Capt Thighbiter

Amen Cascabel ( BTW was great seeing you at LIPF). BP is poorly understood by the general public and by most if not all public officials. Hell when I imported my large bronze cannon from the UK, the BATF officials were not even sure what the regs were and I was on the phone with the Maryland, the Boston, the PA and the Washington offices until I got someone willing to put pen to paper for the A-hole customs officer who would not release my bill of lading.

And forget about anywhere in NYC. FYI, my wife had a little visit by the FBI a few weeks ago, checking out all BP powder sales made into the NYC area thru the internet. We are 40 miles from NYC and she answered all thier questions. When asked about what we use it for, she merely pointed to the Hellion ( our van, festooned with ships wheel, mast, rigging, sail, cannon ports and a new spritsail mast and yard) and our cannons and said, " He's a f....ing pirate, what do you think he does with it". They left.

Yep, it depends WHERE the discharge will take place. If on county or city or state PARK properties, then you have to follow thier rules and you may be sorry that you ever asked ( can you say liability insurance??). If on city or on town or county properties, but not a park, - local police or fire marshall whould suffice. Carrying should never be a problem, since period BP weapons are NOT firearms under BATF regulations and don't let anyone tell you different. Basically BATF describes BP period weapons and Cannon as toys. BUT make sure your weapon meets BATF regs as far as date of the original weapon ( not yours - the one its made to resemble) and the the other regs. Hope this helps

BATF will never have regs on whether you can fire BP weapons or not... its not thier area. They regulate the sale and transportation. Not the use. The pissing contest at LIPF was just that, local low level govt minions had not had thier little egos assuaged enough and so tried to throw monkey wrench into the works. We fired anyway and no one was carted off to the gaol or fined. Local laws ( town, city , county or state) may require a permit or license to discharge ( i believe Maine has this) BP weapons. What we do is notify the local police and fire marshall of the intent to fire, and let them tell us if it's OK or not. Or make the venue of record responsible for doing that and obtaining any needed permit, insurance, etc.

Jake, I am not sure but if you take someones tune ( like an Elton John song - though why someone would use his stuff....) and parody it, you are not infringing on copyright, since its a parody. Kinda like Wierd Al does. Again, Im not sure. Let 'em chase me for the 9 pence.

nice, but $2500 !!! Even I am not that much of a pirate.

Got mine in. Brown, smooth-outs, crooked. Vera nicely made. SOLID like a rock. And.. they even fit me well. Lachets went on last nite. I'll be breaking 'em in at the Down East Pirate Days, in Maine, this weekend. Personal rating; 4.5 out of 5 parrots PS... Lady Buxley even says that they are sexy looking... go figure!

I got the same e-mail, so maybe we are all going to be well soled gents in 10-15 working days, just in time for the Down East Pirate Days for us.

Odd..... thats what they told me 3 weeks ago.

In Hellion, we are rather fond of wouldening ( wrapping said victims head with a turn or two of line and then tightening it with a belaying pin, like a tournequete, makes the eyes bug so loverly). If ye were so discomodious as to insult ship or crew, cast ye adrift with ye ears nailed to an 8 inch plank. An one learned from Mr Thatch - make the victim fast to mainmast and shove lengths of fuse under 'is eyelids and light 'em up.

Hmm. Fiddles are funny objects. Most likely you have a mid-grade instrument that might be worth the investment in getting it playable again. If you have the old bridge, thats a big step. Fitting a new bridge is expensive and needs to be done by someone who knows what they are doing - the feet of the bridge need to be in PERFECT fit to the curve of the violin top. If done poorly, the instrument will not sound good and may even crack the top due to uneven pressure of the bridge feet. It is possible to do it yourself - send me a PM. Strings - use Supersensitive mediums- good sound, easy to note. Tail piece - if you got it, I;d add individual string tuners - trying to tune with the wood pegs is always a PIA. If you dont have it, Dr Tomastik tail piece with built in string tuners is the way to go. Make sure the pegs are well fitted and easy to turn but not sloppy. Bow hair - bows are arguably the most important part of the set, and it pays to have a good man do the hair. Figure 50-75.00 to get it re-haired. It would pay to have a technician check the instrument for correct placement of the sound post too ( hopefully that is still in place inside the fiddle). It contributes greatly to the tone of the instrument.

We will be engaged in a land battle later this year, with barbarian hordes of the local LARP group. I would love to lob a few stinkpots into thier midst, though it's doubtful that they will notice, being hairy unwashed cow-bellied landsmen. Does anyone know what went into the stinkpots of the period and how they were made? Smoke grenades might be helpful too!

WHat is frustrating in trying to do period broadsheet music, is that often there are just words. If your lucky, it will say sung to the tune of "XXXXXXXXX". If your very lucky, the tune refered to is one that has been preserved and is learnable from some source. Often, they are not. In the period, as now, some songs were just so popular that the melody was known by everyone, so there was no need ( or expense) to include the sheet music for the melody. Think "St Peppers Lonley Hearts CLub Band". EVERYONE knows that melody. So if i write a parody or new words for it, I need only publish the words. I have seen in some cases that a modern bard will use broadsheet words and fit them to a much more modern melody, that seems to fit the phrasing of the words. But period shanties? I've never run across a shantey that was preserved from the period, in any kind of authoritative sense. Funny, tho, fiddle tunes have been. Devils Dream ( or Haste Amoungst the Yearlings) as been preserved and most fiddle players know at least one version if not many of this tune. I found a historical reference to it, saying that the tune was at the height of its popularity in the early 1700's!. Still gets played today, and we do one hell-fire hot version of it!

Thanks people! Thats exctly what I am looking for. The 'danes at the Faires and Invasions we perform at are in for a real surprize! And Mission, I just might slip in a biscuit made from that 'stone ground stone' in there , by way of comparitive taste and consistitency.

We are thinking of making a close approximation of the ships biscuits used aboard vessels, to give to patrons. Anyone have a recipe or a link to a recipe? Thanks in advance! Now, where can I get fake edible maggots and grubs?

We try to use nothing , when possible. Lightly tamped ( LIGHTLY) to keep the powder condensed. If we must use wadding, we use cleaning patches wadded up, for the pistols. Cannon, a wad of dry newspaper or other available pulp product. I might have to try that bread thing, I hear good things about it.

Is that what I am, after all these years?? A musichionor? Cool ! That must be because there's no honor amongst musichionors.

Oh ho, bastards now, is it? Just because 3/4 of the crew are un-natural sons, is no reason to cast aspersions on the rest of us! And we just restocked on all three albums: The Brigands Bloody Seamen Pirate Scum So order away, all who dare! Capt T

Kevin is a freakin madman when it comes to writting tunes. Give him a topic and general feel.... he comes up with 3 different takes!

Sometimes, I feel priviledged to be a member of this forum.

I hopes we still see yer smilin' visage once in a while here on the East coast, mate. But all in all, one must make hay, before the deep water runs still, or some such saying. They are somewhat good problems to have, in general.

Boccherini: La Musica Nocturna Dell Strade Di Madrid No. 6, Op. 30 (Which is essentially what you said, with all the trimmings added. It's on the soundtrack; they only play a bit of the middle in the movie.) Curiously, when I was presenting my trepanation tool in Hampton at the Blackbeard event, I'd occasionally ask people if they'd seen M&C - where they do a really good trapanation on the old sailor - and nobody, but nobody, said yes! Mission, that tune is actually in two spots on the movie, during the closing scene and also, if you are patient and watch the credits, at the point that the art director is on screen, there is a full orchestra rendition of the piece. ( told ya i watched far too many times). Whats odd is that the sound track from the movie has yet again two completely different takes then the ones used in the movie. At Hampton, we played that tune every set, it woulda been fun to do your trepaning spiel during the song.

POTC 1, 2 & 3 maybe a dozen times each Master & Commander - IMHO one of the best naval movies ever made. In order to steal the closing tune (when Aubrey and Maturin play a violin/cello duet) for The Brigands shows, I had to listen to the last 7 minutes of the film like 30 or more times. Song is "Nightmusic on the Streets of Madrid" by Bocherini (?sp)

Watch that horned skull dearie! :-)

Both good points, from people that hear more then the average share of pirate music. Anyone else? BTW Bilgey, I like some of the 'core' music groups too. LOL I wonder how they might take an accoustic version of some of thier tunes - can you say accoustic "Buccaneer Bog" or "Ramming Speed"?