Carl Dumke has created a German Hirschjager Antler Flask. As with the originals, the flask is made from a Red Deer antler. The forks are capped with alter sections, blended with the main body of the flask. The one fork has a turned and threaded screw made from an antler time and serves as a filling port for the flask. The other fork has an engraved and carved Greenman in horn.

The top of the flask is a shaped Red Deer antler rosette attached to the body with pins also made from antler tines. The spout is turned dark horn to pick up the brown hues of the flask. The spout stopper is made from a turned and shaped piece of Red Deer rosette. Attached to the stopper is a twisted brass vent pick.

The image is scrimshaw on antler.  The threaded fill port screw is from Red deer tine.  The Greenman is engraved horn.

The strap of the flask was made by Kerry Masarik and is a copy from a period German hunting bag.

Carl Dumke: cjdumke86@yahoo.com

Kerry Masarik, of Horn and Fiber, is a textile artisan who crafts historically inspired woven items. She lives with her family in Western North Carolina.

Kerry believes it is important to shine light on the woven straps, structures, and weavers who contributed fundamental components to early American life, as well as the longrifle culture. The past several years, she has been researching and recreating 18^th-19^th century straps attached to shot pouches and powder horns.  Her research has focused on historic examples, texts, and draft creation.

Kerry has spent the last 20 years practicing pre-industrial revolution fiber preparation and hand spinning. She has spent the past 8 years growing traditional fibers and natural dye plants.  She processes cotton, wool, and flax for spinning and dyeing using historical tools and methodologies.   Although all of her weaving is not handspun, she incorporates it when she can.

Participation in both local and international fiber guilds such as Blue Ridge Fiber Guild, Hand Weavers Guild of America and Complex Weavers provides unique insights to her creativity, research, and preservation to historic textiles and traditions.  In 2021 Kerry was awarded the North Carolina Artist Support Grant to help aide in her continued research on historic narrow woven textiles.

Kerry holds a BA and Master’s Certification in Outdoor Science Education from the State University of New York at Cortland and the University of Idaho.

Kerry Masarik: hornandfiber@gmail.com

James Rogers and his wife, Lori, live at their home, Ridgemont, in Appomattox, Virginia: the area in which his family has resided since the 1740s. Father to three adult children and grandfather to two little ones, James spends much of his time on the farm. While he was a young adult, he delved into genealogy, local dialects, local history and historical/court record investigations, which began his long journey as a master in research. He has honed his technical skills in woodworking, blacksmithing, machining, and leather working, along with a mirage of other skills, including primitive camping, hunting, farming, finance, and mentoring. He graduated from the Liberty Bible Institute and became a sound teacher in Biblical theology.

James’ first experience in woodworking began under instruction by his father as a teen. His journey in the longrifle culture started in 1982, inspired by his friend and mentor, gunmaker Jim Hash. The first projects James created for himself were a powder horn and a leather hunting bag using a ground-down concrete nail as an awl. At this point, his leatherwork knowledge was all self-taught. In 1990, James met Eric Myall, an English born and trained saddler at Colonial Williamsburg. Myall was an immediate influence in James’ direction to pursue historical leatherwork. His mentorship and instruction were the foundation of James’ technique and style. He is now known as a trend-setter, raising the bar for unique historically based products and his clean, precise work as that of a period professional leather worker. He is also well-known for his completely handmade buckles on custom pieces.

As his children grew older, James’ time commitments shifted to mentoring them in faith, life, school, sports, and critical skills. He became a 4-H shooting instructor, National Sporting Clays Association referee, and a coach to his son’s sporting clays competitions and his twin daughters in power tumbling.

In his mid-40s, James began to diversify by crafting muzzleloading guns. His first flintlock won first place fowling piece at Dixon’s Muzzleloading Gun Fair in 2009, along with other ribbons from the apprentice class. He has attended various classes at the National Muzzleloading Rifle Association Gunsmithing Seminars in Bowling Green, Kentucky. During this time, he saw a need to acquire formal training in the machinist trade, which prompted him to pursue community college courses in machine tooling for an additional skill set.

In 2019, James pursued his leather craft as a full-time profession and began James Rogers Reproductions and Creations. Jessie Rogers, one of his twin daughters, is carrying on the tradition and is apprenticing in all aspects of the business. He also offers instructional classes through his business.

Facebook page: James Rogers Reproductions and Creations
Email: fowlingpiece@gmail.com

Robert (Bob) Harn was born in 1937 in Venice, Florida and spent most of his life there.  After high school, college, and a couple of years in the Army Bob worked at a local hardware store in Venice.  In the early 1960’s he began making flintlock rifles as a hobby and by 1985 was a full-time custom builder.  Bob made mostly American, English and some European style guns from the 1760’s to the early 1800’s often hand forging steel mounts and locks for his guns.  It was not unusual to see brass or silver inlaid into the mounts.  Most of the engraving on his earlier rifles was done by Lewis Sanchez, but by 1992 Bob was a very accomplished engraver and did all of the engraving on his pieces himself.  For many years Bob was the chairman of Gunmakers Hall at Friendship, lectured there on the back porch and taught classes at the various venues.  He was one of the top and most sought after custom gunmakers in the country.

Jim Chambers

Jim Chambers quoted:
“Bob was one of my very best friends in addition to being a terrific gunmaker.  For many years we traveled to various shows together, shared many great adventures and had a great time together everywhere we went.  I miss him dearly.”

John Bivins 1940-2001

John was an important researcher and writer on early longrifles and the Decorative Arts. He co-authored the three volume Furniture of Charleston, 1680-1820 with Brad Rauschenberger and also wrote Furniture of Coastal North Carolina, 1700-1820. John also produced a brilliant two volume set of videos authenticating 18^th century furniture.

He also published seminal books on longrifles as well as the broader Decorative Arts including Longrifles of North Carolina and The Moravian Potters in North Carolina.

He was a museum curator for The Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts in Winston-Salem North Carolina. John was a prime member of the team of teachers at the Western Kentucky University/NMLRA Seminars, the first of many others to come. He was also the first editor of the Journal of Historic Armsmaking Technology, a scholarly publication created during the early years of the seminars. John, along with the late gunbuilder, Jim Westburg, and the director of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts at that time, Dr. Evan Maurer planned and began the 2003 Three Centuries of Tradition: The Renaissance of Custom Sporting Arms in America Exhibition held at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. John was a fine gunmaker, who loved relief carving, sharing his knowledge and experience without hesitation, an all too rare attitude in our obsessively competitive world. He would have been most enthusiastic about this set of fine 18^th century style sporting arms and accouterments, thoroughly enjoying being able to handle other artists fine efforts.

Mark Silver, born 1947

Mark served in the U.S. Navy 1967-1971. He attended Wayne State University, starting hobby gunmaking in 1972, going full time in 1976. Mark worked as John Bivins’ Journeyman during 1978-1979.  He retired in 2018, but still does occasional work for his own enjoyment exploring 18^th century gunmaking tools, techniques and styles. Mark taught at the annual NMLRA/WKU seminars from 1983-2018. He also taught at the Conner Prairie Seminars for a few years. He was asked by John Bivins to take over as Guest Curator of the Three Centuries of Tradition Exhibition and co-authored the accompanying book with Wallace Gusler.

Mark Silver: msilver.ms@gmail.com

Mike Ehinger was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana, October 20^th, 1942, and lived there until high school graduation in 1960. His interest in muzzleloaders began at about age 13 or 14, when he bought a nice little original 31 Caliber half stock percussion rifle from a local gun shop. From that time on, it was all about muzzleloaders.

Right after high school graduation Mike enlisted in the army, and after basic training at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri and AIT at Fort Benning, Georgia, he was assigned to the 82^nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. He was discharged in July of 1963.

While stationed at Fort Bragg, he met and married his wife, Becky, and upon discharge in 1963, we, along with the first of our three children, moved back to Fort Wayne.

After two colder and snowier winters than average, we decided warmer was better, and moved back to Stedman, North Carolina, and have lived happily here ever since.

Two years in Fort Wayne were factory work, and after moving back to North Carolina, he did carpenter work for fifteen years or so, all along trying to learn to build a muzzleloader he could be proud of — more of a hobby than anything else.

After the 17 or 18 years thinking about it, he decided one day, since you only go around once, why not do what you really want to do and quit taking carpenter jobs and became a full time “muzzleloading gunmaker.”

His friend, Lewis Sanchez, had a gun shop in Fayetteville, North Carolina, and helped Mike a lot, since he too was building some muzzleloaders at that time. He had a booth at Friendship and introduced Mike to so many kindred spirits.

He and Lew went to an NRA convention together in Philadelphia about 1980 and stayed with Bob Roberts. Bob was a director of the NMLRA at that time and had set up and was running the NMLRA booth at the convention.

Mike had brought along three guns, built from scratch, and Bob insisted on displaying them at the booth, and after the convention was over, asked Lew and Mike to stay a couple more days so he could photograph the guns and write an article for the Muzzle Blast magazine.

One of the guns was an early French style flint double that he was really proud of, and the flint doubles were what he hoped to do more of. Then the article in The Book of Buckskinning III featuring some of his flint double work also was a big help in furthering his career.

Through access during restoration work along the way, Mike was able to handle and learn from all the good flint doubles with which he was trusted.

Lynton McKenzie was also a good friend who was always ready to loan pieces from his collection of great English guns to study or use as patterns.

All in all, Mike says it was a great time. He made a lot of good friends and enjoyed every day of the work and the people he met along the way. About two years ago, after 40 years of the gun work, he decided to stop taking work while I was still doing the quality of work that he expected of himself. He still spends most of every day in the shop, usually working on something he started years ago and left unfinished. Mike says that it is a hard habit to break. But he would like to do it all over again.

Born in 1947 in Michigan, Ron developed a love for the outdoors and hunting with a father that shared the same feelings. He was a U.S. Army veteran. He was known for his fine horn work as well as longrifles and Germanic pieces.  He was exposed to Disney’s series about Davy Crocket in the mid 50’s and thus inspired by early American history and the flintlock rifle.  Trained with a degree in technical illustration from Farris State University in Michigan, Ron worked for Ford Motor Company in Dearborn, Michigan in the Engineering Department as an illustrator.

His introduction to early reproduction firearms was in the early 1970’s when he purchased a Kentucky Pistol kit and assembled it.  Knowing that such things as parts to build flintlock firearms existed and that there were people out there that shot these firearms and relived the same history that had spawned the curiosity of his youth.  He built his first scratch-built flintlock rifle in 1979 and has been working as a full-time muzzle-loading gunmaker since 1984.

With exposure to early American firearms, naturally one becomes interested with all the various accoutrements that are relative to the firing and maintenance of the firearm, thus the further involvement in the craft of producing quality powder horns.  In the early years of participating in the sport of muzzle-loading, Ron states that his “mad money” came from the making, engraving and selling or trading for the equipment needed to participate.

Throughout his lifetime, Ron developed not only as a gun builder, but as a master engraver.  He also produced high quality powder horns through owning original horns and studying other originals at every opportunity.  Ron was always looking to improve his product and always challenging himself to produce something better than the last.

Ron taught at the NMLRA seminars held at Western Kentucky University and was featured in the Three Centuries of Tradition Exhibition.