The Widowmakers

All things from original “How To, Tips and Tricks” site have now moved into the Flint Inn. In the How to Make Section (below) either enlarge your computer screen’s view or simply click on the item (file) of interest to get a better view; once clicked upon these files may be printed or downloaded.

Great Tips Direct from Lizard:

Food Containers:

Well it takes the effort to do this, but at the Rendezvous it’s a lot easier to do, and you don’t have all the modern containers showing up on the tables at the Rendezvous. I have a lot of good Primitive Pics that are ruined by a Pringles can, ketchup bottle, etc. sitting on a table while people are eating. It doesn’t make much sense unless your whole crew does it, but I’m going back to it this year. At one time, all the Widowmakers donethis. Here are some tips on some Primitive food containers.

Bread:

At the food stores, they have Saltine Crackers in a tall metal can. Use the crackers for targets, and take paint remover to the can to get all the stuff panted on them, off. After its done wash it up, and just let it rust up a little, and then put vegetable oil on it. This makes a good container for your bread. Use as many as you need.

Egg Container:

Get a wire bail snap lid glass jar. In just a quart jar, you can put about 15 eggs in it. Break the eggs shells just like in cooking them, and put them in the quart jar. If you are careful, and don’t break the yokes when you put the eggs in the jar, they will be that way when you get to the Rendezvous. When you need the eggs, just pour out how many you want into the skillet. This was done in the old days. I don’t know if these jars was around before the 1840s or not, but I do know they had something similar. They don’t look out of place on a table though. They come with a rubber washer to make them seal up when the lid is snapped in place. You don’t have to do it, but I replace the rubber washers with leather ones. These jars come in many sizes and work really well with meat, milk, etc. I get the ones that are just clear glass. They look better that way.

Meat:

This is real easy. I just take the meat out of the plastic containers, and wrap it in waxed brown paper. If you can’t find brown waxed paper, just tear up some food stores brown bags, and rub bees wax, or whatever kind on the outside of the paper. Tie off with string, and put in freezer a couple of days before you go to Rendezvous.

Can Opener:

These are real cheap. P-38. They were used in the military for years and years to open sea rations and K-rations. They are real little, and a few minutes of using it, you will have it down pat. If someone were watching you from 20 ft, opening a can up, they would think you were doing it with your bare hands. That’s how small they are. You can get these in case you

forget the big one at home. Hang one in the food box on a nail, have one on your key ring, etc. They sure come in handy when you need them, and you could put them in different boxes that you use at the rendezvous, and you will never be without a can opener. The ole reliable, P-38.

All this does is, when you have your food out on a table, and the Dog Soldier comes by, he can yell at your buds, but not at you. This also makes it easier to grab something from the cooler, and go lay it on the table without trying to hide it. If you have your cooler in your tent, you don’t have to transfer it to a Primitive container to take it to the table or fire. It’s a little pain to get all your food supply in primitive containers, but it’s so much easier when you go to rendezvous.

 

Camp Gear:

Warm Blanket: Don’t have any thick and heavy Hudson Bays to keep you warm? Try this. Get a wool blanket, cheap Army or Navy one, or one that is not 100% wool. Cut a piece of canvas the same size, dye it and take it to a canvas shop, like Tent and Awning. Have them sew the blanket and canvas together with a wide stitch. They can sew over the whole area of the blanket and canvas. This makes a super warm blanket.

Inside Tent Ground Cloth:

Cheap! Go to K-Mart, Walmart, etc, and get a painter’s drop cloth. They are thin and don’t take up much room. You can get these in different sizes. The Preach and I have used them for years. They run anywhere from $5 to $9. If they don’t have the size you want, just buy two smaller ones and overlap them. If you want, you can put plastic tarps under them. You can use them over and over. Don’t go to a paint store or you will pay twice the price for them. We use them for a year and trash them. When you get home from a Rendezvous, just lay them out in the yard and use a broom and hose to wash them. Hang to dry Honnies.

Tent Stakes #1:

This is one idea I came up with in the past and it worked real well. I’ve got to do it again because somewhere along the line I’ve lost them or gave them away. If you have ever seen an electric fence post, you already know what I’m about to tell you about. Electric fence posts have a spade attached to them. This spade is in the shape of anarrowhead, with the point pointing down. It’s welded to the fence post and goes into the ground where you can’t see it and holds the post where it won’t come out. I just took and made some spaces out of 1/8 inch steel and welded them to my tent stakes. The tip of the spade is about 3 inches from the pointed end of the tent stake and runs about 2 ½ inches up the stake. They will hold your tent up a whole lot better in high winds and you won’t be out at midnight hammering away at your stakes. If nothing else, like I did for awhile, just make upa few to carry with you in case the weather report from the Rendezvous site says the winds are coming.

Tent Stakes #2:

Take the ropes you use to go to the stakes and put them through a ring. When you go to tighten or loosen them, it’s a whole lot easier to do and they don’t wear out the ropes if you use square stakes. The ring goes on the stake. Once you have the ropes run through the rings, the rings won’t come off because of the tighteners on the ropes. Tandy Leather sells these rings, brass plated steel and real cheap!

Tent Repair:

This stuff works and works real good. Its called Liquid Stitch. You can get it at a place where there all kinds of material for the making of clothes, It comes in a 4 oz bottle, about $4.00 a bottle, but worth every cent of it. If you in your tent, and just happen to spot a tear or hole in it, and a storm is coming in, do this. Have some go inside and hold a board up against the area of the tent with the hole in it. Cut a piece of canvas to cover the hole, run this liquid stitch around the edges a couple of times, slap it on the hole or rip, hold it for 15 secs, and its done. It will not leak there. If you have the time or spot the hole or tear at home you do the same thing, and then sew around it, if you want. This is the fastest way to repair your tent I have seen. And once its there, the patch, its there to stay. Liquid Stitch can also be used to repair torn or clothes on the spot.

Personal Gear

 

Clogs: That’s what the French called them. Take a 2×6 or 1×6 board, about a foot long, and put your bare foot on it. Trace around your foot, leaving just a little extra wood past your foot all the way around. Cut the suckers out on a band saw. Cut a piece of leather that will go over your arch and down past your toes. Make sure you leave enough leather to reach the board from the top of your arch to overthe toes, then mark the leather and cut it. Nail the leather to the edge of the board and you have a pair of Clogs. Make sure the toes are covered along with the front half of your foot. These are really great when you have to get up in the middle of the night or go to do your thing. Wear them in camp if you want. They are as right as rain. If you use the 2×6, you can cut the thickness of the wood sole you want and even put a slight heal on them. Use the treated lumber if you want and these will last for years and years. You can stain them or paint them.

 

Center-Seam Moc Insulators:

I’ve been to a lot of Rendezvous in the past where it rained a lot, or was raining during the Rendezvous. I always wore center-seam mocs to all the Rendezvous I attended and I always had to take a lot of socks to change into if the weather turned bad. My feet were always wet to some degree. Here is a way to take care of that. It’s not Traditional, but then again, neither is the elastic bands on your underwear right? You go to a place where they sell nothing but cowboy stuff, mostly cowboy boots. There you can buy rubbers that go over cowboy boots. Pointed ones, just the thing for putting inside your pointed center-seam mocs. Now they will think you are off your rocker trying these on in just your stocking feet, but ignore them. Get the size that fits the best and you have it. Put baby powder on them before putting them inside your mocs and they slide in easy.

Now if you want something to keep your feet warm in your center-seam mocs, give this a try. You will have to make a separate pair of center-seams for this to work. Make this pair one or two sizes bigger than you normally wear. Go to the store and get a pair of booties that you wear around the house. They are the cheap kind that have that soft material on the outside and on the inside they have that stuff that looks like sheep’s wool. Just put these inside the rubbers and they will mold to the form and you will have dry, warm center-seam mocs. If you want really warm mocs, do the above and then go and buy yourself a pair of Goretex socks. These run about $30 but there are other brands that might be cheaper. One thing you will notice when you get the cowboy boot rubbers is that they have a short stair step to the rear and bottom of them for the boot heel to fit into. Don’t worry about that. Doesn’t hurt a thing. I took and cut a small piece of rubber that fits nicely into this stair step. It’s really helps if you have trouble walking in the flat footed mocs.

Primitive Knife Sharpener:

One time I was out hunting with my flintlock and had knocked down a big doe. I had left my good skinning knife back at the truck and all I had with me was a good sized pocket knife. In no was was I going to drag this deer back with another 25 to 30 pounds of guts in it. I got the knife out and it did penetrate the hide, but as far as making a cut with it, no way! Now what? I took out my Primitive flint wallet to a get a little file that’s inside … that won’t work … the files in the shop back home. I needed it and didn’t return it to the wallet. So what have I got that will put an edge on this knife? Flint ! I took one of my extra flints and run it down both sides of the blade. Then I run my thumb down it, not expecting too much, but WOW! Where’s that blood coming from? I made the cut from the brisket to the pelvis as good as Icould have with my good hunting knife! Flint will and does put an edge on a knife if you have nothing else with you that will. A good quick sharp edge!

 

Boiling Horns to Shape:

It’s real simple, use GREASE instead of water. Grease gets hotter than water at the boiling point. Now listen, it don’t take too long to soften up a horn doing it this way. If you leave the horn too long, the grease with French fry it. I use a pair of long nose pliers, putting the nose of one side of the pliers in the spout hole and the other on the outside of the horn. I use a hot mitt pad to do this also. Get a pan and make sure the melted grease cover the whole horn. Then crank up the fire. When the grease gets to boiling just around the edges of the pan, its ready Freddie! Put the h

orn in the grease for about 30 seconds. Pull it out and look at it and push it with something to see how soft it is. If it isn’t soft enough, do it again and check it every 30 to 45 seconds. It won’t take long and the horn is ready for the base plug. This is really great for making flat horns. This is not one of my ideas. Jim Barton who was in buckskinning for a while bought an original old 1800’s beaver felted wide brim hat at an auction. It was in super shape. He was looking at the liner, a piece of leather about 2 inches in width and found a paper with instructions on how to do this! It also told how to cut a blanket for making a capote!

Staining Horns:

This method works on antler and bone. Get a pan of well water or water from the store, any water that doesn’t have chorine in it. Make sure there’s enough water to cover the piece being stained. Now go get the tea bags. I’ve tried them all and the Lousianne tea seems to work the best. Put in a teaspoon of salt and this will help set the stain. Add the tea bags, about 10 will do and put in the horn or antler and bring the water to a boil. I boil mine for about 45 minutes, but it varies according to the piece you are staining. You will need to add more water as it boils away. That’s why I start with 10 tea bags. One other thing, soakthe pieces to be stained overnight in water just to get the fibers opened up on the horn. Save the tea even when it starts to stink and mix it with new stuff the next time youdo it. I’ve gotten some real golden horns on some white horns but it don’t happen all the time. The finished product still looks good though.

Antiquing Rifle Barrels/Steel:

This has to be done outside and you should have a nice breeze to carry the fumes away from you. You use different containers for whatever size you are going to antique. Heat can come from hotplates or whatever source you can come up with. Mix a 50/50 mixture of bleach and water. Heat the mixture to boiling and put the part to be antiqued in the pan and back away. You MUST stay away fromthe fumes as they are toxic! Keep checking the metal every 20 to 30 minutes or so. If you have to add more mixture, make sure you only add a 50/50 mixture. The longer the metal is in the solution, the more antique it will look. It will even start to pit if you add more bleach. If you are antiquing a barrel, plug the muzzle and breech if it doesn’t have a breech plug installed. I use over sized corks to do this. I know a few gun builders who use this method. I don’t know what percentage they use for their mixture but 50/50 works fine for me.

Cleaning Old Bottles:

Did you ever buy anold timey, long neck bottle and it had crude in it you couldn’t get to very easy. When you did, you couldn’t get the crud out. Well this will work, and its real easy to do. This will work with about anything. Go to the store and pick up some of that stuff that people use to clean false teeth with. You got it. This stuff will eat anything out of a container. I’ve used it on glass bottles many times. Just put the stuff in, and leave it. You can tell when all the crud is pulverized, and ready to pour out.

Leather Clamp:

These are really binder clamps. They are used in a office to hold papers together. Any office supply store will have them. The body is made of spring steel. They come in different sizes, have SUPER holding power and are great to hold two pieces of leather together for sewing. It eliminates the use of leather glue. They also can be used to hold the leather while using a punch.

Sewing Pliers:

Toenail clippers. Get one of these, the big and long ones, and file off the cutting edges. You now have a top of the line tool for pulling the needle through the leather when sewing. I tie a leather thong through the hole at the end to make a loopthat my hand goes through. Bend your wrist and the clippers swing right into your hand. No need to keep picking up and laying down tie and time again.

Lock Oiler:

I don’t care what anyone says, this is the best method of oiling your lock after its cleaned. Its fast and it gets to all the parts of your lock 100%! A small artist paint brush. Dip it in the oil, and paint the lock with the oil.It gets the oil to ALL parts of your lock, and its quick and easy.

Poor Mans Anvils:

Just about everybody knows of using railroad track to make small anvils out of. But a good one to use that not many people know about is a train/boxcar axle. It weights abouy 65 lbs and you can beat anything out on it! You can get these cheap at the yards where they repair railroad cars. They just sell them for scrap metal.

Portable Bath :

With this item you can clean up in a few minutes at a rendezvous. I don’t know if a lot of people use them or not but the work and work well. Don’t laugh until you try it. Your wife will love you for getting these. They are BABY WIPES! Cheap and you wont go without them once you have used them. They take the burnt black powder off your hands from shooting, clean the wife’s hands after cooking, and can take a five minute bath that really takes the stink off! I’ve used them to clean dishes, cups, outside of guns, and many other things. There’s all kinds of brands out there and all work well. The kind with alcohol evaporate faster but sting if you have cuts and scrapes. The best part of all is that you can get then scented or unscented.

 

How to Make:

Ball Pouch

Bird Trap

Chalker

Camp Fork

Canteen

Cooler Drain

Fire Starting Horn

Flaker

Flint Knapper

Jag

Knife

Leather Flint Holder

Leather Writing

Powder Water Container

Primer with Hook

Ramrod Puller

Rattle Tube

Shot Pouch

Speed Loader

Striker

Thread Protector

Tool Wallet

Hints in making this tool pouch/wallet. Use oak tanned carving leather. Roughly lay out how you want your tools on a paper first make sure you leave a bit of space for the fold area. Put a piece of plastic over the tools on the table. Wet the liner leather and lay on the plastic over the tools. Use a bone folder to shape the leather around the tools. Finally, put a towel over it and place a sandbag over the whole thing then let dry. Cut the back piece to fit the front then sew. After sewing use a utility knife or ex-acto knife to carefully cut the slits in the inner leather for the pockets. Don’t cut through the back. Another way is to start at one tool and work your way across using each tool to judge where to cut as you sew. Then sew the outside at the last. Whatever you use for gun oil works well as a finish on this. I highly recommend this kit. It gets my vote for the number one tip of the century.-Darylee Here is mine Yes, one tool is missing. It is the 12 ga cleaning jag. It always ends up in the bottom of the bag. Also, I suggest to make the flint area like Lizard’s above, or have a flap cover the edges.

Woods Pak

        

Woods Pak Bed

Tips for Cooking:

Rachel’s Hot Rendezvous Eggs

For a large batch of eggs, use an old bulk pickle jar, glass is best. Heat level is that of medium salsa.

50-60 Hard boiled eggs, pealed and still warm

2 tbl sp kosher salt

1/2 sm container red pepper flakes (about 3 lg tbl sp)

5-9 large cloves fresh garlic smashed and chopped (don’t use the kind from the jar, its not the same!)

1 tbl sp tobacco sauce

1/2 cup chopped pickled hot peppers (peppers are about 1 in long and 1/2 inch around and are green. Not sure what kind they are called but they are HOT. The pickled ones seem to work best)

OR

6 or so Finger Hot Peppers chopped (fresh or dried doesn’t matter. These peppers are about 6 inches long and are bright orange when ripe. VERY HOT when fresh, be careful where your fingers touch!)

Enough white distilled vinegar to cover everything.

Place warm eggs in jar until half full, add all components minus the vinegar then add the rest of the eggs. Warm vinegar to twice to three times the temp of a baby’s bottle. Fill the jar so that all contents are covered then place cap. You can either place the full sealed jar in the fridge or in a cool dark place of the house to sit and brew. Turn jar evey couple of days. Eggs will be ready in 4 weeks, use within one month of opening. If your brine stays clean (i.e. the eggs don’t break and get yolk all through the brine) you can use the same brine over again with another batch of eggs.

 

Wonderful Uses for Opened Madeira or Other Red Wine

Recently I bought a bottle of sweet wine Madeira to bring to a graduation party of a friend of mine. Well, somehow, all of it never got drank, and it ended up coming home with me. Then, (oh the shame) the roommate put it out on the hot back landing where it became a mess. No good for drinking at all anymore. But it was wonderful for one thing… COOKING! here are some great ideas for cooking with that old red wine, desert wine or otherwise. I swear it makes for a better cooking wine than a fresh bought bottle. (Now even though I know some of these ideas are age old… some people don’t know about them! Heaven forbid!)

*Put some pizzazz into your sautéed onions by adding some wine at the last minute. It works best when you have also added just a little bit of olive oil. Not butter. I know, I know, all people ever use at rendezvous is butter or lard, but olive oil works best with this. A little bit of salt or pepper to taste and then wine at the end and your onions will taste amazing!

*Going on the onion idea, cut onions into quarters and then slice, also chop portabella mushrooms (or your favorite kind of fresh mushroom). Then take lean beef, moose, or venison burger and cook with seasoning until just before done making sure it is all in broken bits. Add the onions and mushrooms until they are about 3 minutes to done. Add the wine and allow to reduce while the onions and mushrooms are finishing up. Be sure to keep the entire concoction moving so that nothing sticks to the bottom or one side doesn’t get cooked quicker than another. When liquids have reduced enough to be just juicy, than it is finished!