Another estate sale find

[Merc]

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1880s - 1890s Indian Wars or Spanish American War canteen.

[Fred]

Cool!

[IditarodJoe]

Cool!!! Nice find, Merc. You've had a great run of luck at the estate sales lately!

[Merc]

There are usually dozens of estate sales every Saturday morning that are well attended by antique hunters like me and others who buy up stuff to sell on eBay. I only look for military related antiques. Most are usually priced at a fraction of their actual market value because the family or broker conducting the sales know they only have a few hours to sell as much as they can. It’s easy to build up a big collection if you do this long enough. I ran out of room to display the big stuff long ago.

Here’s a tip. A black light flashlight is essential to determine if antique cloth, thread and paper items are real or fake. The modern materials used to make reproductions almost always contain fire retardant chemicals that glow when exposed to black light. Stuff that looks old isn’t always what it appears to be.

[Johnny P]

It's the phosphors that cause objects to glow under black light. Even your teeth have some phosphors and glow under black light.

[Merc]

It's the phosphors that cause objects to glow under black light. Even your teeth have some phosphors and glow under black light.

Good to know. I read about the fire retardant chemicals causing a black light reaction in white fabric. There was a federal regulation known as the Flammable Fabric Act of 1953 that required clothing to be fire resistant.

The older white stuff in my collection doesn’t react to black light. Here are two photos of the same modern shoulder patch. One is under normal light and the other is under black light. The newer white thread glows. I’ve noticed that newer yellow thread will also glow. Same with modern white paper items.

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