Tanpola Articles Directory

The Civil War still holds a great deal of fascination for the people of America. It caused brother to fight against brother, the freedom of slaves and totally restructured the government. Because of this continuing fascination, there are groups that reenact the war, wearing copies of the uniform and performing mock battles with other enthusiasts in the Southeast. Collecting relics from that era is a popular hobby.

Some people collect old firearms while others may collect bullet molds. One of the items in demand is Civil War Bullets. The bullets prior to this era were very different than the bullets of today. It was during the Civil war that bullets began to change shapes and size. The soldier back then used bullets that were .58 caliber and they had three rings around their base. If you have an interest in the Civil War, consider Civil War Bullet collecting as a hobby.

Where to Find Civil War Bullets

One place to find these historical artifacts is on the Internet. Before you buy them, it’s best to invest in a good price guide. Collecting the bullets has become very popular and the prices have increased accordingly. Not all bullets are as valuable as others, so it’s a good to have a source of reference to make sure that you are getting your money’s worth. You might even get lucky and find a seller who may not know how much his merchandise is worth and be able to buy it at a great price.

A fun way to collect the bullets is to go to the actual fields of battle and start digging. This not only may net you some of the coveted items, but lends a rich sense of history as well. When you go, bring a metal detector with you. In addition to bullets, you might get lucky enough to find other valuable relics, gun parts, belt buckles or the buttons from uniforms that the soldiers wore.

You might have to dig deeply for these items but if you find them, it’s worth the effort. It’s important to make sure that you get permission from the owners of the fields before you start digging and find out if they have special rules. Be polite and refill the holes that you dig. Some battlefields are protected and prospecting on them is prohibited. Be sure that the one you’re investigating isn’t one of the protected ones.

There is a lot of controversy about searching for relics on the old battlefields. Some people consider it to be disrespectful to the soldiers who gave up their lives there. On the same token, without a further exploration of these areas, we may never have known as much about the war and where it was fought, as we do now. History is built on exploration and the knowledge that it brings the world is priceless.

Gregg Hall is an author living in Navarre Florida. Find more about this as well as Antique Collectibles at http://www.collectingtrinkets.com

Pin collecting has always been a popular hobby and continues to be so. There is such a huge variety to choose from and since they are small, they don’t take up a lot of space.

Before you begin to collect them, decide what your favorite category is, such as sports, entertainment or even politics.

If your favorite category is sports, you can narrow it down to your favorite team or player. There is no end to the types of pins offered in this category. You can collect pins that solely represent your own favorite recreational activity, such as fishing or even bowling

Another popular category is entertainment. Disney pins are very popular, but you can also choose can also get pins that represent movie stars or rock bands.

Many people like to collect pins from their favorite political party and candidates. They also collect the many buttons that these individuals handout and display them proudly.

Yet another category is pins from events. If you go to a concert or a festival or any type of popular event, chances are you can get a pin that represents it.

There are various ways to display your pin collection. One way is to mount them on a hat or a cap. This is especially popular with the sports fans, because they can wear it when they go to watch the big game at their friend’s house. Other people mount them on jerseys and jacket lapels, vests and purses. Because they are pins, they can be mounted on just about anything.

Another easy way to display them is to mount them in a scrapbook or a notebook. If you’re going to use a notebook, select a loose leaf binder that offers a zipper or Velcro fastener. Instead of paper, use craft foam or sheets of dark felt, so that you can securely fasten the pins to the pages.

They can also be mounted on a bulletin board. This is a good option because your collection is bound to grow and you can fit a lot of pins on a bulletin board. It also makes a nice room display, because the collection is easily viewed by whoever enters the room. Consider covering the board with black velvet. This makes a beautiful background for your collection and brings out their full beauty.

It can be hard to avoid getting scratches on your pins, no matter how hard you try to protect them. If your pins get scratches, a little car wax might be able to smooth them over.

The next time you’re looking for a hobby, consider pin collecting. It’s fun, inexpensive and there are so many choices to choose from, you’ll never get bored.

Gregg Hall is an author living in Navarre Florida. Find more about this as well as Collectible Figurines at http://www.collectingtrinkets.com

The term Bowie Knife which is commonly used today refers to any large sheath knife but it also applies directly to the specific original design by Colonel James “Jim” Bowie and originally created by James Black.

The historical Bowie knife was not a single design, but was actually a series of knives improved several times by Jim Bowie over the years.

The model most commonly known as the historical Bowie knife was somewhat large and of massive construction, as knives go, having usually a blade at least six inches long and 12 inches was not uncommon, with a relatively broad blade that was an inch and a half to two inches wide and made of steel usually between 3/16″ and 1/4″ thick. The back of the blade often had a strip of soft metal (normally brass or copper) inlaid intended to catch an opponent’s blade, a concept borrowed from the medieval Scottish dirk, and also often had an upper guard that bent forward at an angle, also intended to catch an opponent’s blade. The back edge of the curved clip point, also called the “false edge,” was often sharpened in order to allow someone trained in European techniques of saber fencing to execute the maneuver called the “back cut” or “back slash.” A brass guard was attached to protect the hand, usually cast in a mold. It is likely that the blade shape was derived from the Spanish clasp knives carried in Spain and the Spanish colonies in the Americas.

Bowie was known for his many knife fights which is why the original Bowie Knife was designed primarily as a weapon. The shape and style of blade was chosen so that the Bowie knife could serve usefully as a camp and hunting tool as well as a weapon. Many knives and daggers existed that could serve well as weapons, and many knives existed that could serve well as tools for hunters and trappers, but the Bowie knife was designed to do both jobs well, and is still popular with hunters and sportsmen even in the present day.

The curved portion of the edge, toward the point, is for removing the skin from a carcass, and the straight portion of the edge, toward the guard, is for chores involving cutting slices. The blade is generally long enough and heavy enough that the knife can be used as a hatchet or machete, but not so heavy or long as to be cumbersome. Most such knives intended for hunting are only sharpened on one edge, to reduce the danger of cutting oneself while butchering and skinning the carcass.

Starting in the 1970’s a version of the Bowie Knife with sawteeth on the back side of the blade have been very popular with knife collectors, probably due to the knife being displayed and used by Sylvester Stallone’s character in the original “Rambo” movie. These knives are still popular today and are sold as survival knives in many cases and are manufactured with a hollow handle that could carry small survival items.

The actual usefulness of sawteeth on a knife is debatable, not to mention the hollow handles, which may be prone to breaking if the knife is poorly constructed, and many contend that the sharp teeth endanger the user when used to gut and skin a large animal carcass such as a deer or elk, as well as making the knife much less useful as a weapon as they make it prone to getting stuck. A proper Bowie knife is long enough and heavy enough that the user can usually chop through wood with it much faster than he could use the saw teeth.

Avid fans of the Bowie knife say that for a knife to be called a “Bowie”, it has to be long enough to be used as a sword, sharp enough to use as a razor, wide enough to use as a paddle, and heavy enough to use as a hatchet.

Gregg Hall is a business consultant and author for many online and offline businesses and lives in Navarre Florida with his 16 year old son. For quality knives go to http://www.only-knives.com

Yes, collectibles! Collectibles are where eBay started, and they’re still one of its biggest areas – however much they might want you to believe they’re not. eBay’s most hardcore and long-time users are almost all collectors of something or other – it is quite common to post what you think is a mundane item, only to have collectors suddenly go to war over it because it is somehow linked to something they collect.

Collectors are the people on eBay who really do pay top-dollar for things that seem like junk to you and I – not to mention to the people you’ll be getting your stock from! That’s why you can make so much profit on collectibles. Here are a few tips.

Go to people’s homes. People’s homes are full of things that someone out there collects – they are the best and cheapest source of collectibles out there. Sure, you might find something if you hang around at enough garage sales, but you’d have competition. Getting invited to people’s homes to look around should be a dream for you, and one you’re doing your best to make a reality.

Buy on other auction sites. You’ll be surprised how much money you can make if you buy the collectibles that people sell on smaller auction sites like Yahoo Auctions, and then list it on eBay. These sellers will often be perfectly knowledgeable about their item, but simply getting a lower price because they serve a smaller marketplace. Sometimes you can almost double your money.

List in non-collectible categories. If your collectible doesn’t have a category of its own under ‘collectibles’, you might prefer to list it in a category that has something to do with the item but nothing to do with collecting. What you will often find is that people browsing a category for their favourite thing will pay more for your collectible than actual collectors would.

Do lots of research. Never list something you think might be valuable without searching and searching to dig up every piece of information you can on it. Everything you find out is likely to be useful when you come to list it.

List every tiny, tiny detail. Remember that collectors really care about the most seemingly insignificant things. An item from one year can be worth thousands while the one from the year before is near-worthless, or an item that is one shade of a colour can be worth far more than one of a subtly different shade. It’s not worth puzzling over and it’s not worth trying to pass your items off as something they’re not – just make sure you put absolutely everything you know in the description.

When you are listing items that require close research and description down to the tiniest detail, however, don’t be tempted to steal someone else’s work! Whatever you do, don’t take another seller’s description and try to pass it off as your own, as this could have all sorts of consequences for you. Our next email gives you a guide to eBay’s policy on ‘description theft’.

Gregg Hall is a business consultant and author for many online and offline businesses and lives in Navarre Florida with his 16 year old son. For a great selection of fine collectible gifts go to http://www.collectiblegiftsplus.com

A Look At Sports Memorabilia And Collecting

Collecting sports memorabilia is a hobby that can fill your spare time with importance and give you a distraction to the everyday drudgery. What you decide to collect is a matter of personal preference. Some people collect items from a broad range of different sports while others only collect items that pertain to a particular sport or a particular athlete.

There are many different ways to display your collection; depending on what it is you collect. If you follow a particular team for example, and you collect newspaper clippings and sports cards it can be done by creating scrapbooks. You can even put ticket stubs and photographs in this type of collection.

If you are the type of person that collects larger physical items such as jerseys, game balls, and helmets then you will need to do a little more work. These items can be displayed on shelves, in glasses curio cabinets, or with the jersey even hung on the wall.

For the collector that collects items from a wide range of sports small metal pins with team insignias are available from most sports and because of their small size they are very easily kept and displayed. These pins from sports teams and those depicting the Olympics are a very hot commodity these days.

Sports cards like those that we used to get in bubble gum packs as kids are still very popular. Baseball cards were the first of this genre of sports memorabilia that has now evolved into including football, basketball, and more. Some of the older cards with players such as Babe Ruth or Joe DiMaggio are worth thousands!

Another area of sports memorabilia that has become extremely hot is NASCAR. You won’t find more rabid fans anywhere, okay well maybe with the exception of Packers and Steelers fans in the NFL. Anyway, NASCAR offers a wide range of collectibles for the sports fan who follows a particular driver. You can get anything from a replica of the car they drive to authentic team jackets.

Regardless of the sport you choose to follow you can find huge resources online to help you add to your collection.

Gregg Hall is a business consultant and author for many online and offline businesses and lives in Navarre Florida with his 16 year old son. For great selections of sports memorabilia go to http://www.sportscollectiblesandmemorabilia.com