I was burning the paint off a couple Altoids tins and the fumes got me in a silly frame of mind. Thinking where a hunter of the 1790's may have come up with similar items - the thought of a man who had served in the Revolution and had an opportunity to ransack a supply cart sending items from home to some poor British General.
Yes, pure fantasy, though a similar item in silver could get back to the Georgian Era of the 1830's.
Anyway, the description "General Altoid's Snuff Boxes" struck me as funny and I think I like the idea.
Altoids from the US now have a raised lettering stamped into the lid. I unstamped it by putting one ball-peen hammer face up in a vice and setting the lettering over it and tapping it smooth with a second. Then I set the lid face down on a pine block and gently tapped it a gozillion times with the curved nose of the hammer. This worked nicely to "lift" a curve into the lid (and work a matching domed base on the smaller box) and make them look a lot less Altoidish. Before the peening I had steel brushed them (drill mounted brush) as close to bare metal as possible (MAN, they use a good paint) and then used a propane torch to heat the metal orange hot and tone the steel plus char the paint off. Then another brushing. Finally, I wiped them well with Barricade.
Here is the result (along with a .66 cal ball block).
Here you can see the domed smaller tin. The lid was domed originally but the base concave - I turned it out. The lid used to have the raised lettering and it's now pretty well camoflaged.
These are my hunting accessories for my 16 bore fowler. Enough fixins for 12 shot loads and four punkin' balls. I'll also have a small priming flask and a roll of cotton patching. Bare essentials to shoot & clean the gun.
Yes, pure fantasy, though a similar item in silver could get back to the Georgian Era of the 1830's.
Anyway, the description "General Altoid's Snuff Boxes" struck me as funny and I think I like the idea.
Altoids from the US now have a raised lettering stamped into the lid. I unstamped it by putting one ball-peen hammer face up in a vice and setting the lettering over it and tapping it smooth with a second. Then I set the lid face down on a pine block and gently tapped it a gozillion times with the curved nose of the hammer. This worked nicely to "lift" a curve into the lid (and work a matching domed base on the smaller box) and make them look a lot less Altoidish. Before the peening I had steel brushed them (drill mounted brush) as close to bare metal as possible (MAN, they use a good paint) and then used a propane torch to heat the metal orange hot and tone the steel plus char the paint off. Then another brushing. Finally, I wiped them well with Barricade.
Here is the result (along with a .66 cal ball block).
Here you can see the domed smaller tin. The lid was domed originally but the base concave - I turned it out. The lid used to have the raised lettering and it's now pretty well camoflaged.
These are my hunting accessories for my 16 bore fowler. Enough fixins for 12 shot loads and four punkin' balls. I'll also have a small priming flask and a roll of cotton patching. Bare essentials to shoot & clean the gun.
