ANST - Cuir Boilii (sp?)

Carl Hess cjhess at uai-unger.com
Fri Sep 19 13:09:35 PDT 1997


OK, I see that I have mis-communicated again.  Let me try this:

Has anyone used boiling water to treat their leather armor, or any leather
at all?  If so, I have a question.  Specifically, if you put the leather
back into boiling water after you have treated it once, will it ruin your
project or just make it more rigid?

Thanks for Your Suppport,

Scipio
cjhess at uai-unger.com


Gunnora,

Thank you for answering my post.  I would like to make a few comments.

> 
> Some cuir buoilli is boiled in salt water.

In sea-side regions I can see how this would occur.  I would worry about
how badly this would dry out the leather, though.
 
> Other types apparently were done in "wax" howvere I suspect that instead
of 
> paraffin or beeswax, it would have been a much tougher substance with a 
> higher melting point.

I don't know that there is any archeological to support the use of wax as a
period stiffener for armor.  I suspect that it was not used for armor for
the simple reason that waxed leather is very easy to cut.  The "boiled
leather" isn't.

> There has recently been a large amount of discussion on the SCA Arts list

> regarding the actual composition of period sealing waxes, and they 
> apparently involved other types of resin that made the wax hard and heat 
> resistant.  I strongly suspect that the "wax" used in period cuir bouilli

> was probably composed much like the period sealing waxes using rosin
rather 
> than wax, or a rosin-wax mixture, rosin-wax-oil, etc.  This would give
the 
> hardness which is reported for cuir bouilli, while avoiding the problems
of 
> stickiness and low melting point.

If you attend Elfsea's fight practice, I'll bring a sample of cuir buoilli
(one of my mistakes) next Wednesday, and I think you'll be impressed with
its hardness.  You can sand it (kind of) and you can scratch it, but you
CAN'T cut it.

******************************************************

> I have researched using Caridoc's writings and a few other FAQs I have
> found, so I already have some pretty detailed technical information.  I'm
> looking for someone who is familiar with this technique, and hopefully
has
> done it several times.
> 
> If anyone is out there, please drop a line back to me.
> 
> Abeo!
> 
> -Scipio
> 
> cjhess at uai-unger.com
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