A shining time. Volume 1, The Fur Trade

[jojo]

I just received my copy of the book by Ted Spring A Shining Time, Volume 1 A sketch Book of the American Mountain Men. For anybody interested in the era of the Mountain Men, its a really good resource book, hand written style, with dozens of black and white line drawings from the guns used to knives, tools and clothing of the mountain men.

I got mine from this website:http://www.trackofthewolf.com

In fact, the whole site is fascinating! And I am just a satisfied customer!

 

[Bernie Garland]

if your interested in the mountain man era, as i am also, a real good book is mountainman crafts and skills, by david montgomary, which gives all the information you need from tools to trapping to making clothes

 

[jojo]

if your interested in the mountain man era, as i am also, a real good book is mountainman crafts and skills, by david montgomary, which gives all the information you need from tools to trapping to making clothes

I have got it, Bernie and it's one of my favourite books. What I like about this oneare 131 A4 size pages, large clear drawings and quite a lot of history as well, which it's not in the other book. I think they compliment each other very well.

I scanned one of the pages:

I think you'll agree the illustrations are first class.

The idea that I would have liked to live in that era and live that sort of life is rather "romantic" shall we say. The reality of course was that it was an extremely hard life and they had to be hard people to survive it. But what a freedom they had, something we can only dream about now.

 

[Bernie Garland]

I have got it, Bernie and it's one of my favourite books. What I like about this oneare 131 A4 size pages, large clear drawings and quite a lot of history as well, which it's not in the other book. I think they compliment each other very well.

I scanned one of the pages:

I think you'll agree the illustrations are first class.

The idea that I would have liked to live in that era and live that sort of life is rather "romantic" shall we say. The reality of course was that it was an extremely hard life and they had to be hard people to survive it. But what a freedom they had, something we can only dream about now.

on your advice i'll be getting that book as we are both obviously very mountain man orientated,i believe, i personally could live that life, as it is a passion of mine to do so,but would be unfair to expect it from the wife and kids, but one day i will to prove it to myself

 

[Mike Ameling]

Ted Spring's book is pretty good - for what it is. But he does have some historical accuracy problems.

A number of his sketches were based upon what he saw at some modern reenactments - as to personal clothing and gear. Some of the people he based his sketches on had clothing and gear that was put together from widely varying time periods, geographical areas, and cultures - based more on personal whim than documented historical fact.

Ted's books are great to ... stir the imagination ... and get people interested in Living History reenactments. Just don't treat them like the Bible. If you are truly interested, do a little more historical research before buying or making a bunch of stuff that ends up not being appropriate.

I have a whole trunk full of clothing and gear that I picked up over the years, but never use - because it is not historically accurate for the time period and geographical area of the Fur Trade that I am interested in. Too many things bought on a whim - because they looked ,,, cool.

Just my humble thoughts to share. Take them as such.

Mikey - yee ol' grumpy blacksmith out in the Hinterlands

 

[jojo]

Shame to hear this, Mike. I can't say I am terribly surprised though. It's always best to cross reference things from different sources and people. Is the written historical text itself fairly accurate?

I like making knives,so would you say those represented are drawings of historical artifacts or drawings of some people's interpretations of what knife any particular mountain men would have used? I am fairly sure that, like us now, a good knife would have been whichever knife they had at the time.

But as you say, even with inaccuracies, it stirs the imagination.

 

[Mike Ameling]

I just did a quick look-through of my copy to remind myself of what's in it. The knives shown/drawn on the couple pages are pretty good. But they would best be described as "bowies and butchers". They are OK, just fairly limited compared to what was actually available during the fur trade.

A much better book (booklet) would be the FUR TRADE CUTLERY SKETCHBOOK by James A Hanson put out by The Museum of the Fur Trade in Chadron Nebraska. They also put out a Quarterly journal all about the fur trade with scholarly articles from fairly well known and respected historians. The Sketchbook only had 47 pages, but are knives shown are base on documented originals that the Musuem has handled.

There are two books you might be interested in finding. My copies are out on loan, but they are (if I can remember correctly)

American Primitive Knives by Minnis. And a book by Madison Grant also called Primitive Knives or something like that.

A more scholarly book to check out would be American Knives by Harold Peterson.

I'd have isbn numbers and proper names/authors, but my copies are out on loan at the moment.

You also should check out the Trade Goods of New France web site. http://www.lanouvelle-france.com/

Kevin shows lots of pictures of original trade knives - with dimensions and where they were found/recovered. Both fixed blade and folding knives. His site also covers flint strikers, trade kettles, trade axes, and even muskets. Great site!

I hope this helps.

Mikey - yee ol' grumpy blacksmith out in the Hinterlands

 

[Mike Ameling]

Here's a pic of a classic traditional Red-Handled Scalper trade knife next to a full-sized printout of an original trade knife blade for comparison.

It has a traditional 6-sided handle with 3 pins, and a half tang tapering into the handle.

It's one of the best "production" knives I've seen that accurately replicates those original trade knives. And it's also a new production knife referred to as a Kitchen Knife. Unfortunately, the supply has become ... problematic. I've got a number floating about, but I don't know if I will be able to get any more. So it often goes when you find something really good (and pretty cheap).

This would have been one of the most common knives carried by people throughout the Fur Trade in North America - from the East Coast, through the Great Lakes, and on out to the Rocky Mountains. And it's nothing more than a classic kitchen or butcher knife of the times from Europe.

Just my humble thoughts to share, and best used in conjunction with your own research.

Mikey - yee ol' grumpy blacksmith out in the Hinterlands