Leather Shot Bags & Accouterments for the French & Indian War.

Leather Shot Bags & Accouterments for the French & Indian War.
Welcome to my Blog! My name is Darrel Lang and I specialize in the Replication of Leather shot bags & Accouterments made in the colonies by the harness and saddle maker of the18th century. All items are hand sewn using waxed linen thread, dyed, then treated with neatsfoot oil & bee’s wax. The leather used is of veg. tanned cow hide 2-3 or 4-5 oz. weight. Other materials used are pig skin, period correct linens for the 18th century and iron or brass buckles. Please take a look at what I have to offer. Thank you!

February 28, 2014

Cow's Knee

Today I worked on another small project, a cow's knee or lock cover. It is used to protect the lock and it's prim from bad weather, rain, snow, or dampness. I used a piece of tanned cow hide already dyed a dark brown then treated it inside and out with neet's foot oil & bee's wax.



February 27, 2014

Powder Horn Strap

I was sent this woven strap made by CJ Wilde, and a photo of what he wanted done. I was asked to make it into a powder horn strap.
So here it is.


February 15, 2014

Two new Powder Horns

This is my new powder horn made by Roy Howman's "Buckeye Horn Works" he did a great job on making and designing the work on the horn.








I meet with Roy at the Fremont trade show last year and talked to him about an idea that I had for a new powder horn for myself. It would involve a large horn. Roy said that he would keep his eye open for one. Later in the year I received a e-mail from Roy with a few photos of a large horn he had just completed, I asked if he could hold on to it until I could take a look at it. At a event in October I meet again with Roy and looked the horn over and decided that it was the one. The idea that I had was to have a horn done with pictures that would tell the story of me and it would be the horn that I would use from now on, and when the time comes it would be used to hold my ashes when ever that time comes. So we sat down and we talked about what I would want on the horn , he showed me photos of some of his work and let me look at some books on other horn work. I gave him an idea of what I was looking for and told him to use his talent and best judgement and this is what he came up with.
I think Roy did a outstanding job on my horn and is a great artiest at engraving powder horns.

The second horn was also done by Roy for my son Eric. The horn was one that I had, and Eric carried it when ever he would attend events with me. I asked Roy if he would do some engraving on a horn that he didn't make. He looked the horn over and said he would. I again sat down with him and gave him an idea of what I would like and he worked his magic and again did an outstanding job.




Roy was outstanding to work with, he listen to what I wanted on the horn and made suggestion to what he thought would work or wouldn't work. He let me know when he would start on the horn and when he got the horn all laid out in pencil he contact me by e-mail with photos of the horn to look over for any add on or mistakes made. After he got the approval he went to work on engraving the horn. In less the a week after I approved the horn the work was done.
I was very well satisfied with Roy work and intend to have him do some more for me in the near future. If you would like to see more of Roy's work he has a web site at   http://royhowmanbhw.weebly.com/index.html 

New Shot Bag & Belt Pouch #22

This is a set that I have been working on for a gentlemen who wanted to try a smaller set up for shooting then what he was currently using. So working with his persona of a early ranger of the 1750's I made him up a smaller shot pouch and added a belt bag to go along with it.
He wanted to keep some of his accouterments in the same spot as in his old bag, like his ball starter and priming horn. So I made up a inside pocket that was deep enough and wide enough when split in the middle to hold his priming horn and on the other side flints and such. I also added a small pocket in front of the larger one to hold in place his ball starter.

As a request I made up a small pouch to hold his cleaning jag and other small items used to clean his rifle. The shot bag is 7" wide and about 8 1/2" deep with a 1 1/2" wide gusset added.
The belt bag is also made with a large inside pocket divided to hold patching on one side and balls on the other and plenty of room for other things. The belt bag is just under 7" wide and 6" deep with a button closer on the flap.

I added his small patch knife to the strap also. Both bag are hand sewn and made from 3/4 oz. veg. tanned leather for the body of the bag and 2/3 oz. for the flaps.  I did some tooling on both flaps. They are both dye a dark brown and treated with neets-foot oil and bee's wax. The strap is 1" wide and has a iron buckle.
  All of his accouterments were sent to me along with details as were he wanted each item placed. I then could plan and work in each item and make it fit as I made up the bag.

This has been a fun and learning project!