Hardtack Cooler

[9th US Regulars]

I had some time on my hands, and decided to build myself some additional gear. The company kitchen impression I was with at Gettysburg left me thinking about better ways to store food for the weekend. We had a big kitchen cart to store the cooking tools, but still relied on plastic coolers in an adjacent wedge tent. That led to difficulties and a lot of spoilage.

So I imagined this; a hardtack box lined with insulating foam and fiberglassed on the inside. So here's the first box I've made. I still want to add a clear matte polyurethane to protect the wood. Then I'll add the sapling straps-unless y'all think the straps might have been pulled off a crate entirely when opened in the field. Was debating if I should go ahead and hinge the top, or just lift it off.. Anyway, I thought a pair of coolers like this would be easy to keep an eye on during the day.

Then I had enough extra wood to throw together an ammo box. I haven't decided what set of stencils to use for it yet. I'll use it to store my reenacting powder separately from my live cartridges.

So yeah. Showing off a little bit. But seriously, full sapling straps or no?

 

[Union_Buff]

That is one impressive cooler!!!

 

[johan_steele]

No need for the sapling straps. They made good kindling. There used to be 3-4 different makers of hardtack coolers with some better than others. Looks better than any of my work.