Captn' Pete! You out there??

[Rateye]

Hey Pete!

I heard a vicious rumor that you know how to make weathered parchments and such??

If so, I have some ideas and would like to get some advice from someone in the know. Savey?

Rats

[Cap'n Pete Straw]

What the...?

Is this thread really of interest to the Pub in general? Or were ye looking for someone in particular? Isn't that what the "PM" button is for?

Yes ... I have over 35 years experience making antiqued docments, and have the process down to a bit of a science (technically, it's an "art"). My primary output for the past decade has been "forging" extremely-authentic looking Civil War paperwork (documents of almost every sort). The stuff is solely intended for use as theatrical props and/or scene staging for photographers (that completely accurate statement is made for certain legal reasons).

I naturally extended this into making some (actually "craploads") of pirate stuff... but for lack of time I have limited my output to myself, my son, and a few other people here in the Pub... which I have chosen to give away rather than sell (I cannot begin to keep up with the potential commercial demand). I think I know someone associated with you who may have told you this "vicious rumor" -- and if I can find an appropriate mailing container, he will shortly be receiving what I promised to send him...

For the recent Pirate Festival in Port Washington (WI), I made several hundred antiqued copies of Ship's Articles for the Fool's Gold... our crew spent two days signing up kids as members of the crew; each kid was able to walk away with a signed (by them and by a crew member) copy of teh Ship's Articles. An awful lot of adults wanted them, too. We made them wait in line behind the kids.

Are you planning to be at the Bristol Ren Faire this coming weeknd? If so, just ask me (when we meet) to show you the Letter of Marque I made for myself.

If not... well, what is it you want to make? I will tell you how I would go about doing it, in such a way that you can do it yourself.

[Rateye]

That's exactly what I was hoping to hear!

The reason I thought I'd post, is one, I'm always over my limit for personal mesages and two, why not give you some credit and pass the good word.

I will be there on Sat! Wouldn't miss it!!

My plans are actually centered toward prep for Renfest and the various displays possibilities for said event.

So with that being said, yer 1st drink is on ol' Rats!

R

[Cap'n Pete Straw]

...And the second round is on me! I look forward to meeting ye, mate! If ye don't see me elsewhere, look for me at the Pig & Whistle!

Let's make use of this thread ye created... After we meet and discuss the topic at hand, we should post the methods and process discussed to share with others. I know I have posted some of this information previously, but this "active" thread has probably caught the attention of others...

[Blackfoot]

Okay, I admit Rateye and Cap'n Pete, this has peaked my interest also. So, if I am wanting something "personalized" from Pete or something I can do myself, how can I go about doing this?

[Cap'n Pete Straw]

*sigh*

If I tell you now, what will Rateye and I talk about over tankards of stout tomorrow?

Okay, since you asked so nicely... Let's see if I can do some justice to this topic... I expect this will be a long post, and I will probably have to add several ideas that do not come immediately to mind. Some of this may seem bloody obvious, but I've got a lot of thought put into this, so it is probably worth your reading the entire thing.

There are four major categories of Pirate Documents which I have made:

-A- Treasure (or other nautical) map

-B- Letter of Marque (or "Letters of Mart")

-C- Articles of Confederation / Ship's Articles

-D- Printed currency

Not counting -E-: For the record, I also created a most impressively worded Declaration of Siege, with all sorts of threatening language and seals and stuff. This was presented to the head of our neighborhood Block Party Committee, threatening that unless the theme of this year's neighborhood party was "Pirates!", a confederation of hostile ships would lay siege to the neighborhood, bombard it with powder and ball, kidpnap and torture the "Governor and members of his family," and other nasty stuff. It was probably a few hundred words long, and was hilarious. I then received a phone call asking me to appear before the Committee to explain how to pull off a pirate theme; everyone was so impressed by the document, they felt they had to give me time to air my thoughts. I showed up to the meeting in full pirate regalia -- then they realized I was a force to be reckoned with.... Okay, I am way off-topic, but there is more to the story. Later.

I do not plan to address -D- here, but we can come back to that later if you insist. Honestly, printed currency (I have a small treasure chest full of it) was mostely outside of the GAoP... but the stuff can be a useful prop for pirates of the Colonial / Revolutionary War era.

Regarding A+B+C, there is an important decision that needs to be made. You are either (1) antiquing a printed document (the printing is done first), or you are hand-writing (or hand-drawing) on a piece of antiqued parchement (the antiquing is done first). I will not enter into a CAPTAIN TWILL discussion regarding the authenticity of seeming moveable type on a document, because I acknowledge that hand-writing your document is far more authentic. But I really do not have that kind of time, and can produce scores (possibly hundreds) of great looking documents while you are still messing with your ink pen.

I will address here only antiquing a pre-printed document for a few reasons. First, you can omit most of the following steps if all you want is to antique paper. Also, if you have handwriting that is THAT good, you are probably doing most of this already.

Next elimination: I am only going to talk here about -B- Letters of Marque. The map thing (A) is rather intuitive, and if I have to explain to you on top of everything else how to do it, you should probably be buying them from someone else. Similarly,any process I would describe for tailor-making -C- Ship's Articles would be virtually the same as for Letters of Marque.

Okay...

FIRST: The wording. You need a source for authentic script. This is where real piracy is involved. Steal it. There's this great web site called "Google," have you heard of it? Seriously -- search for "Letter Marque" and see what you come up with. Some original letters have their full text available on the Internet. There is at least one Internet company out there that makes Letters of Marque (historical and fantasy), and somewhat unwisely provides the entire text for you (although they may alter their web site when they find out what I am revealing here). Copy and paste it into a Word (or other) document. Even if you have your own idea of what you want to say, this saves you a lot of keystrokes. If you cannot find a source, you can PM me...

SECOND: Customize it. What is your Pirate (oops! sorry!) I mean Privateer name? The name of your vessel? Number of guns? Men? Etcetera? Some Letters of Marque state all of this, some gloss over everything other than the names of Captain, Ship and Port. Figure out what you want said (also year of document; aprpopriate country, flag, ruler, etc), and add as mch or little detail as you see fit.

THIRD: Print it. A couple of points here...

You have to choose a good font. "London" or "Old English" are what I use; but the decision is yours. You want it to look old, and the public perceives gothic style fonts as old.

I recommend you oversize it. "Big" gives your document a "not modern" appearance (you can always trim off edges). If you have used enough words, you can fit it on ledger size paper (11" x 17"; I don' know what the European equivalent is). Many early documents had HUGE margins, so feel free to indent heavily -- again, that "not modern" look. If you have a regular home computer & printer, "landscape" (sideways) print your document onto two pages and tape it together to make it ledger size... Then take it to a self-service public copy store (FedEx/Kinkos in the US) and copy it onto a single ledger size sheet of paper (should be less than 20c per copy). Make sure that the "seam" of your two pages (or from any pasted artwork) does not show up as a line on the copy. This is still probably an essential step, as you most likely have an inkjet printer at home and not a laser writer; you will need water-proof printing, and inkjet copies are unsatisfactory. You should be sure you are using reagular weight copy paper -- do not use glossy or treated paper specialized for color copies -- although it can still work, the end results are not as satisfactory as the cheap stuff. Important: make more than one copy -- trust me on this.

- - - - - -

Now you have your document. And you have more than one copy. And you are ready to antique it. And that's really what you have been waiting for, right?

Fine. Next step. But cool your heels for a moment. If you have not taken the time and care to have a GREAT looking document, then all the antiquing in the world ain't gonna make it look any less crappy. Really -- take pride in your work. It should already look really great, althugh perhaps it's on extremely white paper... unless you printed it on store-bought "parchement" (in which case, why are you reading this?). The proceeding details are easily as important (if not more so) than the following steps, and I am obligated to impart to you ALL of my wisdom/experience, not just half the process.

But first -- I have to post this NOW, for fear that this computer will crash on me, and I will not typr this all a second time...

[Cap'n Pete Straw]

Antiquing/staining paper.

Believe it or not, this is the easy part. I have been staining paper and forging antique theatrical printed documents for well over thirty (35?) years. And it really could not be easier than what I am about to tell you -- you will think it must be more complicated than this, but it ain't. I've tried just about everything, but this works so well, why try anything else?

To review: this is a Wet process, so you should not use it on watersoluble inks (i.e. documents from an inkjet printer). Regular photocopies will work fine, as well as things run off a laser printer. "Regular" paper works best. You will need to experiment on things like newsprint, treated papers (i.e. for color copies -- these can be problematic) or other textiles.

Before I begin, a category of antiqued document I forgot to add to my list is Labels. For instance, a printed label (such as the simple word "Rum") can be stained, cut to size, and affixed to an ordinary (or extraordinary!) bottle using simple white glue. Absolutely great for dressing a set.

HOW TO STAIN ("antique") PAPER -- THE EASY WAY...

1. First, make yourself a nice hot cup of Lipton Tea. No, really, do it. While the tea bag is still sopping wet and quite hot (but not so hot you burn yourself), take it out of your beverage and wipe it all over the document you wish to stain.

What? Is that all? Well, yes -- that's the essential part, but please read on, as there are extra tricks that I would like to share, and for which you will quite thankful.

2a. Dry it. Obviously, you need to lay out the paper to dry. Hopefully you made more than one copy. Place the dry document face-down on the wet stained one, and allow a bit of stain transfer between the two to occur as the more-wet one evaporates a bit. If you have a large stack of them, repeat this wet-to-dry process after a few minutes.

2b. (more on drying) You will assuredly need to lay out the separate sheets to air dry (and not leave them in a moist stack). However, if you simply "shuffle" the drying documents (careful -- they can tear; the analogy of "wet paper" comes to mind), you will notice that they will slowly give up their moisture -- and stain each other in the process.

2c. (still more) Since the moisture is lost to the air, if you can place them near a faan, the increased airflow will speed the process. You will find it difficult to put them IN FRONT OF a fan, as they tend to blow away... this can be overcome by laying each sheet partially under the previous one closer to the fan in a long column, with the CLOSEST to the fan weghted down (never expoing a leading edge to catch in the breeze).

2d. Use extreme discretion in applying any form of paperweight, as the item can easily leave an unwanted mark (either as an impression embossed in the wet paper, or stain gathering at points of contact).

2e. If you crumple the paper slightly (don't "ball it up"), you increase airflow over/under/around it. If you are short on space, a stack up slightly crumpled documents dries faster than totally flat documents.

See? Can you tell I have done this before? Wait, there's more:

3. Reapplication. You can reapply "teabrushes" to tour dried documents to make them darker, or hit areas that were not stained. You might be more impressed with the results of what happens with "reapplication" on the dry sheets previously only partially stained by the "transfer" process in 2a (above). This is an important step -- you might strive toward very light overall staining, then reaplication for darker staining the edges to make them appear more weathered...

4. Don't use a "bath." Some may suggest that an "easier way" is to prepare a boiling solution of tea (for instance in a glass baking dish the size of your document) and dip your paperwork into this "bath" until it's stained, then take it our and dry it. Sorry -- Been There, Done That. Not easier. It can be a bit of a mess, and I have found it 100% easier to apply the "stain" to the document (far more control) rather than apply the document to the stain. Plus, this "bath" saturates the paper to an extent that it can tear under its own weight, or can excessive heat which also can create complications (addressed in the next topic)

4. Avoid excessive heat. I use this general heading to address several things... As mentioned, don't dip your paper into a boiling solution of tea -- this can weaken the fibers of your document. Using scalding hot tea bags can be painful... and it's unnecessary. Hot tea works much better than cold tea, but "quite hot" appears to work just as well as "scalding hot." Another issue is that photocopier toner can acquire an unrealistic glossiness when exposed to high heat. For that reason, I also encourage you to avoid applying a hot iron, for instance to flatten your document.

5. Your paper is likely to wrinkle and buckle slightly in the process of absorbing moisture. While this can adds to the end result, you should take care not to allow it to actually fold up upon itself (i.e.: folding a crease via friction while rubbing the wet tea bag on the wet paper).

6. Use old tea bags. You can re-dunk the tea bag to continually moisten it and apply more tea (although you might not want to actually drink the tea if you do this too much). If you drink tea elsewhere (for instance at work), save the tea bag and allow it to dry; then bring it home and "refresh it" in your hot cup of tea, and use it all over again. Old tea bags are not as good as freash ones, especially if they have been brewed too long, but they will work.

7. Allow the tea bag to break! After re-dunking several times, the tea bag is likely to weaken and start spewing ground wet tea grounds on your document. Theis stuff stains great! Allow it to dry, and it will easily brush off.

8. I don't care what brand you use. Tea is tea. I happen to like the taste of Lipton, and I have done this with Earl Grey (which imparts a nice Bergamot aroma to your document). But you need dark tea -- don't complain to me that it didn't work when you used Chinese Green Tea. Ultimatley, if you can snag (pirate!) some free tea, use it.

9. Tea is acidic. I have not tested the long-term effects of applying this acid to a paper document -- it probably is not suitable for archival scrapbook storage, for instance. I still have tea-soaked documents (some using excessive heat "baths" and other no-nos listed avbove) which are holding up well after many years. However, I had to throw out something last year which finally became severely moldy after two decades -- but it had not been stored well.

10. Coffee? Go for it. I don't like how it mysteriously imparts a "coffee-like" odor to paper. But I once tried using a filled (and hot and wet) coffee filter, and it worked well. But I do not have extensive trail-and-error experience in staining with coffee.

11. Oh, yeah: You will get stained fingers doing this. Plan acordingly.

Must. Stop. Now. I don't have the patience now to re-check this for speling errors... sorry.

[Rumba Rue]

I hate to say it, but I've 'dyed documents' the very same way.

I've even gone so far as to rub dirt, soot, light red food coloring (for that blood look) into the paper before and after dyeing.

[Cap'n Pete Straw]

Let me be clear -- I don't claim to have invented this process, I just reached it through endless trial-and-error and serendipity. I do, however, praise it above any other I have tried or seen over the years. And it is simple and it is (relatively) cheap.

However, my Colonial ancestors would have a fit over this homegrown American finding new ways to promote excessive useage of that over-taxed tea!

When I want blood stains.... er... I have found blood to impart a fairly authentic blood-type stain on my documents. Okay, I don't deliberately lance myself -- but when accidentally wounded, I sometimes take advantage of the situation...

Also -- I re-read those two lengthy posts. I humbly apologize for my numerous spelling errors, but I didn't see anything that would prevent understanding what I wrote -- please ask for clarification if I am wrong in stating so.

[Blackfoot]

Cap'n Pete, you are THE man! Great information. I owe you a bottle of good rum if I am ever in your neck of the islands.

[Cap'n Pete Straw]

Glad to be of help. I'll settle for a tankard of Guinness.

[Capt. Sterling]

Well that should be doable at RF2...do hope all works out...

[Cap'n Pete Straw]

While you cannot see all the detail (picture courtesy of Cheeky Actress), here is the only existing photo of one of the Letters of Marque I made ... being held by Rateye.

I made this one on a whim, having been handed a very lame example previously at the Bristol Renaissance Faire. I pilfered their text (used their same date) imported some extra goodies and clauses from other Letters, and made one for me.

Then, last Thursday night, I changed my information (name, ship, etc.) on the document to fit the specs I earlier obtained from Captain Sterling, tea-stained it on Friday, added wax seals Friday night (one of my new kittens jumped into the still-melted sealing wax and made a mess of itself and the kitchen, but the document was no worse for wear... and THAT as another reason to make extra copies), and gave the one you see in the picture to Rateye Saturday morning. I said this was easy -- did I mention fast, too?

But the real story might be what I did to the one NOT pictured... It has a leather backing, side-stitching... Oh, I cannot do it justice in words -- I will try to take a photo and post that one, too.

[Cap'n Pete Straw]

Here... I will make it even easier for you....

Text of select Letters of Marque

There. Now you are all empowered.