All About Pocket Knives

Here are photo's of an old copper kettle that according to story was found in an old campsite in Clatsop county Oregon. It was approx. a mile north of Youngs river falls which are about 3 miles east of Fort Clatsop that is where Lewis and Clark wintered over in 1805. It certainly made my mind wonder????
The kettle is setting in 1st photo next to an old wagon wheel hub which is about a foot high. There are various shots showing the inside and outside photo of joints of two differing type one rolled bent and soldered and the other is just the out of the bottoms method if joining it to the top, it is a sort of dovetail joint that has been joined and then probably hammer welded and then soldered to prevent leaking. I can not find any his on this type of work on copper kettles. If you have or would like to investigate please feel free. Please let us all know your thoughts or findings.
moss

The next page of photo's
Moss The last photo is where a rivet attachment has broken off.
Thank You.
moss

Thanks for sharing, that is interesting.

MD

I think you have the gist of it right. Copper lends itself to heating and hammer forging. The bottom joints may be some sort of lap joint using alternating laps, in and out. Soldering isn't out of the question. Neat old piece for sure. Coppersmithing was a common craft back in the colonial period.

The top joint is ribbed to provide added stiffness, be decorative and maybe hide that joint.

Neat old spittoon.

My metallurgy class was a loooong time ago...

I think Copper work hardens, right? So, the more you flex it, the harder it gets, until it will eventually become brittle and fracture. You can get ductility back by annealing (heating & holding at a specific temperature). That makes Copper somewhat tricky to form.

That's about all I can remember - I don't think I got a very good grade in that class...

Thanks to all. Have talked with various people today. The bottom joints were used all the way up into the 1920's. That is according to one, he thinks with combo of two differing methods it may be from late 1800's to then. Just conjecture, was found in an decrepit fire pit so I presumed it to be a cooking vessel. Will keep searching. TFL: I do know from personal experience that silver does as you say and there is a lot of silver over copper. so I think that would seem to indicate their properties are somewhat the same.
moss

Moss,
If I recall correctly the journals of Lewis and Clark talks about them going down to the ocean and boiling down seawater to concentrate salt which they would have needed, because they have no doubt exhausted their supply in the cross country trip.

I believe there is actually a State Park in Clatsup County where Lewis & Clark's salt boiling site was. I am not suggesting that the copper pot is related to Lewis and Clark, but I think it may be likely that the pot was used for a similar purpose; to concentrate and gather the salt from sea water.

Hi Dale:
The Salt Cairn memorial you speak of is close to 15 blocks north of the turn around. From the looks of the site and the few tools present. It gives the notion that they used huge like 20+ gallon kettles for the recovery. Should anyone want to see they can look it up on google maps.
moss
Edit: WOW I just liiked it up and it has really changed in 20 years. It is on Lewis and Clark Way type this string into google map and it will take you there. 97138 lewis clark salt cairn