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CSA MARKED FLASK - GENUINE?
Shansei45
Member Posts: 409 ✭✭✭
I've obtained a copper/brass flask in VERY beat-up condition that appears to be 1860s era. Not in Riling's book, and no one can say who made it. LOTS of guesses, but no company claims it as theirs. Below is photo of it. YES! It looks familiar, but check the details! NO crossed pistols, etc.. Anyone got any info, or even an opinion?
I believe it may be original rebel issue. No modern day front-stuffer would bother to do all the repair work on it. They would just send a check for a NEW one! But, Johnny Reb walking back home to the farm after the Great Conflict, without a cent in his pocket, would do anything to keep this badly needed piece of equipment working. What do YOU think?
Best regards ~ ~ ~ Shansei45
Yes! I carry a gun, 'cause a cop is too heavy!
I believe it may be original rebel issue. No modern day front-stuffer would bother to do all the repair work on it. They would just send a check for a NEW one! But, Johnny Reb walking back home to the farm after the Great Conflict, without a cent in his pocket, would do anything to keep this badly needed piece of equipment working. What do YOU think?
Best regards ~ ~ ~ Shansei45
Yes! I carry a gun, 'cause a cop is too heavy!
Comments
"Sir - This Spanish-made flask [which is why it's not noted in an American list] is identical in every way to my own, bought in 1978 to go with my brass-framed 'Johnny Reb' revolver. Except that your flask is in better overall condition than mine.
As for your comment that no modern BP shooter would hang on to one with all these dings and dents, why Sir, you have clearly missed the point of being a BP shooter in the fust place. We rarely, if ever, throw things away just because they ain't so purty any more. We loves 'em even more for the character they have, just as we look at the lined and care-worn faces of our long-suffering spouses with love and affection, so we do the same with the accoutrements that have been our companions along the trail. Most of us, excepting you, Sir, obviously, treasure the dings and dents we put in things we own and use, each ding and each dent having a memory, good or bad, attached to it. I know my CSA flask has more than a few memories attached to it, AND it has been repaired quite few times where the bottom seam has come open, as well as a couple of new springs, too.
And as for 'Battlefield' dents, well, they come naturally to a soft copper-bodied bottle, too. Mine is careworn from being in a possibles box for thirty years, banging around with three other flasks just like it, handled and dropped, and from being used about every other weekend since 1978, except when I was away on duty.
It's not so old as a REAL relic, but mine IS a relic nontheless, just like me, a relic of things I have done, places I have seen, and the great folks I have met along the way.
And if I ever want to see a REAL relic, why, I just go look in a mirror. "
And don't get me wrong - there is nothing wrong with checking other sources when we have a question about an item's authenticity. But the gentleman quoted above - http://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/fusionbb/showtopic.php?tid/220585/ - has one identical to yours. Worth thinking about.
Personally, I hope that yours is authentic. That would be neat. Good luck with your search.
Anyway, glad you let me know about that. I'd given up on anyone coming up with an answer. Regardless, I'll get over there and check it out. Thanks for the heads-up.
Best regards ~ ~ ~ Shansei45
My wife and I were members of the Malahat Marauders, attending Mountain Man Rendezvous up in the Coastal Mountains of British Columbia back in the 1970s and '80s - more than 30 years ago! Few people alive today can match those kind of experiences.
We - wife, 2 little kids, and I - lived in a Kwakiutl Indian village just a couple of miles up-river from the famous Halliday Ranch (homesteaded in 1894 by the owner's grandad) on Kingcome Inlet. We traveled by dugout canoe. We hunted deer and mountain goat for FOOD - not sport!
Our youngest daughter, now an Aerospace Engineer with NASA, was born up there of Yankee parents, and therefore has dual citizenship.
Sorry, I'm ranting! Anyway, go back and check out my challenge.
Best regards ~ ~ ~ Shansei45
Looks like a keeper!
Best regards ~ ~ ~ Shansei45
A circa 1860's .36 cal bullet mold I aquired recently.
That "CSA" stamp looks a lot newer than the mold. Looking at all the wear and pitting on the mold, the stampings should be worn and pitted as well.