Gum blanket questions

[PetePaolillo]

Re: Gum blanket questions

It has been a long standing opinion that Jarnagin makes THE gum blanket.
I would buy a $19.95 gum blanket from Pakistan, Iraq, Mongolia or a monk in Tibet before I bought anything from N--- S-----.
Tom Dodson

Can you explain..Why?

[PetePaolillo]

Re: Gum blanket questions

Shown is a pistol cartridge box from my page which has been repaired with a piece of gum blanket. The material is very thin. Where the box flap has been pressing on the material for many years it shows a twill pattern of the backing fabric.

Jim is that a confederate cartridge box? Is it a rubber blanket or possibly a piece of oil cloth, or painted canvas? I am confused by the textured pattern of the piece of repair.

[Tom Dodson]

Re: Gum blanket questions

97th Private,
Just a business deal that went VERY sour. I should not have put that editorial in my post. It seems the opinion of many that his products are top quality. I will never do business with N... S..... again but that is just a personal issue.
Tom Dodson

[PetePaolillo]

Re: Gum blanket questions

97th Private,
Just a business deal that went VERY sour. I should not have put that editorial in my post. It seems the opinion of many that his products are top quality. I will never do business with N... S..... again but that is just a personal issue.
Tom Dodson

Ok, thanks for clearing that up...just wanted to make sure, because I thought we were speaking of quality products that best represent originals and not personal feelings about certain individuals based on a bad business deal....Don't feel bad though...It was quite common for soldiers to be quite unpleased with sutlers from time to time. A quite authentic situation....As a side note, from my expierence, if you are patient with N...S....and not take what he says to heart all of the time you will be quite pleased with his service and products. Sorry you had a bad deal.

[Tom Dodson]

Re: Gum blanket questions

Peter,
You are absolutely correct and as I said, I shouldn't have used the thread to editorialize. You are right in that we are talking quality products, not personalities. It just seems there are too many sutlers such as Dan White of W & W, Phil Cavanaugh of Haversack Depot, Bob Serio of M B&S, Chris Sullivan of Stony Brook Trousers, Kiev Thomason of Traveling Man's Emporium and too many others to name who make quality products and are easy to deal with to have to deal with vendors who may not be so easy to deal with. Besides, I'm cranky enough by myself. All that aside, I still do not believe you can beat a C & D Jarnagin gum blanket for quality.
Tom Dodson

[PetePaolillo]

Re: Gum blanket questions

Peter,
You are absolutely correct and as I said, I shouldn't have used the thread to editorialize. You are right in that we are talking quality products, not personalities. It just seems there are too many sutlers such as Dan White of W & W, Phil Cavanaugh of Haversack Depot, Bob Serio of M B&S, Chris Sullivan of Stony Brook Trousers, Kiev Thomason of Traveling Man's Emporium and too many others to name who make quality products and are easy to deal with to have to deal with vendors who may not be so easy to deal with. Besides, I'm cranky enough by myself. All that aside, I still do not believe you can beat a C & D Jarnagin gum blanket for quality.
Tom Dodson

Yes Sir...All top knotch people..You can add Nic Duvall to that list as well...But it is Dan Wambaugh and Brian White..Not Dan White:wink_smil ...Hell just call em W1 and W2:p....I will have to check out one of Jarnies Gums but..Im happy with mine though, Thanks

[Tom Dodson]

Re: Gum blanket questions

Thanks for the heads up. I hope Brian and Dan won't be offended. Maybe if I buy something else from them soon. It has been a while. I also recently had a good experience dealing with Tim Bender. It was almost a pleasure to hand over my $110.
Tom Dodson

[PetePaolillo]

Re: Gum blanket questions

Thanks for the heads up. I hope Brian and Dan won't be offended. Maybe if I buy something else from them soon. It has been a while. I also recently had a good experience dealing with Tim Bender. It was almost a pleasure to hand over my $110.
Tom Dodson

nah..They probably get that all of the time...I hear ya about the money. When they are so cool it makes it a lot easier to spend the greenbacks. Bill Lomas at EJ Thomas is also a great guy to deal with and I believe he makes a Gum blanket as well. He might be out of stock at the moment..not sure. Back to the original topic though. My advice to anybody is to stay away from any foreign made stuff maybe except for an import musket...but other than that..you first get what you pay for and why not support a craftsman who is in the hobby with us and the stuff is all made in the good ole USA not in some third world sweat shop. just my honest opinion.

[Jimmayo]

Re: Gum blanket questions

Jim is that a confederate cartridge box? Is it a rubber blanket or possibly a piece of oil cloth, or painted canvas? I am confused by the textured pattern of the piece of repair.

It is part of a set owned by Seldon Sikes, 211th PA Inf. The whole set can be seen on

http://www.angelfire.com/ma4/j_mayo/relics.html

It is what it is. The textured pattern comes from the backing of course but what makes it stand out has been the pressure of the box flap pressing down on it for 100 or so years. You can see the portion just above the textured part which stretches across the box and has nothing behind it. That part of the repair looks like a rubber blanket should since it did not have any pressure on both sides while stored.

To partially answer the question on why Jarnagin rubber blankets are considered good: Jarnagin was the first vendor to start using the correct size (or close to ) brass grommets. Back in the day when the blankets first came out they came in kits. I can remember trying to glue all those rubber strips and install the grommets and nothing ever stuck together well. Back then the brass grommets were about twice as large. After some complaints from those who had regularly dug the correct size grommets, David started using the smaller ones. IMO his blankets have gotten better ever since.

[PetePaolillo]

Re: Gum blanket questions

nah..They probably get that all of the time...I hear ya about the money. When they are so cool it makes it a lot easier to spend the greenbacks. Bill Lomas at EJ Thomas is also a great guy to deal with and I believe he makes a Gum blanket as well. He might be out of stock at the moment..not sure. Back to the original topic though. My advice to anybody is to stay away from any foreign made stuff maybe except for an import musket...but other than that..you first get what you pay for and why not support a craftsman who is in the hobby with us and the stuff is all made in the good ole USA not in some third world sweat shop. just my honest opinion.

Upon further review, I might have excluded some of our fine pards in Europe that do an authentic impression and make quality gear, I am sorry if I may have offended them. Please excuse my ignorance.

[DannyJoe]

Re: Gum blanket questions

I have used both the Janagin and NS gum blankets for several years. IMHO, they are both of equal quality and weight. Both can take a lot of heavy use without showing much wear-and-tear. The Jarnagin gum blanket has a more heavily reinforced edge....folded and bonded, but that is insignificant when comparing the two gum blankets. As mentioned in a previous post, I agree that the NS gum blanket more closely resembles the one shown in the EOG. When storing the gum blanket try to avoid folding it in the same way each time or stacking heaving items on the folded gum blanket, thus minimizing the creation of permanent creases along the fold that could eventually cause cracks in the rubber. When possible, hang the gum blanket for long term storage.
Regards,

[FlatLandFed]

Re: Gum blanket questions

Friend Peter notes:
"Bill Lomas at EJ Thomas is also a great guy to deal with and I believe he makes a Gum blanket as well. He might be out of stock at the moment..not sure."

I'll second that. As I understand it, Bill may have peddled the rubber blankets of Mr. S, but here's where I need to put in a long-overdue plug for the EJ Thomas proprietor.

Last summer, I purchased one of the gum blankets from Mr. S via one of his regional vendors with the intention of picking it up at At High Tide at the very beginning of the event.

As luck would have it, I couldn't seem to make connections with Mr. S, who of course was busy trying to get his merchandise moved on site, 8tc. I spent my time getting to meet many of the wonderful sutlers who I had known only by emails and FedX transactions. All were cordial, but when Bill learned that I was gum blanketless with the event to go live very soon, he went to the back of his tent and retrieved his own never-used, earlier model Mr. S gum blanket for me to use!

What a grand gesture. I placed it with pride under the shebang that afternoon and even though warning my brother and Stillwater Guard comrades not to step on it, it got a few footprints. Mr. S was back just about suppertime, so I returned Bill's blanket to the EJ Thomas tent -- all Bill said about the footprints on his now not-unused-blanket was "heck, that's what it's for" -- and showed him the new Mr. S model for comparison. It seemed to pass his inspection.

Just a belated cheer for Bill. Thanks for listening.
Paul Hadley
P.S. -- I also have the Jarnie version. Rugged but overall heavier and less "shiny" than the current model from Mr. S.
Cheers.

[PetePaolillo]

Re: Gum blanket questions

There was some mention earlier in the thread about using armor all on Gum blankets to protect them and shine them up. Is this advisable...? I have stopped using armor all in my vehicles because it actually seems to dry out leathers, tires and vinyl surfaces and actually damaged surfaces over time. I have just been using a very very light coating of olive oil (sorry I am Italian) and that is natural and I figure better for rubber? Any thoughts on this?

[PogueMahone]

Re: Gum blanket questions

There was some mention earlier in the thread about using armor all on Gum blankets to protect them and shine them up. Is this advisable...? I have stopped using armor all in my vehicles because it actually seems to dry out leathers, tires and vinyl surfaces and actually damaged surfaces over time. I have just been using a very very light coating of olive oil (sorry I am Italian) and that is natural and I figure better for rubber? Any thoughts on this?

You can get rubbers with lubricant already applied.

:D;):o

(Sorry, just couldn't pass it up.)

[PetePaolillo]

Re: Gum blanket questions

You can get rubbers with lubricant already applied.

:D;):o

(Sorry, just couldn't pass it up.)

set myself up for that one!!!