One of the problems in our sport is the idea of how much had to have been done vs what was written down.
I referenced a found gun with coconut fiber. I was corrected pointing out it was palmetto fiber. I don’t know if I was wrong or we were referencing two different guns.
most likely it’s the same gun and I misremember the fiber.
However I don’t know of loading manuals that talked about palmetto fiber.
Was coconut fiber used? How about oakum? As I recall all sorts of fiber was pressed in to service for oakum.
But we also face the fact that just because something seems obvious to us doesn’t mean they thought of it then.
I think about the fact that I use rag tinder as my fire starting. We know it was used in the past, as was punk and fire mushrooms.
I’ve tried a lot, chared bark, punk, chared spanish moss, chared rabbit ear, cat tail fluff, ect, but I fall back to rag tinder.
When someone found x that worked real well in his area did he try others? I don’t know.
If some one started using inner bark out of such and such tree for wadding did he change? Did he try something new because it was proper? Did he not use something at hand because he hadn’t tried it? Did he write it down
Since it’s not written down we can’t prove it, but just because we think it a good idea doesn’t mean he did back then.
