color Posted Image

Linen Hand sewn Shirts.... for $75... is that a typo?

Hate to cross post but saw a neat Hat at the Frontier Folk site http://frontierfolk.net/phpBB/viewtopic.php?p=244257#244257 GoF