28 
FOREST AND S T R E A M 
January, 1919 
From An Old Hunter 
L ast winter Forest and Stream pub- 
lished a bunch of letters from out- 
doormen, telling various methods of 
keeping the feet warm in cold weather. 
I did not see among them mention of 
an old-fashioned cure for cold feet that 
I have known ever since I was a boy. It 
is simply to sprinkle a plentiful dose 
of cayenne pepper in the shoes before 
inserting the feet in them, so that the 
pepper comes between the socks and the 
leather. I have never known this to fail 
and it is a very easy remedy to try. 
I do a little trapping now and then 
and sometimes I shoot a skin when I am 
not expecting any fur. I have found 
that a good dressing of wood ashes well 
rubbed into the raw skin will keep it in 
fair order until it can be better cured 
with salt. This is a handy thing for 
fall campers to know, for it is not a 
pleasant thing to find some amateur 
trapper has used up all the camp supply 
of salt on some little worthless skin. 
Joe Jennings, Detroit, Mich. 
A Real Oilskin Waterproof Coat 
H ere are details of making a real 
oilskin or waterproof coat guaran- 
teed to turn water in the severest storm. 
Get a good, strong twill (white pre- 
ferred) butcher’s long coat, two sizes 
larger than ordinary fit preferred, so as 
to allow plenty of room. First attend 
to the pockets. There may be too many, 
or some without flaps, and, unless pro- 
vided with flaps, the water will accumu- 
late in the pockets. Have it washed to 
clear out all dressing. 
Now get half a gallon of best boiled 
linseed-oil and half-pint of driers, mix 
the two together, and paint the outside 
of the coat with the mixture, working 
it well into the seams, but not too much 
oil. Now hang up to dry in open air 
or a room with good draught. It will 
take two to three weeks to dry thor- 
oughly. Then give another coat of oil 
and allow this to dry, and another coat 
of oil and allow to dry. 
• Should a black coat be required, mix 
lampblack in the last coating; for khaki, 
use ochre. 
In this way you can make overalls, 
waders, leggings, and sou’-westers. 
A good black dressing, and one that is 
thoroughly recommended, is boiled oil 
and lampblack, one quart; white of five 
eggs; one ounce of beeswax. Melt all 
together and paint as before, allowing 
each coating to dry thoroughly. This is 
the main point in making oilskins. 
With a little scheming a lining or 
storm cuffs can be added and a coat fit 
for anywhere or any storm can be made. 
J. W. Matthews, 
Wigan, England. 
Knife Knowledge 
W E moderns have but a vague idea 
of the variety of uses to which 
knives were put in ancient times. 
Before the Christian era, the Chinese 
used them even as money. Their cur- 
rency, or at least a part of it, consisted 
of a blade and handle resembling our 
modern silver dining-table knife. It was 
called tao coin, or knife-money, and bore 
the inscription “to exchange for mer- 
chandise.” 
Perhaps one of the oddest knives ever 
seen is the one used by the natives of 
E are depending upon the 
friends and admirers of our 
old correspondent Nessmuk to make 
this department worthy of his 
name. No man knew the woods 
better than Nessmuk or wrote of 
them with quainter charm. Many 
of his practical ideas on camping 
and “going light” have been adopt- 
ed by the United States Army; his 
canoe has been preserved in the 
Smithsonian Institution; and we 
hope that all good woodsmen ivill 
contribute to this department their 
Hints and Kinks and trail-tested 
contrivances . — Editors. 
Central Africa. A side view of it re- 
minds one of a large sun-perch ; it cuts on 
each side, like a double-bitted axe, and 
its handle is made for two hands. 
It is a far cry from that primitive half- 
axe knife to the neat, serviceable hunting 
knife of today. The modem American 
sportsman smiles at the comparison, 
fondles the sheath at his belt, and con- 
gratulates himself on the possession of 
an all-purpose knife. 
But is there such a thing as an all-pur- 
pose knife? Hardly. When one counts up 
all the uses to which a hunter puts his 
knife, he must see that no one blade 
could answer for all — except in a crude 
way. Generally speaking, a hunter can 
foresee the principal uses for a knife, 
and if these are not too many can choose 
one that will answer; but it will not be 
equally good for all these uses, and may 
be decidedly unsuitable for one or more 
of them. 
Hunting knives are not so expensive 
that a man need confine his possession to 
one blade. The average sportsman can 
afford several; and if his activities in 
forest and field are at all varied, he will 
find an assortment decidedly convenient. 
I have never favored the substitution 
of a knife for a belt axe. It is true that 
you can buy a brush knife that will stand 
nearly anything. You may cut out a 
trail, cut off a deer’s skull and antlers, 
etc.; but for some uses of an axe no 
knife will quite answer, and there is sel- 
dom reason why it should, since a belt 
axe is an important part of a hunting 
outfit. A typical brush knife with sheath 
weighs something over two pounds, and 
this sheath usually has to be made to 
order, costing from $2 to $3. 
The bowie type of knife is not as pop- 
ular as formerly. The later made knives 
have an indefinable balance and comfort- 
able “feel” in the hand that the knives 
of yesterday lacked. Perhaps the main 
thing that relegated the bowie was the 
waning of "its popularity as a weapon. 
No knife is dependable in fighting large 
animals, but it took the sporting world 
a long time to learn it. In a large per- 
centage of cases a rib will deflect the 
blade, and it is not uncommon for a man 
to hurt himself with the knife worse than 
he does the animal. Still the 5% -inch 
bowie blade remains popular with many 
hunters, and if they find it satisfactory it 
certainly is the knife for them. 
All hunters have to have a knife for 
skinning, whether they have any other or 
not. This need not be heavier than a 
large jack-knife. The blade should be 
thin and about 5 inches long, handle 4% 
inches. Of course, it should have the 
rounded point so desirable in skinning, 
and the blade must run through the han- 
dle and be riveted. No hunter w’ho han- 
dles pelts can afford to be without a skin- 
ning knife, especially w'hen it costs, with 
sheath, not more than $1.50. 
The real skinning knife is a trifle long 
and slender for general-purpose use, but 
there is a knife on the market that has 
most of the skinning knife’s virtues, and 
considerably ipore strength. The blade 
is a half inch shorter, and enough thicker 
to carry strength for prying, or breaking 
sticks, bones, etc., with the back. Near 
the handle the back of the blade is check- 
ered, w'hich gives the thumb a good grip. 
The folding knife has many good 
points. One sportsman W'ho favors this 
style says that he finds the 4-inch blade 
best, and that it should have a bone saw 
on the back. The blade should lock, but 
the lock must be flush with the handle. 
Most sportsmen concede that for all- 
round camp use, the army and navy knife 
