Uptown Street Fair ......Yard Sale Treasures and Bikes, Bikes, Bikes!!!

Yesterday, Saturday, was the annual Port Townsend Street Fair.......... Sweet Pea had her booth set up to sell at the arts and crafts show portion, while the farmer's market was the next street over and the connector street was blocked off for the community celebration portion.  Tons of fun, low key, small town feel, and SUNSHINE!!!!  This is one of those rare celebrations that is all about community and not just a tourist draw.  As usual, it was pulled off in real PT style!  Live music, food, fun-free stuff for the kids and adults alike, even a small and quirky PT Parade.  

While Sweet Pea finished setting up her displays, I went over to the ReCyclery, on the farmer's market street, for a fund raising yard sale they were hosting.  They always have great stuff donated and this one was full of treasures!

I'm glad I made it over to the yard sale early!  I came back to Sweet Pea's booth with a full arm load of treasures!  Here's the run down of the "haul":

1946 Primus 527 Boat Stove

 

1952 Czechoslovakian Bread Bag

Vintage Kershaw "Blade-Trade" knife by Kai

Vintage Ice Crampons

I also picked up a desert camo head scarf, and a USFS map of the Dosewallips area of the Hood Canal.

I'll cover the Primus 527 stove and Czechoslovakian bread bag in their own posts in the next week, but for now, here are some highlight pictures of the treasures:

Primus 527 Stove

Czechoslovakian Bread Bag

Crampons

Kershaw Blade-Trade Knife

I had the chance to wander around a bit throughout the day and while taking in the festivities, I spotted these two amazing cycles from the 1880's...........

A bone shaker:

An 1889 Coventry Rotary Cycle:

Here's a mix of bikes that were parked around the fair while their riders enjoyed the festivities:

And here's a great car that was in the parade....... parked in front of Aldrich's Market:

Until next year................ until then, here's a few parting views of the fair!

WW2 Wehrmacht Unteroffizer Schulterklappen, WW2 German Army Shoulder Boards

Today's post will be both a follow-up to my BGS Parka research and a posting of a new item.................

The Bundesgrenzschutz Parka that I showcased a few blog entries back, had a set of old shoulder boards installed when I purchased and received it.  When I saw the boards in the eBay photos of the parka, I suspected that they were probably reproduction WW2 Wehrmacht boards that had been installed to make it look like it was WW2 issue.  When I received the parka, I immediately noticed that the boards were original and most likely WW2 Wehrmacht!  The fabric, stitching, trim, braid and the feel-age of the fabric show that these "Schulterklappen", or shoulder boards are indeed WW2 Wehrmacht!  I posted the photos of these boards on the Wehrmacht-Awards Forum to get opinions from collectors with more experience than myself with these items.  All of the opinions came back agreeing that these boards are indeed WW2 Wehrmacht.

The rank indicated by the trim on these boards is for an "Unteroffizer", or Corporal in English, and the white edge piping, or "Waffenfarbe" indicates that they are from one of the following units that used boards with the white trim:

Motorized infantry (to 7/43)
Panzergrenadier-Rgt. Grossdeutschland
Fusilier regiments
Machine gun battalions
Mortar battalions
Infantry guns
Light Flak 

Specifically, these boards appear to be the early WW2 style, M/36 (Model 36,  1936) type.  Here is a great article that describes, in detail, the WW2 Wehrmacht Schulterklappen, or Shoulder Boards:   

WW2 German Army Shoulder Boards

The fact that the BGS Parka was such a fantastic deal in itself, is only made sweeter by the fact that I also picked up this set of original WW2 Wehrmacht shoulder boards as well!  I love it when I stumble into a treasure trove like this!

Here are the photos of these boards:

Swedish M/40 Mess Kit -Stove Modification for Espresso Pot M40/44

After our trip to La Connor earlier his week, I realized that it might be nice to use our new Swedish M/40 Mess Kit and Stove set up to steam up a pot of Italian espresso while out in the field.  The problem with the M/40 kits, is that they will support the mess kit pots, but not anything that is narrower....... like an Italian espresso pot!

You can see in this photo, how the size of the cook pot is limited by the open area after the pot stands are folded open inside the stove.

     
A quick bit of rummaging through the scrap pile in the back of the shop and I came up with a couple of pieces of very heavy duty, mild steel plate that was drilled out with penny-size holes.  Perfect for my adapter plate for the inside of the M/40 stove.   I traced out the bottom profile of the mess kit pot and cut the shape out with a hack saw.  I smoothed it up with a file, burned the paint off with a torch, cleaned it up with coarse sandpaper and then painted it with a couple of coats of green, hi-temp, barbeque paint.  I preheated the finished paint with the torch to let it get through the initial smoking (If you don't do this, the paint will smoke when you first heat it on the stove to cook on it).

Here are a few shots of the plate and how it fits in the stove and with the espresso pot.  The plate sits on the fold-up pot supports inside the stove.  I highly recommend this addition to any Swedish M/40 stove set up.

The grill stores nicely in the bottom of the stove base.  I wrap mine to keep it padded and quiet while transporting the bundled up kit.