Powder flask needs help

[kahnjar1]

Originally Posted by rickystl

Hi Ibrahiim.

I've occassionally wondered wheather the medium/larger hard leather flasks were more commonly used to carry water versus gunpowder. Sort of like a Spanish leather wine bola. (?) Of course the moulded leather would work well to carry either. My thinking was also based on the rather large opening in the Persian style flasks. Seems more suited for drinking water than pouring powder.
Here are three hard leather flasks. The two larger ones have the wide opening and are just large enough to act as a small canteen to carry a reasonable amount of water. The smaller Arab style flask (associated with the camel scrotum style) with it's narrow, tapered neck seems better suited to pour gunpowder into a measure or barrel. And it's way to small to act as a canteen.

That said, many of the Ethno flasks/horns tend to have larger diameter pour spouts than their European counterparts. Especially the Moroccan horns. One theory I have for this is that an approximate amount of powder was simply pourded into the palm of the other hand, instead of a pre-formed measure, before inserting into the barrel.

Rick

Hi Rick,
I seem to remember we have discussed the issue of large flask mouths and large flasks in general before. We in the "west" are used to fine/small grained black powder whilst those not blessed with a local "gunshop" tend to use very coarse grained, (maybe home made) almost blasting powder size, which thru necessity would require both a larger flask and a larger spout to facilitate easy pouring. I think you are right about "a hand full" as the Monkey Hunter featured some time ago in a Michael Palin documentary, did just that.
Stu