Arrrgh!

It's the old cast iron pirate doorstop. It's also a fairly effective anti-toe weapon if you are unfortunate enough to drop it from a height onto your unprotected tarsals. At which point, you will be heard to exclaim: "Arrrgh!"

More stuff I pulled out of the water #7

Actually, these came off the same beach as the lead buttons discussed previously. These are bits of brass, copper, or bronze nails - making them distinctly for nautical use. These were found in nearly the same spot as the lead buttons. Could they be from an old ship or boat wreck, or might they be coffin nails?

More stuff I pulled out of the water #6

Actually, these were found on a beach. They are very old clothing buttons, and they are made out of lead.

As the man says, they don't make 'em like that anymore.

These were found on the surface of the sand not too far from each other, but about a year apart, near Lewes, Delaware. I found a few other things at this spot, too, which I will blog about one of these days. I'm uncertain of the age of these, but given the construction and the location in which they were found, there's every possibility that these once adorned a sailor's coat. The fascinating and exceedingly rare 1965 book entitled Pilots of the Bay and River Delaware, and Lewes Lore by James Marvil sheds some remarkable insight into the number of historic shipwrecks in the area, and how the bodies of deceased sailors were treated. This reference is one of the reasons why I suspect that these buttons belonged to a sailor (hint - many of the bodies recovered by Lewes "wreckers" were unceremoniously buried in the dunes). Only 1000 copies of the book were ever printed (I have two copies of this work myself).

Put this in your pipe and smoke it...

These two items (above the penny) are the remnants of old clay smoking pipes of the kind used during colonial times. The bowls are small by today's standards, because tobacco was more expensive back then. Even earlier pipes had yet smaller bowls. These probably date to the mid to late 1700's, and were allegedly dug from a dirt-floored cellar in a house near Leipsic, Delaware. Just what any decent pirate would have smoked with!

Japa mala 2

More skull beads made out of bone. These are larger than the previous Jama mala, and may not even be prayer beads. These are all about 1 inch around, whereas the pervious mala were all about the size of an almond. This set (assuming they were made together) was almost certainly made somewhere in Asia for the tourist/export industry, and I frequently see them in little hippy/import/antique stores all over - or at least on the East Coast. Still, they are skulls, and make a nice addition to pirate/voodoo regalia.

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!

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...

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!

Needle case

We think this wooden "box" is a Chinese needle case. It appears to be turned from a single piece of wood, with a threaded top and Chinese (?) characters inked on the side. Whatever - it's a pretty cool piece that I bought in a nearby antique store for about $5. I use it to hide..stuff..in.

Another old belt

What the hell is with the old belts? I dunno - my father-in-law had a bunch of them and he gave them to me. They are all WW1 vintage. This one has a leather frog for a bayonet or a sword.

An old belt

I know, it's not much to look at, but this is an old U.S. government issue military belt from World War 1. World War 1 relics seem to be considerably more scarce than World War 2 items - perhaps because of age or perhaps because U.S. involvement was less - intense. Anyway, World War 1 is interesting for a variety of reasons, including the advent of new tactics and weapons (tanks, machine guns, chemical warfare, air power) and the beginning of the obsolescence of old methods (e.g. trench warfare). In many ways, tacticians in WW1 threw a bunch of stuff against the wall to see what stuck. What remained was further refines (if I can use that term) in subsequent conflicts - submarine warfare, camouflage, aerial dog fighting, etc.

It's in the bag.

This is an old WW1 tool/ammo bag. It's made out of canvas, and the stamp on the inside front flap says 1918. That's how old this sucker is - 90 years. It's sad that all WW1 veterans are now dead. Anything we now know about that war is now second hand. Soon, our memories of WW2 will be the same. If you have a veteran of any war in your family, please, please, please talk to them, document their stories, and record them for posterity...before you and they know, all that'll be left is the stuff they carried or wrote.

By the way, as I type this, the United States Army is banging away with some real heavy stuff over across the Chesapeake at their Aberdeen Proving Grounds. My drink is getting ripples from impact tremors like that glass of water in Jurassic Park every time they light something off. Should drive over to Betterton and see what gives...