Cartridge packages

[wavey1us]

Re: Sharps Cartridges

Looks like the blank rounds are taken care of. Attached is an article that I found useful for making live ammunition.

Good info on the Sharp cartridge's. Instead of using tissue paper on the breech side of the cartridge I use cig rolling paper. To me, it is a little more flammable and provides better ignition. Just my 1 1/2 cents worth

[Minieball577]

Re: Sharps Cartridges

Good info on the Sharp cartridge's. Instead of using tissue paper on the breech side of the cartridge I use cig rolling paper. To me, it is a little more flammable and provides better ignition. Just my 1 1/2 cents worth

A lot of people use cigarette paper. i have used tissue paper with great results. I bought it from Meijer (Wallmart, K-mArt) etc in the gift and card section. You can buy all of the tissue paper you may ever need for about a buck thirty...

[Mike N]

Re: Sharps Cartridges

Thanks to all for some great information. I think I've got a good handle on it now.

Mike Nugent

[Alabama Yankee]

Re: Sharps Cartridges

Hair Curler paper works well for making blanks. They are already pre-cut and come in a box of 1,000 for about $1.50. You roll it around a 1/2 inch dowel, twist one end closed, fill with 60 grains, then twist the other end.

To make my live rounds, I start by cutting a piece of cotton muslin 1.5 inches by 3 inches.

I cut a 1 inch by 1 inch square piece of cigarette paper.

Take a 1.4 inch dowel and place the cigarette paper over the end, folding the edges over the dowel.

Run a glue stick down 2 joining sides of the piece of cotton muslin.

Roll the cotton muslin around the dowel so that the long end with the glue on it glues itself to the cigarette paper and the short end with glue on it glues the tube closed.

Fill tube with 60 grains of powder.

Put a sharps ringtail minie ball in the hole and compact powder. You may find it beneficial to put the cotton tube in a brass pipe so that the powder doesn't bulge out the round. Then, using a piece of 100% cotton thread, tie a knot around the tube, sinching the string into the ringtail of the bullet. Wrap the string around to the other side of the bullet and tie another knot. And now you're ready to lube the bullet and shoot.

E-mail me if you want some pictures.

-Ryan Dupree
dupreer@hiwaay.net

[amazingkenneth]

Labels for cartridges packs

Hello All,
I am looking for copies of labels for .69 cal round ball and standard .69cal.
I have a friend that is trying to pick some up but is there anyone or place that I may have them e-mailed or downloaded?

Thanks,
K.J. Reihl

[1stMaine]

Re: Labels for cartridges packs

Comrade,

Again, I would refer you to the "search" tab in the task bar above this forum. A simple search with the words cartridge label in quotation marks revealed an extant thread discussing this same request.

http://www.authentic-campaigner.com/forum/search.php?searchid=126894

Amazing, Kenneth, what searchs can come up with here.....
respects,

[Pvt. Myers]

Cartridge roll and packing paper

This subject has been discussed before except reference the color of the paper. Modern picture evidence suggests the paper used to roll tubes and to pack them was the same color. This appears to be a light tan or yellow, but this could be due to aging and discoloration of the product.

My question is this: was the paper used back then white, off-white, or light tan? I have not been able to find this information out and would appreciate any help from you all regarding this.

Thanks in advance,

Ron Myers
1st US Infantry Co. D

[amazingkenneth]

Re: Cartridge roll and packing paper

Hello Ron,
I have looked into this as well. The best for rounds that I have found is blank news print. I spoke to a few folk about paper and they stated that from time to time white paper was found around but not in round making. White paper was harder to make. It would be my thinking that the paper would be not white but more as you said an off white or lite tan/yellow. Also note the labels on the packs, the wrapper paper and the round are the same color but the labels are a different color (Note: Frankford Arsenal) the label is slightly different. I think that the oils and dirt from the makers hands and the years of age changed the colors. I hope that this helped.

Your Servant,
K.J. Reihl

[Pvt. Myers]

Re: Cartridge roll and packing paper

Hello Ron,
I have looked into this as well. The best for rounds that I have found is blank news print. I spoke to a few folk about paper and they stated that from time to time white paper was found around but not in round making. White paper was harder to make. It would be my thinking that the paper would be not white but more as you said an off white or lite tan/yellow. Also note the labels on the packs, the wrapper paper and the round are the same color but the labels are a different color (Note: Frankford Arsenal) the label is slightly different. I think that the oils and dirt from the makers hands and the years of age changed the colors. I hope that this helped.

Your Servant,
K.J. Reihl

Kenneth, thanks for the quick reply!

I think the newsprint idea is a good one. I'll try to find some off-white and use it.

Thanks again!

Ron Myers
1st US Infantry Co. D

[BobSullivanPress]

Re: Cartridge roll and packing paper

The short answer is, yes.

All paper made in the 1860's was cloth-based paper. The wood pulp process had not been perfected yet.

Since the paper was fiber based, the relative whiteness of the paper was based on how much bleaching was done to the fiber before the paper was made. However, bright white paper is a relatively new thing.

Wood pulp paper fades and yellows because of the acid content in the wood pulp. Cloth-based paper is almost (almost) fade free. Unless it is subject to extreme light abuse, the paper fades very little, if at all. So off-white paper started that way, because they used less bleaching in the processing, because it wasn't going to be used for important stuff.

The closest match to my original cartridge, and other cartridges I've seen (which come to about 12 compared to the several billion made) is a type of deli paper that my sandwiches are wrapped in occasionally. The paper is very close to standard newsprint, but has such a smooth finish that it appears to shine.

Some original documents in the Museum of the Confederacy are printed on paper that looks exactly like the brown shopping bags that you used to get from the grocery store (paper, not plastic). But when you handle the document, it's not thick like those bags at all, but has the same feel as regular paper.

So I've seen paper that's almost white, tan, brown, pink, blue, green, and many shades in between.

[JimConley]

Re: Cartridge roll and packing paper

[QUOTE=Pvt. Myers]Kenneth, thanks for the quick reply!

I think the newsprint idea is a good one. I'll try to find some off-white and use it.

Yeah, blank newsprint is the way to go in my opinion. It is not "white" and I'm told it may be the closest paper as far as thickness to original paper used for rounds. Here in Richmond, KY we have a small newspaper that is always more than happy for me take extra rolls of paper off their hands. I suggest contacting a local paper and conjure some up.

[1stMaine]

Re: Cartridge roll and packing paper

Comrade Sullivan,

I was just about to PM you to respond to this thread, but here you are! Yup, I have several original documents printed on a light blue paper. It's still very clean and the only damage is where they were folded.
respects,

[justthemiller]

Re: Cartridge roll and packing paper

Interestingly enough the Federal ordinance manuals specified buff colored paper in the manufacture of cartridges. I say this because later on when many of the Federal Arsenals that received Williams patent rounds used white paper to wrap them in addition to blue and red paper in order that they be more readily identified. Also, according to the Thomas brothers series of publications (i.e. Roundball to Rimfire etc.) stated that in the beginning of the war the various Federal Arsenals inked/printed their labels directly onto the bundle wrapper paper. With the seeming exception of the St. Louis arsenal this practice seems to have gone away once the war was going on in ernest. Most cartridge bundles were done up in plain paper but there is one colored example existing (1861 dated I believe and in .58 caliber) and that is from the Federal Watervliet Arsenal and that one is in light blue paper! Take care.

[markj]

Re: Cartridge roll and packing paper

I have used 3M "masking paper" (available at any well stocked hardware store) with good results. This also seems to be quite close in both color and weight to original wrappers.

As I have mentioned elsewhere, while at the National Archives I discovered an original Augusta Arsenal .54 Lorenz cartridge wrapper slipped in between the pages of a 32nd Tennessee (AoT) company order book--the back of it had been used by a First Sergeant as scratch paper and he had stuck it into the order book where it remains to this day.

The consistency of the paper was medium-weight--almost like light shopping bag paper. The color was a medium- to medium-dark brown. I have attached a scan of the original wrapper. It is, unfortunately, in black and white (NARA didn't have color copiers) but it still gives you a rough idea of the color and "laid" quality of the paper.

My suggestion is to try the "masking paper"--in my experience, newsprint neither comes in the right color nor in the right "weight"--it tears too easily. Perhaps others will have had different experiences though...

Regards,

Mark Jaeger

[billwatson]

newsprint

The newsprint works for our purposes in the field. It simply wouldn't do for some kind of display like we sometimes are called to set up in a library case window or whatever, because once sunlight hits the newsprint, it will yellow within a day and disintegrate to the touch within three.

This of course makes it even more perfect for use in the field, since it's never going to see sunlight until we're ready to use it, after which the faster it disintegrates the better.

If you've got a little newspaper in the area, check with them for unused end rolls off the presses. They'll either give them away or charge a very small fee. You might also ask to be present at the very start of the night's press run -- the first few copies of the paper, up to maybe 40 or 50 of them, coming off the press are absolutely blank until they engage the mats. The advantage of this is you already have sheets of newsprint in several thicknesses, so you can take your template, mark your cartridge, and cut them off eight or so at a time instead of one at a time. I use a paper cutter. It gets used for other stuff around our home office, but they're cheap now and they save an enormous amount of time for a job like this.

Remember to store the unused newsprint away from sunlight. It will last a long time so long as there's no sunlight. I've seen three-year-old rolls that got pushed in a corner and forgotten for that long put on a press with no trouble.

Finally -- if you don't like the "weight" of the paper, ask them what else they've got. The little papers, especially -- under 30,000 or so -- tend to also do commercial printing, and they have a variety of papers in a variety of thicknesses and finishes to do those jobs. What you probably won't find at a newspaper, though, is the exactly perfect stuff Bob Sullivan describes. That's a specialty product for food wraps. My guess is the shiny finish is some kind of kaolin coating, which is also used on some magazine papers to get a less porous surface than newsprint.

Hope that helps.