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!

January 12, 2015

New Knife



I have wanted a new knife made for myself for a long time but, could never decide on a style that I liked. I wanted something early but, not a dagger no double edge. One late night I was going through some of the older post on the Contemporary Makers blog site and came across some early style knives made by  CLA artisans Ken Gahagan that I liked. So I got with CLA artisans Ben Hoffman of Hoffman Reproductions to talk about what he could do for me. After showing him the photos of Ken’s work and what I was looking for he came up with a European style hunting knife. He drew up some sketches of what he had in mind, and I made some changes and well this is what we came up with. Ben did an outstanding job on the knife. I received it in mid October and used it to field dressing my turkey and was hoping to put it to use on a deer but no luck on that. The knife is light and holds a fine edge. I made up the sheath for it but I’m not sure that it is what I want so that may change in the future.   



If you would like to see what Ben has to offer you can send him a e-mail to  hoffmanreproductions@yahoo.com or call him at 1-740-828-2304


Here are some photos that Ben sent me as he work on the knife. The one thing that impressed me was that the handle was fitted to the tang by burning it in for the perfect fit.
No epoxy used.



January 11, 2015

Finished Order Shot Bag #27

Just finished up this set for a customer.
Shot bag, Belt bag & a shoulder carry ax sheath.
He also order a second ax sheath but in a lighter brown, the ax was sent to me by the customer at there cost.