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#FixedBladeFriday – Who doesn’t love pics of antique knives?

There are plenty of books out there on swords, powder horns, and other objects. But surprisingly, there’s not a whole lot out there on antique American knives. In his 1984 book, Madison Grant wrote one of the definitive books on antique knives, with pictures of many examples, albeit in black and white, and with a …

Read more#FixedBladeFriday – Who doesn’t love pics of antique knives?

Cooking stuff recently excavated from Byrnside’s Fort, all cleaned up and preserved for the SCAV Museum

We found some some ladle, or skillet, handles in the yard at Byrnside’s Fort. They’re blacksmith made, wrought iron forged, each with a little rat tail style curl on the end for hanging around the fireplace. I finally got around to doing some preservation work on the handles in the past few days, and they …

Read moreCooking stuff recently excavated from Byrnside’s Fort, all cleaned up and preserved for the SCAV Museum

The flintlock the early Virginia frontiersman likely would have carried.

When the first settlers came into the Greenbrier Valley in the 1750’s, this is likely the type of firearm they brought with them. A civilian owned smoothbore fowler. This longarm is exactly 6 feet in overall length. It has a bore of exactly .70 caliber. It could fire a solid round lead ball. Or it …

Read moreThe flintlock the early Virginia frontiersman likely would have carried.

1691 Dated Powder Horn – a connection with your 6th grade history class

Here is a real piece of that period’s American history. This powder horn belonged to John Snyder from the Snyder family of New York. He carved his name, as well as the year 1691 into this horn, and scratched numerous designs and cross-hatching. It is difficult to see in the photos, and much of it is too worn to determine what it says or represents. The year is most likely a reference to involvement in the Jacob Leisler revolt and execution in 1691. Fortunately for our eyes’ sake, there actually exists an 1880 drawing showing the scrimshawing on this powder horn: