Reproduction of 19th Century Canadian .45-75 Cartridge Box

[RattlesnakeJack]

Not sure if this will be of any interest, but one of the things I do to occupy my time is fiddle around with reproducing "period correct" packaging for cartridges … just for my own use.

One of my latest projects, for use with my repro NWMP pattern Model 1876 Winchester, has been a facsimile twenty-round box of .45-75 cartridges produced back in the late 19th century by the Dominion Cartridge Company up here in Canada …

Here is a black and white image of an original Dominion Cartridge Co. box (from "Arms & Accoutrements of the Mounted Police 1873-1973) together with the only colour photo I have been able to locate of a DCC cartridge box (which happens to be for .45-60 rather than .45-75 cartridges) -



Here are images of my reproduction Dominion Cartridge Company .45-75 box …

[Coal Creek Griff]

Not sure if this will be of any interest,

On the contrary, I find this to be very interesting! I'm impressed, too. I've made some feeble, fumbling attempts at cartridge boxes too, but they look like a seven year old made them. Very nice!

Griff

[kwilliams1876]

Very nice! Would you mind sharing how you did the art work? How do you scale it to fit a given box size etc?
kw

[Advertising]

[RattlesnakeJack]

Very nice! Would you mind sharing how you did the art work? How do you scale it to fit a given box size etc?
kw

Mostly by trial and error, actually …  I use a rather old imaging software program called PhotoStudio (no longer available, so far as I know) which lets you build composite images like this, with a text function that will utilize any font you have on your system … and I have a lot of fonts, especially "old fashioned" ones. 

Because that text function is part of the image process, it even allows one to "distort" a font so it looks more like the original font you are trying to duplicate, becuase you can take any image, or part of an image, and stretch it one way or the other (e.g. increase height while jholding the width constant … or vice versa) For example, the middle line in this image is the text as typed, which has simply been distorted a couple of different ways to produce the upper and lower lines …



You can find all sorts of line drawings and period "advertising cuts", including versions most of the labelled period cartridge images, on the internet … for example, the image of the Colt Model 1878 DA revolver I used to make my facsimile Dominion Carteidge Company .45 Colt label -



… which is based on this original label -



I find that determining the dimensions of the label is mostly a matter of getting the proportions right - in other words, if the finished size of label for your box needs to be 2.5" by 5" then you just have to create your label in those proportions.    I tend to create my labels in quite large size images, to ensure crispness of detail when they are printed … so I might literally make the master image for a label I want to print at 2.5" x 5" as big as 2500 pixels by 5000 pixels … then it is just a matter of determining what printing scale to select (e.g. 20%, or whatever) will produce the correct size of label  .  (That's where some of the trial and error comes in … i.e. print one off at a scale you estimate will be right, then measure it and adjust the exact scale setting to what you need.  Say you guesstimated it should be printed at 20% scale, but then when you measure that trial label, it turns out it needs to be adjusted up or down a bit … the right scale might end up 21.5%, or 18%, or whatever ...

[RattlesnakeJack]

Very nice! Would you mind sharing how you did the art work? How do you scale it to fit a given box size etc?
kw

I'm certainly not a professional box-maker either, but after having watched a number of online instructional videos, I learned a few things which help.

One is not to just try to use whatever scrap cardboard you can lay your hands on.  So I'd have a consistent material to work with, I finally ordered a pack of a hundred sheets of 8 1/2" x 11" "Brown Kraft Cardboard Chipboard", 30pt weight, from Amazon, which seems to work well for my purposes.

Another thing I acquired, which is immensely helpful, is a "scoring board", which is a relatively inexpensive plastic device used by people who make their own greeting cards and such, which has evenly spaced (⅛" intervals, I think) grooves on a bed that you lay your cardboard on, then use a "boning tool" to score the fold lines, so they are very straight and even -



I also glue a plain paper wrapper over the ourtside of the cardboard carton. both because the seems to be how the originals were made, and because it also covers a multitude of sins in the appearance of the folded and glued-together carton itself …



Here are a couple of views of an original 19th century  (or perhaps very early 20th century) carton for 20 .45-75  cartridges, the lower image, of the back with no labels attached, shows the type of construction, on which you can make out where the paper cover is detaching slightly from the underlying cardboard carton …

[Major 2]

I'm impressed with your tenacity, as one that has made my own cartridge boxes.
You far exceeded my attempts.   Very nice

[kwilliams1876]

Rattlesnake, thank you for sharing your technique. You confirmed what I suspected, trial and error and time, but the results are so cool. Must use up alot of ink getting it all dialed in.
kw

[pinto beans]

Thanks for sharing the boxes and information on making them!  I have tried to make a decent box over the years but best efforts on my part don’t come close!!  Will be making some changes in the box making effort after reading your process. Thanks again!

[RattlesnakeJack]

I'm impressed with your tenacity, as one that has made my own cartridge boxes.
You far exceeded my attempts.   Very nice

Yours look better than mine, to my eye!  (Perhaps we tend to be too aware of any flaws in our own efforts …)

I see you have a .455 revolver cartridge box … Despite shooting quite a few different revolvers chambered in what I call the ".455 Family (… because, despite the common nomenclature for them, the .450 Adams, so-called .476 Enfield, and the .455 Webley are all in fact .455 calibre …) those are cartridges I have yet to make any box to fit.   However, one of my earlier repro label designs is standing by to be printed for it when I finally do …



I tend to just make my label images as black printing on a white background, rather than trying to colour in the background, so they can be printed onto suitable coloured paper.

[Baltimore Ed]

Since were talking ammo boxes here are a few I’ve picked up for a Span Am shadow box that I haven’t built yet.

[Cliff Fendley]

Very cool thread. Thanks for sharing

[Boone May]

I don't know about the Canadian boxes but the Winchester make boxes had a little wood shelf for the back row of the bottom half of the box so those cartridges would stand up slightly higher.  There was also supposed to be a piece of wood in the top half to correspond to the  lower row so they would not rattle loose in the box.  That wood piece is missing in the top half of this box.  I don't see any signs of glue so it may have just been held in by pressure. 
The rifles were designed to last for generations and they do.  The cartridges were designed to be used up so it's not unusual we have so few intact boxes left today.  Try and find an intact and full .50-95 Express box.  They are expensive!
See photo below.

[Major 2]

Yours look better than mine, to my eye!  (Perhaps we tend to be too aware of any flaws in our own efforts …)

I see you have a .455 revolver cartridge box … Despite shooting quite a few different revolvers chambered in what I call the ".455 Family (… because, despite the common nomenclature for them, the .450 Adams, so-called .476 Enfield, and the .455 Webley are all in fact .455 calibre …) those are cartridges I have yet to make any box to fit.   However, one of my earlier repro label designs is standing by to be printed for it when I finally do …



I tend to just make my label images as black printing on a white background, rather than trying to colour in the background, so they can be printed onto suitable coloured paper.

You are too kind    with your permission I have added your .455 Label to my files 

[Sir Charles deMouton-Black]

OFF TOPIC - KINDA!!   I had heard that "Gat' Howard was involved in starting Dominion Cartridge Co. and looked it up. BTW "Gat" was an American cavalry officer who was sent to Canada to demonstrate Gatling guns, with a view to sell us some guns. He ended up demonstrating them for earnest during the Riel rebellion. He stayed in Canada and got involved in the ammo business. Later he served in the Anglo-Boer War as machine gun officer for one of the Canadian contingents. He stayed on and served in the "Canadian Scouts". He was killed in a false surrender incident very much like the incident in the movie Breaker Morand.  NOTE: Corrected per RSJ.

https://afte.org/laravel.php/gallery/index/637

[RattlesnakeJack]

Sir Charles:  So far as I am aware, "Gat" Howard did not serve with the South African Constabulary.  At the time of his death, Major Howard was commanding officer of the "Canadian Scouts" -https://www.warmuseum.ca/cwm/exhibitions/boer/canadianscouts_e.html

[Sir Charles deMouton-Black]

Thanks;  I was going on a vague memory.