Japa mala 1

This is a string of "Japa mala", or prayer beads, and begins what I am calling "skull week". They are used in many cultures to count repetitive prayers, mantra, or aphorisms. I got these not for any religious reason, but because each bead is a tiny little skull carved out of bone (probably yak, hopefully not "long pig"). These may have been made for the tourist/export trade somewhere in Asia, or they may be authentic. Regardless, they look cool hanging in the arsenal, or whenever the wardrobe needs a touch of that pirate/voodoo feel...and that's nearly always!

It's Fish Knife Friday #14

See? I told you so...

Give your baby the best!

Make her drink this shit.

What is it?

Why, it's Dr. H.C. Porter's Infants Relief and Mother's Repose, whatever the hell that is. See, in 1891, "drug companies" didn't have to list the old active (assuming there were any) and inactive ingredients like they do today - although this one does. It evidently contained the ever so effective bi-carbonate soda, peppermint, rhubarb, and 7% alcohol. I say keep the first three, kick up the fourth to about 40%, and throw in some bleu cheese olives and the tiniest whiff of vermouth...now THAT'S medicine.


I'm not going to replicate all of the text on the box here, but I will post the other sides of the box so you can read it yourself. This stuff probably falls squarely into the category of medicine known parochially as "snake oil".

This old thing...

This appears to be a tool used to sharpen and peen scythes (as in, the big sharp blade thingy traditionally associated with the Grim Reaper). This one is an antique, with a cow horn holder and a (more recent) sheet metal hanger. The penny's provided for scale.

I've not found much about these, although some modern examples are found in one of the images from this website.

Not a weapon, per se, but when the Reaper does come for your ass, you can be sure his tool is sharp.

Also, yea me! This is my 100th post!

Now if only someone was reading...

Achtung!

This is a German bayonet from World War 2 (at least I think so). There are a variety of resources on the web to track down the arcana of European bayonets, and frankly, I have neither the time nor the inclination to do the research right now. The serial numbers on the steel scabbard and the blade match, which is a good sign for a collector, and overall, the condition is good (appears unused, except for a small dent in the scabbard visible here).

One of my paintings

As you no doubt have noticed, my personal Wunderkammer extends well beyond weapons and weapon-related items. Since I don't have enough weapons to fill a year's worth of blogging, I am going to expand the scope of this blog yet again, to include other things that interest me, and that contribute materially to the space and state of mind I call "Flintlock's Arsenal".

This will include things related to odd musical instruments, nautical items, items related to voodoo or other "primitive" religions, odd finds from my travels, etc...

To this end, here is one of my original paintings, acrylic on canvas:

The boat pictured is the Ringgold Brothers on the rails at the old Dorchester Industries shipyard in Dorchester, NJ. I worked on the boat for a few summers doing fisheries surveys for the Delaware Division of Fish and Wildlife. She is a converted skipjack built around 1910, stretched to abotu 65'. She was reconfigured by the state to act as both a trawler and an oyster survey boat. She was retired a few years ago in favor of a more modern stern trawler. I understand that she's still in service as an oyster boat out of Bivalve, NJ.

Being a wooden vessel, she was a cast iron (well, wooden, actually) bitch to maintain. Most of my summers were spend at the shipyard, scraping, painting, and cleaning the oily bilge while wooden shipwrights replaced critical components. Once, we took the opportunity to remove an old 250 gallon oil tank from the engine room while the shipyard had her belly open to replace the rotten shaft alley and kelson. Imagine spending the better part of a few days on your back or belly on oil-soaked wood in a space not much bigger than that found under your typical pull-out sofa bed. Now imagine hacking away at an empty metal tank and its fittings with a Sawz-All in that tiny space - it was deafening. I had to hack the tank into pieces small enough to fit through the hole in the hull, you see.

Once, we had this doofus working with us, and he was tasked to paint the wheelhouse roof. The dummy began painting at the ladder in the stern, working his way forward to the front. Obviously, the couldn't back track to the ladder until the thick marine enamel dried. We left his ass there for a while and went out for lunch.

A cool old horn

No - not the "toot toot" kind.

At first, one might think this little decorated bull's horn is a powder horn for black powder, but it only opens at the big end, making the process of precisely doling out powder difficult. Plus, it's pretty small. The big end seals with a large cork with leather tassels.

My guess, based on size and functionality, would be this was a drinking cup, most likely from the American western expansion period (c. 1820 - 1890). It was probably used as a handy and portable vessel for bourbon or whiskey.

In that sense, then, perhaps it is the "toot toot" kind!