Patrick Hand

If we do something like a parade...... ok maybe one or two drinks.... If we do something for /or in public..... maybe go to a bar.... one or two drinks.... one day events.... I have to drive home....... NOW Ojai.... ok maybe I've made an ass of myself .... but "afterhours" when it's just the pyrates and not the touriste...... that's party time..... and I enjoy it..... Why drive eight hours just to get drunk...... other than other pyrates are there... (yah..... never mean to drink "that" much ..... but awh hell.... I'm in a safe environment... someone laughs at what a fool I was the night befor... hey I deserve it..... ) DO I just play pyrate as an excuse to drink.... NO Do I drink when playing pyrate (ok depends on when and where ... and if I have to drive and behave....)..... ok well yah....... I figure there are times when I have to play "nice"... and I can..... But there are times when I can play pyrate... (ok too much to dirnk) not be bad just very drunk.... hey... Ojai works for me.... if I or anyone of my sea brothers is getting into trouble... help them out.... I expect the same from them......other than one misshap at Ojai ( I wasn't there....and it worked out for the better) we all play realy good( or nice.) So I guess I'd have to ansewer... its for the fun of the event... and then the party that happens afterwards....

OK.... I got the page to work (when publishing a web page it is VERY important to get where you send the page EXACVTLY right.......) Anyway.... if you go to Patrick Hand's page and scroll to the bottom of the page, there is a drawing of the "slut top" that should explaine what I'm typing about........ El Pirata.... if you keep reading this subject.... someone might even say..... nipple.......

Th' dirty thoughts that just went shootin' through my brain on that one.......

There is a booth at the Northern California Fairs that sells bodices.... thier line..... "Our bodices will give a teenage boy cleavage....."

damn.. I gotta be th" bad guy( glad you all ain't English" ) .....but it was just something missing "something"..... don't know what.. can't figure what "it" is: ...... otherwise....it was cool..............dang... maybe I'm to jaded...... it was cool bits,,,,... and when I figure out what "it is...." then next year....

OK this isn't period.... but I call it a "slut top" worn under a bodice it can be worn as low as you dare, and you wont "fall out" Basicly the body is a tube, with a casing for a drawstring at the top (don't use elastic or you WILL fall out...)when worn, the drawstring should be slightly snug, but not tight... The puffy sleaves are also tubes with a casing at both ends and elastic to fit your upperarm and wrist ... the wider you make the sleaves .. the puffier they will be.... . the sleaves are attached to the body with a few stitches in the armpit. so when it is worn, it looks like the sleaves are falling off your shoulders. I've made a few of them for lady...errr... female friends... and even tho I know they won't fall out of the top... I'm looking along with everyother guy to see if she will...... "There's nothing like a lowcut bodice to keep a man on his toes...)

.... But I thought that was the whole idea behind them......

If you know sorta how to sew... then I'd agree with blackjohn.... in the beginers section are instructions on how to make a chimesse (sp).... (the womans blouse... nightgown... underwear thing........) But browse the site.... it has a lot of very good information.... .... and I was going to sujest that for a proper wench... all she would need would be a torn skirt...... kinda shows you what a sexist pigdog kinda pyrate I am...........

Right now I have a short light weight blue wool sailors jacket that I made... in Summer it works fine (ok it was a bit hot at Ojai...) but the wool is not heavy enough for when we play on the San Fransico Bay with the Royaliste...( dang it gets cold out there....) I found an on-line surplus store where I can get Navy blankets for about $20 ... I figure I can make two short sailor jackets out of one blanket...... line them with light denim (turned wrong side out of a lighter shade of blue) ... THAT should keep me warm.....

I have three different hats..... One is made from a black Jas Townson hat blank. I filled the top with boiling water... let is soak through, then stretched the top over a coffee can to reshape it (dumped the boiling water out first....). I then folded black ribbon over the edges, and hand sewed through one edge of the ribbon... through the brim... and caught the other edge of the ribbon..... stiched one side to how it up..... (see picture to left) I should look up the part on using either lacqre or varnish flakes and alchohol to stiffin the brim.... I also have two "tarpaulin" hats that I made.... one is small, about the size of a "Boonie hat" and the other is the "classic" pyrate hat with a wide brim.... they are sewn from canvas, that is then painted with a heavy coat of black oil base paint. The paint makes them kind of hard, but it also makes them waterproof.

Captain_MacNamara..... Hummm... how would that work?..." excuse me sir... but your boots appear to be on fire........."

I just finished reading Hinting Pirate Heaven In Search of the Lost Pirate Utopias of the Indain Ocean it containes very little about pirates... but was a fun travelog .... Don't get it expecting much on pirates.... but it is a fun read. I'm also reading Master and Commander (just don't tell Capt. Gary.... he might not understand why I haven't already read it...) AND I'm reading The Wooden World: An Anatomy of the Georgian Navy it covers the English Navy durring the Seven Year Wars... and contains many interesting details of the Royal Naval. AND The Great Age of Sail but this is more of a picture book, so I'm just reading the first part that covers ships from the pirate time period.... I usually read about three different books at any time.... but I'm so cheap, that I have to find them in used bookstores.... A book I realy want to find is another copy of .... Love stories of famous Pirates I can't figure out the "love story" part in the title...... but from what I remember.... It was a great pyrate book...... I also just finished Wake of the Perdido Star by Gene Hackman and Daniel Lenihan....and it was a very fun read........

Dang...... we never get hurricanes here.... so how am I to ever hope to find some long lost treasure.........

I know that hanging a tankard of my belt isn't period, but I don't realy want to share a single tankard with all of my mess mates. and if I drink something like a (gasp!) coke, or a beer, I'd rather pour it into my handy tankard than drink out of the can..... ....OK so I can't defend my carrying a shrunken head on my cutlass's scabbard...... other than the squeels of "oooh ick...." from kids when they see it..... i carry.... a heavy belt with knife and pistol. A baldrick with pistol and cutlass, and a cartradge box for my musket . I have enough clutter just carrying my weapons.... I figure the addition of a tankard and shrunken head isn't to much more...

Well without using any powder in the cute cannon.... she can't "explode" it.....

Humm... thinking about it, the S.C.A. would be a good group to "recrute" from. There are a lot of people at events who like to dress up, party, and have a good time, but some of them are lacking in "direction" (ok how many nobles from Transalvania traviling around Europe were there ? (I've meet five different ones...)) Reenactors tend to avoid the S.C.A. because of it's low level of authintisity... But there are people in the group who might want to play pyrate also........

The question about the cops... I figured they were use to all the pyrates.... I've just had hastles in Sonora CA. for dressing like a pyrate.......(once after the opening of PotC and another time on Halloween.... cowboys and gunslingers they can understand.... Pyrates confuse them.....) But I remembered another question..... What is the weather like then.... I don't think I will have to bring an overcoat... but I wouldn't want to over or under pack.......

I wish there was a source book kind of like the "Mountain Man skatchbooks, or Sketchbook 76) that showed period naval (pirate would be better.......) gear and its dementions.. I make mose of my stuff, and haveing measurements would be a great help. I can't think of many occasions when I'd use a naval hammock... but I'd still like to make one....

It was his first day wit his hook..................

Ok ... thats kinda what I figured, just wanted to check......

Dang.... everything I could find on Seacheast... only said they were about 14 to 17 inches tall.... and heavely reenforced so with rough handling they wouldn't "break......... OK and the sailors spent a lot of time decorating the bails / handles of them,,,,,,,, some of the stuff that was once used by sailors.... dang... can't find good info on it....... such as.......... what size were hamocks........ dang some dementions on this stuff has to be out there someplace...........

Just a thought on Period shoes...... in one of the Foxfire books, there is a chapter on cobbling..... hummm... straight last... that means I only have to make one.... so my feet point funny..... ok can live with that... may be do able to make some new shoes...... OK only peg sole construction..... I might be able to figure that out....... hummmmm.... has anyone else attemped such a thing....?

I use to be in the SCA..... when I was in Tennessee they were much cooler back East than out here in California.... had a hell a lot more fun... (awwwwwh and Pensic..... I'm the guy from down in "the Bog" that painted womens breast..... ( great job if you can get it....))(and a very interesting story goes with that.....) Don't play with them sence I moved back to California.... if you think the poly tick are thick..... check out them damn bugs out west........ Tried it with one group... they were all Middle Eastern... so I did a Barbary Coast Corsair (sp)..... they were good nice people....... but it just wasn't any fun....... will I ever play with the SCA again...... awh... heck..... maybe...... but they are not reenactors... just a party........

Ronin were master sword smiths?....... OK.... 14th century Japaneese vs 14th century Knights...... weapons change.. and fighting styles change..... (I won't go into the Japs vs. the Koreans and why the sword needed some new developments.....) NOW.... 17Th century Europeans vs. 17 century Japaneese...... hey... that can be looked up in the history books.......

Nother stupid question....... and kinda delicate......... how are the police in Key West? In Santa Cruz.... you have to be doing something wrong to get hastled...... In Sonora, just dressing like a pyrate was enough to get stopped.... So if you have a tummy full of rum, walking back to your room (not yelling... or a "danger to yourself or others") do they hastle you? I know this is another "comon sence" bit....... but how do they handle the influx of pyrates......?