Need a good tankard

[Rateye]

Well, after spending the day drinking out of plastic, I really need a good tankard or stein for events.

I've always liked me cups from uncivil war. But I want something eithr wood, copper or soemthing like that...

ANy ideas?

Ratatatatatatatatatatat

[Patrick Hand]

Look around in thrift stores......

I got two Pewter tankards for $2.00 each.... At the local yard sale, a friend picked up a pewter tankard with glass bottem for 50 cents...

(look on the bottem to see if it's pewter... it should be stamped there)

Just think of it as treasure hunting.......

[Duchess]

Well, if you can do without hot things

http://elandahleather.com/

These guys make leather mugs. They aren't sealed with beeswax, so they don't taste funny. However you still cannot put hot things in them.

These are the successors to the folks who made my mug, use the same process etc. And my mug is fantastic and nigh unbreakable.

[Captain Midnight]

My own is made of leather as well, and sealed with beeswax. It has been my own personal experience that the beeswax imparts no flavor at all on whatever beverage you are drinking out of the mug. I made my tankard or "jack" as it is properly called, myself. However, you are correct in that hot beverages cannot be held in it. But then again, mine is designed for rum, ale, etc....

[Cap'n Pete Straw]

I admit it, and I am sorry...

As I mentioned to you, I picked up my "tin" tankard at a CW reenactment for about $15. Lightweight, it is my favorite, but it will crush if I land awkward on it (ironically, the more I drink...)

I picked up a brass tankard (with wooden handle!) for $5 at a flea market. This was my favorite before the tin one.

What's the Colonial tankard shaped kind of like a snail? I have one of those -- $5 at an antique store. But it's so freaking heavy -- worse than the astrolabe.

Then I have several glass-bottomed pewter tankards, which I actually use at home for my Guinness. These are readily available at antique stores and flea markets everywhere. Again, $5 is the going price for used tankards just about everywhere... but there are better deals to be had.

Then there are the super-tall Playboy aluminum tankards. Ubiquitous at flea markets. I picked one of them up for my son, but the etched Playboy bunny logo has got to go.

I saw a wonderfully authentic "blackjack" (tarred leather tankard) at Heathrow airport, a souvenir of the Tower of London (I did not see them for sale at the Tower itself!), but it was over US$50. Still worth it, IMHO, and I regret passing it up.

Rateye, at my last few reenactments this season, if I find another tin one, hell, I'll buy the damned thing for you. Then we'll have to go out drinking again so you can get it from me. See? a Win-Win scenario.

[Capt. Sterling]

http://www.tuckahoetradingco.com/product%2...-thumbnails.htm

can't get more period correct than the above link... and don't forget some kind of haversack then to cart it around with you...

[kass]

Tuckahoe ROCKS!!! So does The Northerner, though they don't do pewter, just pottery and glass. But OH, the pottery and glass!!!

But you don't have to run to the Captain's (or should I say MY) price range to have a good tankard, Rateye, my dear. I picked up a quart-size tankard complete with lid at the Reenactors' Market in England for L20. They were selling ones for well over 100 and when I saw "20" on the tag, I joked, "I guess that's 20 pounds, har har," she said yes! You can get two plastic cups of Ren Faire beer into it and, dainty lady that I am, I have my servant carry it around and she pours beer into my glass whenever it gets empty (and surreptitiously sneaks a nip for herself). But common men would drink straight from the tankark... although the lid does sometime bing you on the nose...

My advice, Ratty me boyo, is to look at pictures of tavern scenes (you've seen Foxe's website of pirate pictures, yes?) and get the shape of GAoP tankards into your head. You can find many things at garage sales and flea markets that are close (and cheap!) when you know what you're looking for. Tuckahoe is a brilliant and wonderful sutler, but I wouldn't drag their stuff around at Faire...