Canteen Halves

[Ken Cornett]

I was wondering who offers good canteen halves. Any help is much obliged.

Ken Cornett
Buckeye Mess

[natchezborn]

Re: Canteen Halves

Try the Blockade Runner. They usually have a supply on hand and are very helpful.

[Bill Cross]

Re: Canteen Halves

I was wondering who offers good canteen halves.

S&S in Gettysburg has good ones.

[Silas]

Check out their dug plate instead of buying a canteen half

Not to sound like an advertisement for Blockade Runner, but they sell a repop of a plate dug from the AoT winterquarters of '63. At least that's the story.

They have the original plate in their museum. The repop is a copper plate which has been tinned. They produce a light plate and a heavy plate. Buy the light one. I shopped for a plate for a year before stumbling across the one they sell. They have some not very flattering photos of one on their webpage. It's a far better product than portrayed in the photo.

I still have my canteen half actually taken from an unserviceable canteen. The halves sold today look to shallow to actually be from a canteen. Might be an optical illusion. I never felt comfortable purchasing one of them. As my poor half was getting to weak from years of service, I started looking for a plate I would not be ashamed to pull from my haversack.

The plate is better because it's fairly flat. There's a half inch recess to hold your grub and sauce. The lip is approximately two inches wide. A plate doesn't cause your haversack to get that round bulge. That bulge seems to decrease the usable area of your haversack because the spherical shape of the half forces the contents into the shape of a ball. The corners of the bag become less usable.

My suggestion is that you avoid the knee jerk thought of purchasing a canteen half. Think about a good plate instead.

[edharmon]

Re: Canteen Halves

What percentage of soldiers used plates vs. canteen halves? Also, can you recommend a manufacturer for authentic plates? It looked like C&D Jarnagin had a pretty good selection, but how authentic are they?

[13thnhv]

Re: Canteen Halves

I was wondering who offers good canteen halves. Any help is much obliged.

Ken Cornett
Buckeye Mess

I got mine from Orchard Hill. As good as one would expect, nice!

[hireddutchcutthroat]

Re: Canteen Halves

What percentage of soldiers used plates vs. canteen halves?

This is impossible to answer. If you wear out your federal canteen, by all means split it into halves. Otherwise find a good tin plate.

[Michael McComas]

Re: Check out their dug plate instead of buying a canteen half

The repop is a copper plate which has been tinned. They produce a light plate and a heavy plate. Buy the light one. I shopped for a plate for a year before stumbling across the one they sell. They have some not very flattering photos of one on their webpage. It's a far better product than portrayed in the photo.

Made the mistake of getting this item before I knew better. It was "tinned" with silver roofing paint, which chips off in your food. Nice idea, poor execution.

[bryce79NY]

Re: Canteen Halves

How do you "spilt" an old canteen into halvs? I though of melting the solder, but is there in other way?

Cpl. Bryce Kuykendall
79th N.Y.S.M.
Co. C

[Charles Heath]

Re: Canteen Halves

How do you "spilt" an old canteen into halvs? I though of melting the solder, but is there in other way?

Toss it into the fire. Remove. Bang it around a little bit with a stick to separate the six pieces. A smart fellow will salvage the cover, strap, cork and lanyard assembly prior to firing the canteen.

[lukegilly13]

Re: Canteen Halves

I see a lot of confederate reenactors carrying those. Sure they had access to some federal canteens...and no doubt had access to leaky ones that feds threw down...Just always seemed a little odd to me.

Last time I looked WW&Co. had some in stock on his website

[Curt Schmidt]

Re: Canteen Halves

Hallo!

Fads aside... ;) :)

IMHO, an accurate plate trumps an inaccurate canteen half.

(Most reproduction Federal smoothside and bullseye canteens "differ" from the originals in terms of width, height, and length- most commonly width!)

Curt
Why is it so hard to get it right Mess

[Faugh a Ballagh]

Re: Canteen Halves

I know this thread has been inactive for some years, but I figured it better to not start a new one. Does anyone have images of soldiers wearing their canteen-half "plates"? My assumption would be that it would be worn on the canteen, with the wire loop around the neck of the canteen, and held by the strap, thus avoiding the haversack bulge. I have had limited time to do research, and have been reading through the whole forum over the past few days, so apologies if this is addressed elsewhere.

Cheers,

Stephen Adler
Co. I, 116th PA, Irish Brigade, National Regiment

[jake.koch]

Re: Canteen Halves

Stephen,

I may be wrong, but I think that it is more of a reenactorism than somthing they actually would have done. I have not seen evidence either way. I did it way back when I started and thought it was a pain in the butt. It made the canteen heavier and got ash all over everything - not that I am a clean freak. I would follow the advice given earlier in the thread. They seem to be overrepresented as a whole. You can cook just about anything with your tin cup and plate, or if your messmates share a small frying pan. When they were used I would assume they were kept in the haversack, which as previously mentioned is also a hassle.

[Faugh a Ballagh]

Re: Canteen Halves

Jake, thanks for your input. I agree on the general abundance of evidence, but there seems to be a fair amount of documentation for the canteen half, including the wire loops for a stick or other "handle." I've carried this setup in the past due to the reduction of weight in carrying only the half, which is quite light, and using it as both plate and pan. I think if kept in the haversack the exposed corners might actually do damage, so perhaps not the best arrangement. I used to have a proper plate, but it went missing some years ago, and this has served me well ever since.

Now I just need to reduce some of the other weight I tend to carry... especially around my midsection.