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Quality Compass

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Joined
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I'm looking for a quality made reproduction compass... Any ideas? Most you come across are cheap pot metal Chinese deals.

I'd certainly like all brass construction with a gnomon. Obviously rugged and definitely functional. Unfortunately I'm having no luck procuring one... thanks in advance gents!
 
Apparently the topic got moved, Sorry but is a compass not a period correct piece of equipment that's used for reenactment purposes, not a general muzzleloading accouterment??? Come on guys, not trying to be picky but this in a sense is a two way street. No right or wrong here.

Thanks for the inputs above, I'll definitely check out those sources.
 
Clyde is correct - a compass was something few could afford and not an item that every frontiersman would have. Dead-reckoning or navigating by landmarks were used.
 
"..., I remember we inquired of him [the captain of a local schooner near Louisbourg] what latitude we were in, for it was then, and had been for a few days, such foggy weather (endemial to all the North-American coasts) but the poor fellow knew nothing of the matter, having neither quadrant, log, nor even a compass on board;"

"and their Officers [Rogers' Rangers officers] usually carry a small compass fixed in the bottoms of their powder horns, by which to direct them, when they happen to lose themselves in the woods."

An historical journal of the campaigns in North-America for the years 1757, 1758, 1759, and 1760, by Captain John Knox.


Such a reproduction compass may be found at Dixie Gunworks or you can find the finished item if you don't DIY at October Country , or you can find the same compass in a case (among other compasses) from Crazy Crow

LD
 
On the one hand we have a poor colonial
(likely) fishing vessel, and on the other hand we have British special forces with all the resources of the royal crown.... :hmm:
 
Not sure one could say Rogers Rangers had the "resources of the crown". Rogers was given cash and told to recruit men, and outfit them. He had to do all of that with local resources. If you figure a captain or lieutenant per company, perhaps a captain AND two lieutenants, than you have a ratio of 1:50 or as low as perhaps 1:15 compasses per men.

:idunno:

LD
 
Seaman learned to read the sea, and drop a lead over the side with tallow in the bottom and pick up sand or mud or gravel and tell where they were at. A hunter or trader would have to follow to a river or mountain and get near where they were going. However RR had to go to A spot by best route, and then leave by best route, not much room for dead reckoning.
Many merchant ships of the day didn't carry a compass. Sail along a coarse till you run in to land then turn nighty degresse as needed until you found your port.
HC compasses are correct but I doubt they were ever very common.
 
So, if I have been understanding this discussion, a frontiersman with a compass (or a telescope or magnifying lense) would stand out among his compadres even though this equipment would be fairly light and compact?
 
I THINK so. So many were illiterate,many who could read grew up learning the tricks of the trade. North Star at night sunrise and set tree moss noon shawdows etc were cheaper then a compass.
That said I carry one and travel ones were known then.
 
Tree moss thing doesn't work. I really like compasses, I had one of those Marble brass compasses but it somehow went South on me. Oddly enough. I carried it on my key ring, maybe it got de-magnetized.

I wear a compass on my watch, neither of which are PC, but I like to know which direction I'm going.
 

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