Stynky Tudor

Arr Capt Weaver, I've got a strong interest in wheellock weapons myself. I've only done a basic search on the internet for them and like kits, haven't had much luck finding more than a couple sources though.

There be a program or two on the History Channel about early firearms, but they always seem to gloss over the wheellock, going straight from hand held cannons to the flintlock.

Would mind taking some "in process" pictures of your wheellock construction and sharing them with the board, or at least me if no one else is interested?

And wow, that book sounds amazing! Any chance you can tell us what the title is? I would love to see copies of the diagrams?

Aye Capt. William, New Orleans be a fine place to form a pirate'n crew.

Do you already be part of a crew presently? Or just be looking to form one in memory of brother Laffite?

Great Cat! Got any ideas on what we should to do next?

The Virginia Renaissance Faire in Ladysmith is just finishing up it's last week-end, this week-end. With all the rain, the faire site has been pretty muddy and with more rain predicted... I hope it's not a total wash for the organizers. (no pun intended)

I know there be a Renaissance Festival in Maryland sometime in the summer, maybe we can meet up there.

Oh hell that's too long to wait, we should just make plans to meet somewhere.

Thanks :-P

Well technically Virginia isn’t landlocked either, but I do be inland a fer bit, just north of Harrisonburg and JMU. According to Map Quest, I be at least a couple or three hours away from the Chesapeake, Alexandria, Baltimore and the like.

Being originally from California, sitting in my carriage for stupid amounts of time doesn’t seem undoable when done in the name of fun. After a spy of CaptCat’s profile, I see that the crew of the Matriarch be in Alexandria, Virginia as well. We should all attempt a sort of gathering of our own, maybe a point in between.

Obviously I can’t write a coherent sentence either...

Anyway, you know what I ment.

Ah ha! I found thee edit button and fixed me typeo in me previous post.

Pirate Charity, I see a lot of posts here that reference clothing patterns and it looks like a couple people have even hijacked your thread and started talking about hats. ( Now people, please try and stay on topic *sigh* )

Ok, if you’re looking for some great visual reference, there’s always the classic pirate drawings and paintings of Howard Pyle. I’ve done a internet search but, can’t seem to find a good one-stop repository of his images online.

Some time ago, I a saw a great coffee table type picture book of his works, it was awesome and out of my budget. At the time I just thought that I would go back and pick it up later or maybe wait to see it on remainder, well I think we all know how that turned out.

The couple books that I have purchased of Howard Pyle’s works have been disappointing. The graphic plates look horrible, poor quality black and white reproductions, dark, muddy halftones that look like bad Xerox copies.

You should also check out NC Wyeth, he was a student of Howard Pyle and did some great pirate themed paintings as well.

If you’re looking for something a bit more accessible, I think the “Elite” books series of Sea Dogs, Buccaneers and Pirates, illustrated by Angus McBride are great. Unfortunately, there’s only a small handful of MacBride’s illustrations in each book. I still think they are well worth it, if not for the illustrations then for the history and information.

In fact Osprey publishing, has a whole slue of related period books.

http://www.ospreypublishing.com/

Elizabethan Sea Dogs 1560-1605

http://www.ospreypublishing.com/title_deta...e=S0153~ser=ELI

Buccaneers 1620-1700

http://www.ospreypublishing.com/title_deta...e=P9123~ser=ELI

Pirates 1660-1730

http://www.ospreypublishing.com/title_deta...e=P7066~ser=ELI

I really want to see some images of your salvaged-converted cowboy hats, I’m real intrigued with the possibilities. I’ve been a bit frustrated with the slouch hat blanks that I’ve made into Caviler, Tricorne and flat brimmed pirate hates.

Though I really like the quality of the Jas. Townsend hat blanks, for a colors other than black, I’ve also bought slouch hat blanks from Lady Mac Snood’s and Blockade Runner.

The slouch hats from Jas. Townsend and Lady Mac Snood’s are great and are pretty consistent in quality. With a boiling pot of water, a hot iron and a sprits I can pretty much get them to do bend to my will.

The Blockade Runner slouch hat blanks vary though. From felt that’s thick and hard to work with to thin felt that can be pulled apart if one stretches or works them too much. These blanks aren't bad for those who really want hard for their hats. Trust me, what you see in the picture isn't what you get.

If you can’t tell already, I’m a little obsessed with hat making…

What I really want are felt hat blanks that have brims larger than the usual 4-5 inches. I did some research, bought some hat blocks/hat forms and figured that I would just have to make my own felt hat blanks. Of course that’s easier said than done, making felt from wool is hard work.

Say, has anyone tried making a pirate hat out of a Mexican style sombrero?

Here's some links to the places I mentioned, sorry for duplication:

Jas. Townsend & Family

http://www.jastown.com/

http://www.jastown.com/hats/hb-902.htm

Lady MacSnood

http://www.snoods.com/

http://www.snoods.com/hats.html

Blockade Runner

http://www.blockaderunner.com/

http://www.blockaderunner.com/Catalog/catpg16.htm

Aye Capt WE, That be a fine avatar picture whether ye trying to appear sexy or not.

In my avatar picture I was trying to look sexy but everyone just sees to laugh.

CaptCat, my apologies for implying that you aren’t already involved in these sort of events. Since I don’t really know you or to what extent you are or aren’t involved, it was wrong for me to include you.

Aye Capt. William, though the practicalities of our geography does make for an unlikely crew association, be it reenactor, actor, performer or otherwise, I here be looking to go on account.

And if there be any other landlocked Sea Dawgs in Virginia or in the surrounding unknown parts and also be interested in forming a pirate group, please feel free to contact me.

Wow, these are some great ideas! I really like the idea about pillaging old cloth from bed sheets, blankets and the like. Thrift shops rule!

Do any of you have a camera, scanners or digital camera? It would be great to share examples of the work.

I actual made a couple pairs of over the knee pirate breechs that tie around the waist. I made them out of an old IKEA canvas couch cover that was stained, ripped and needed to be retired. Since the fabric was a brightish cyan blue, I bleached the material a few times. After I had sewn everything together they were still on the bright blue side. So I boiled them and boiled them and boiled them in a combination of tea bags and brown clothes dye. Aside from setting the dye into the fabric, boiling them seemed to break down the fibers a bit so the material wasn’t so stiff.

The idea was to make them look as though they were made out of sail cloth. And I need to modify the design, the waist should ride up a bit higher and the legs flare out a bit.

I was thinking I would post a picture of them but, realized that I must have gotten rid of them, we moved across country about a year ago.

If anyone is interested, I’ll formalize the simple pattern and make it available on the web.

Oh, I love the Syke's Sutlery's web site!

I just wish I could afford everything I want from there, a bandolier, a dozen or so bottles, a matchlock rifle, a rifle stand.

But fer now I'll just have to be happy with replica pistols. I have been thinking about turning some faux bottles on the lath...

Actually, I remeber back when, I really miss the sound of Celts yelling "make way" and pushing through the crowd...

Sigh

Cat, I couldn't agree with you more!

In fact Pirate Molly was just saying earlier today how The Tortuga Mutineers really made the event, setting up the mood and adding a lot of character.

Cascabel, Raven, Braze and your fellow Mutineers are a credit to you professions.

And Cascabel I get your meaning, Capt. Cat and I should get off our pirate arses, get involved and make events like these better.

Great, thanks for fixing the photot album MacVox! Sorry to have buggered it up again.

Anyway, I've got everything tidied up on my end now and I've reposted all the images I have worth sharing from the Black Beard Festival.

Enjoy

I don't know, this all just sounds so silly.

Now granted, the common view that the "Golden Age of Piracy" started in the 1700's but, if you look back at history, it really seemed to start in the mid 1500's with the Elizabethan Sea Dogs. Pirates or Privateers such as Sir John Hawkins and Sir Francis Drake, raided Spanish outposts in the “New World” and the gold ships on their way back to Spain, not to mention Grace Granuaile O’Malley’s pirating off the coast of Ireland about the same time. And piracy didn’t stop after Queen Elizabeth’s rule, it just continued on into the mid 1800’s.

As for the rigid Renaissance Faires, we just leave our tricorn hats at home and wear something period. Our replica blunderbuss and pistol are Wheel Lock type, invented in the mid 1500’s. Though they would have been to expensive make and repair to be very popular, they are of the same period.

We are just attendees though and I think we’re looking to get more involved.

Oh Angus, if you could fix one more thing for me on the Photo Album site. It seems that I've uploaded duplicates of "The Tortuga Mutineers 3" image, could you please delete one of them?

Thanks

CaptCat, I have to agree with you. The event did seem poorly organized, I wasn't sure if it was the morning rain or the prediction of afternoon thunder storms or maybe I was just expecting to much.

In any case I did see Cascabel, Ravan and Braze of The Tortuga Mutineers, they were great! And other than a few other reenactors, the The Tortuga Mutineers were the only reenactors that seemed to really enjoy what they were doing and made themselves accessable to the attending public and available for pictures.

Some of the other reenactors seemed to be stand offish and hiding out behind the ropes of the pirate camp or avoiding eye contact when out wondering around.

Also, the fair could have used more trinket shops and a variety of food and drink stalls.

Now don't get me wrong, we had a great time and will go again next year for sure.

Alright, besides wishing I could go back and modify descriptions, add people and event names, dates and what image and thumnail images are used, I've got a technical question....

I had trouble uploading the images from my comuter to the album site, I assume it's a firewall issue with my router and computer. So, I uploaded the images to my web server and then punched in the URL from there.

My question is, have the images been transfered to the pyracy.com album site or are they linked back to the source of the images on my web site? Meaning that if I delete or modify the images on my web site or move them to a different directory, will that kill the display at the album site?

Thanks, glad you enjoy them.

I actualy took a bunch more photos but one of the memory sticks for me enchanted spy glass got corrupted before I could download them to me computer.

Also, If there be any names that can I associate with the faces, please let me know.

Ouch, I uploaded some images from the Hampton Black Beard Festival to the Piracy Pub Photo Album. It looks as though I messed up a few of the uploads and used the same picture image as the thumbnail. I clicked the back button to try and fix it, all it did was upload the image two or three times.

Sorry for the mess.

I think the Photo Album needs an edit option.

Well, I've uploaded some images from the Hampton Black Beard Festival to the Pyracy Pub Photo Album. I think messed up on a couple uploads though, I used the same picture image as the thumbnail. I clicked the back button to try and fix it, all it did was upload the image twice. Sorry for the mess.

Depending on stormy seas an such, I be planning on attend'n the festival here in Virginia this year. It'll be me first time on this side of the new world, actually me first time attending any pirate specific event, been attending the Northern and Southern Renaissance Faires in California for years.

Though it'll be breaking character, I'll be bring me enchanted spyglass along in hopes of catching something to share in the Photo Gallery.