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There are a
number of reasons you may wish to have one or more period correct shipping Dimensions of the Case: Ultimately this is something determined by your own needs. Cases would have come in many sizes and shapes, depending on what the contents were and who was constructing the case. An example would be a case for transporting rifles or guns. On the other hand, cases used for transporting small items, or mixed inventory, may well have had standard dimensions. Decide what you are going to be transporting in the case and use that to determine the dimensions of the case you will need. Weight should also be a consideration, as the 24”X24”X18” case (the red case) shown in the picture above weighs about 26 pounds empty-a large case containing heavy items may quickly become unmanageable. You will also need to decide if you will use cleats on your case. Cleats give added strength to the case, to protect fragile or valuable items, however, they are not necessary. Cleats are bands of wood, about two inches wide that ring the case. Materials:
Because the purpose of the case was to protect the contents from
weather and pilfering only as far as the final destination (trading post,
trading camp, fort or rendezvous), the wood used for constructing the case
would have been cheap, strong, probably rough-cut, and not planed. And
because most lumber of the times was cut in saw pits, the saw lines would
have been straight transverse lines across the board.
Now that said, obtaining such lumber today, at least in the big
city is not so easy. I’ve
used ¾ inch rough cedar deck or fence material which is planed on one
side.
It doesn’t have the transverse lines, but it doesn’t have the
curved lines of a circular blade either.
In the early
1800’s screws were immensely expensive compared to nails and would not
have been used for the construction of mere shipping cases.
Nails were square, or cut.
You wont have to get your favorite blacksmith hammer out a bunch of
these for you, they can be purchased by the pound from Tremont Nail
Company, look them up on-line at http://www.tremontnail.com
For this project I used 2-inch hinge nails. Assembling the
Case: Cut the lumber to
the dimensions you require for your case.
After the lumber is cut to size I use a rasp to ever so slightly
round over the edges where boards will butte up against each other to
increase the visibility of the joint.
Because I want my cases to last for many events over many years, I
used a mixture of period and contemporary construction techniques.
I first assembled the case using dowels.
Since the lid is to be removable, hopefully with relative ease,
dowel were placed for the lid, however glued only on the case side. Thus
the lid is held in place by friction, and can be removed by prying it up
with a butcher knife or screwdriver. After the case is
pre-assembled using dowel, drill holes to accept the cut-steel nails.
Cut-steel nails are more like pegs then pins, and will want to
split most kiln dried lumber near the edges.
Early 1800’s lumber was not kiln dried, and in most cases was
probably green If you’ve
constructed your case with cleats, remove the sharp corners by cutting
them off at 45-degrees. Weathering
and Labeling: You may want to weather, and/or label the
case. By exposing your case to
rain, or a sprinkler, the nails will rust and dark stains will bleed off
into the wood surrounding the nails. The
case will not need extreme weathering.
Remember that most of these cases generally had a useful life not
exceeding several months. So
other than experiencing hard use in transport, the exterior wooden surface
would have had a relatively
fresh surface. How you choose to
label your case(s) will depend on who and when you are, and what companies were
active in the area in which you attend events.
I chose to label this case BStV&Co No 74, that is Bent St.
Vrain & Company case No. 74. This
company was active not only at Bent’s Fort on the Santa Fe trail, but
operated stores in Mexican Taos and Santa Fe and sent traders with wagon
loads of trade goods
along the entire front range up to and even beyond Fort Laramie in
southern Wyoming. Because I
often do volunteer events at Bent’s Fort as well as along Finally, there is
an excellent article about constructing period cases published in the
January 2006 edition of Muzzle Blasts by Dennis Neely.
This article is titled “David McCrea’s Case No. 47 .“
I broadly followed the methods and ideas suggested by Neely in
construction of my first case.
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when used for cases, so the wood would have accepted
cut-steel nails without splitting.