Proving Nessmuk - The Ditty Bag

I spent a good portion of yesterday collection the things I needed to recreate Nessmuk's ditty bag, and actually making the pouch itself. In his book Woodcraft and Camping Nessmuk stated that his ditty bag was a 4"x6" chamois leather pouch. Clearly at the time he was writing this pouch would not have had a zipper, so I created mine with a leather drawstring. Chamois leather is easy enough to obtain, although its more modern use is as a drying cloth for when you wash your car. 

Most people that I heard or read disagreeing with the weight of this bag, seemed to think that Nessmuk's pouch by itself without contents weighted 2.5 ounces. Chamois leather is very light however, and after stitching the pouch together and adding a leather drawstring, the total weight of the pouch was a mere .4 (4 tenths) of an ounce. Which leaves 2.1 ounces for the contents. 

Clearly this was off to a good start. The leather was very easy to sew, and didn't require a leather awl. O used heavy thread for stitching since this pouch won't see a lot of abuse. If it were to be used as a belt pouch or something similar I would have opted for sinew. I'm definitely not a seamstress by any means, however I am happy with how this ditty bag turned out. 

As far as contents goes, a full list can be found in the previous post. Several people that said the 2.5 ounce total weight included things that Nessmuk clearly stated were stowed in the bag that this ditty bag was stowed in. I'll include the actual text of the book here for reference.

"And don't neglect to take what sailors call a "ditty-bag." This may be a little sack of chamois leather about 4 inches wide by 6 inches in length. Mine is before me as I write. Emptying the contents, I find it inventories as follows: A dozen hooks, running in size from small minnow hooks to large Limericks; four lines of six yards each, varying from the finest to a size sufficient for a ten-pound fish; three darning needles and a few common sewing needles; a dozen buttons; sewing silk; thread, and a small ball of strong yarn for darning socks; sticking salve; a bit of shoemaker's wax; beeswax; sinkers, and a very fine file for sharpening hooks. The ditty-bag weighs, with contents, 2½ ounces; and it goes in a small buckskin bullet pouch, which I wear almost as constantly as my hat. The pouch has a sheath strongly sewed on the back side of it, where the light hunting knife is always at hand, and it also carries a two-ounce vial of fly medicine, a vial of "pain killer," and two or three gangs of hooks on brass wire snells—of which, more in another place. I can always go down into that pouch for a water-proof match safe, strings, compass, bits of linen and scarlet flannel (for frogging), copper tacks, and other light duffle. It is about as handy a piece of woods-kit as I carry."

-Nessmuk Woodcraft and Camping

Clearly Nessmuk is speaking of two separate pouches. For this project I am only concerned with the first bag. I may attempt to recreate the second at a later time. Some of the contents of the ditty bag I had to make a couple of the items myself as they aren't available for purchase anywhere. First was sticking Salve, was the the hardest to make, I couldn't find an accurate recipe from Nessmuk's time. So some improvisation was required. I substituted fixin wax for shoemakers wax. I also substituted monofilament fishing line for what would have been braided horsehair line, which was the only fishing line available to my knowledge during Nessmuk's time. I compared synthetic braided line with monofilament, and I'm fairly sure that the monofilament is actually slightly heavier, not nearly enough to make a difference for the 24 yards included in the kit however. 

I am not convinced that Nessmuk would have had 12 buttons of this size. I am fairly certain he would have carried some smaller button for his shirts, however these were the only buttons I had available.  The three packets at the top are, in order from left to right; fixin wax, sticking salve, and beeswax. I will make posts soon with the details of the fixin wax, and sticking salve. 

I am pleased to say that Nessmuk was right. This kit when fully assembled in the pouch weighs in at exactly 2.5 ounces. While I know it is hard to believe, and some people will want more evidence than just pictures, I will be uploading a video to YouTube, either later today or tomorrow showing the whole kit and the actual weighing of it. Hopefully this can serve to put this little discussion to rest though. 

To be honest I'm lot happier about this than is probably reasonable. However it does feel good to exonerate a fellow Northern Wilderness bushcrafter, and one of the founding fathers of modern bushcraft. It is always important to remember that simply because we have made great advancements in technology, and synthetic materials. Sometimes the old ways are still just as viable today as they were 170 years ago.