Cartridge Packs

[-Jesse-]

Re: Cartridge Packs

Does anyone know where to find some .69 cal. labels for smoothbore muskets?Thanks in advance!

[hta1970]

Re: Cartridge Packs

Jesse,

I have some examples of Fayetteville .69 buckshot which is a printed label and Richmond .69 Round Ball and .69 Buck and Ball which are stenciled package wrappers. There are others from the deep south, but it looks like you are ANV so I haven't listed them. PM me if you are interested.

YOS,
Harry

[mturk64]

Re: Cartridge Packs

Thanks Harry...the link proved most useful.

And thanks Curt as well. Your suggestion to use the search function was, well, a suggestion.

[The Wizard]

Re: Cartridge Packs

Speaking of cartridge packaging labels, if one was thinnking about creating a label what font would one use to give it a period look?

[newshirt]

Re: Cartridge Packs

Speaking of cartridge packaging labels, if one was thinnking about creating a label what font would one use to give it a period look?

You have to choose a "dirty" font that closely matches the original. There are thousands of fonts in the world, and you will probably have to download one from the web that looks close.

I created a very nice St. Louis Arsenal label that looks almost identical to the original. It uses two dirty fonts that look like they came from period a printing press. Dirty fonts have missing or faded areas. The effect is subtle, but very different than modern fonts that have precise curves.

[Stonewall_Greyfox]

Re: Cartridge Packs

You have to choose a "dirty" font that closely matches the original. There are thousands of fonts in the world, and you will probably have to download one from the web that looks close.

I created a very nice St. Louis Arsenal label that looks almost identical to the original. It uses two dirty fonts that look like they came from period a printing press. Dirty fonts have missing or faded areas. The effect is subtle, but very different than modern fonts that have precise curves.

Disagree....you do not need to use a "dirty-font". In reviewing several examples of cartridge packs (in person, and in books), you can see great variation in the "precision" of the labelling.

Often times, this could be a factor of whether this was stamped, printed, or stencils...how much time the person inking it took...and what the run of that particular batch may have been.

These variables could certainly produce very crisp clean curves in all right places....and when the ink ran low, or the labeller was pressed for time, bored, or just not caring; it shows in the final product. (Think of modern electronic printer, when the toner cartridge, or ink runs low...pressing to get just a few more pages through gives you often distorted/shaded/grainy/blurred prints...this is not a factor of the equipment used, but the operating conditions its being subject to).

A more important factor than replicating the "graininess" sometimes seen on original packaging, is to get the right font...that accurately replicates the original type. Unfortunatley, these type-fonts are not always available in our as-sold word processors like word....as such there is a whole industry built-up to provide unique type-fonts, such as Walden Fonts:

http://www.waldenfont.com/

On the other hand...if your'e set on trying to replicate the graininess sometimes encountered...you may use your period type-font, import the image into Paint/Photoshop and use one of the many features available in those programs to reach the desired effect.

2c

Paul B.

[Curt Schmidt]

Re: Cartridge Packs

Hallo!

Just an aside...

Period rag paper does not always take stamped ink in quite the same manner as does modern wood pulp papers.

Curt

[Adam L]

Re: Cartridge Packs

Reading the original article that was linked to the first post it metions that the paper for the wrapper was "sized" (waterproofed). Does anyone know how was this done to the paper?

Respectfully,
Adam LIPKA

[Curt Schmidt]

Re: Cartridge Packs

Hallo!

IMHO...

Thh article "errs" a bit by combining the Federal 1841 and 1849 Ordnance Manuals (1st and 2nd editions) with the 1861 (3rd edition).

By the time of the 1861 manual the waterproofing of bundle wrappers had been dropped. (I would have to break out the 1862 Confederate manual to double-check, but NUG, it is a clone of the Federal on many points...)

At any rate, you do not have to worry about waterproofing your papers.

Curt

[Dreamer42]

Re: Cartridge Packs

If I'm guessing...one "pre-shrinks" watercolor paper (less that 200 lb cold press) simply by soaking the paper until it is saturated, then staple on to a board to allow to dry. When it gets wet, it won't shrink. This is the same thing, I would presume, for the arsenal pack bundles. It builds a natural resistance (although not water proof) to water and won't shrink, thus avoiding possibly damaging the contents.

- Jay Reid
Dreamer42
9th Texas

[Adam L]

Re: Cartridge Packs

Since we are on the subject of Cartridge packs, here is my attempt to make proper reproduction Pack of US .58 minnie ammo packs for live fire. The only thing not shown in the photo is my scissors, pencil and the book of paper I use to make the paper tubes otherwise this is all the tools I use including the final product. Please let me know what you all think I'd like to know my mistakes so that I can correct them on future tries. Also I cast the Minnie's myself with the Lee Precision mold and the lube on them is a 50/50 mix beeswax and bore butter.

Now from what I've read so far I can't find any mention of them putting the caps in the pack in a paper tube. Only a references I've found so far were from reenactors who instruct others to do this. Now this practice seems to me a dangerous thing to do as a sudden strike to the pack in a certain manner could set the whole pack off at once. Nothing like 600 grains of powder burning off in near your person, and thats if you only had one of these packs.



Regards,
Adam LIPKA

[lukegilly13]

Re: Cartridge Packs

Here is an original cartridge courtesy of horse soldier:

Here is an original arsenal pack courtesy of horse soldier:

[lukegilly13]

Re: Cartridge Packs

Looks like a bully of a job to me. In fact looking at the original above, I don't feel so bad about my sloppy bundle wrapping.

[Curt Schmidt]

Re: Cartridge Packs

Hallo!

Indeed...

They were often made by... young boys.

Curt

[David Fox]

Re: Cartridge Packs

...or, perhaps more often, assembled by young girls and soldiers' wives and widows. Remember the female victims of the disasterous explosion in the Richmond Laboratory(?) in mid war, an explosion which required Lee's artillery at Gettysburg rely upon inferior shell fuzes manufactured at the Charleston facility. This circumstance contributed mightily to making the Alexander's cannonade of 3 July largely ineffective, perhaps foredooming Pickett's charge.