[Ansteorra] Leather Working Question

Tue Jun 8 13:13:11 PDT 2010

Greetings,

Another source for examining techniques for embossing, incising, etc., is 
Knives and Scabbards from the British Museum. Also, some nice examples are 
leather flasks and bottle from the Mary Rose...especially the bottles.

As for covering kydex with leather, you might look at some of the pieces 
of cuir boilli...which is what you are approximating.

Regards,
Chuck Graves
Sr. Engineer, LPGBS (NAS Technical Lead)
Power Services Group
Operations Engineering Branch (OKC)
405/954-0783 (office)
405/416-0847 (cell)

From:
Casey Weed <seoseaweed at gmail.com>

To:
"Kingdom of Ansteorra - SCA, Inc." <ansteorra at lists.ansteorra.org>
Date:
06/05/2010 08:25 PM
Subject:
Re: [Ansteorra] Leather Working Question
Sent by:
ansteorra-bounces+chuck.graves=faa.gov at lists.ansteorra.org

Yeah, Jasper... I've been working on some of this research lately myself 
and
have found a bunch of examples of early embossed pieces- carving, 
punching,
and etching seem to be far more common in shoe making (my focus).

The challenge, of course, isn't documenting techniques- that's easy to do-
but documenting techniques as applied to *armor*.  As a reenactor my
temptation is to take the technique and do a redaction of an effigy piece,
illustration, or other secondary source and call it good.  The skeptic in 
me
says: "Okay, that's totally cheating... prove that you can match the
technique ON an artifact or it isn't worth it."  Everyone's mileage is 
going
to vary on this and there's a ton on Armor Archive on the subject.  How
important is it to you that you have an undeniably period piece?  (Yes, 
but
what _kind_ of oak was used in your tanning process, and was the leather
*actually* from a Cordovan goat?)

There are three main museums that have outstanding examples and fairly
accessible resources either by print or digital correspondence (I've 
gotten
through to all three to get what I've been after):

http://www.ledermuseum.de/DLM/frames_e/hfr_02_e.html

http://www.walsall.gov.uk/leathermuseum/  with a focus on saddlery.

http://www.museumofleathercraft.org/ also in England.

To the gentleman who started this thread... it sounds like you're "backing
in" to research a piece you've already decided on making (I guess that's
okay in this club but just be aware of it and be honest about it).  If
you're looking for something anchored in history, though, research comes
first and then an accurate picture of the design comes into focus- no
preconceptions and let the archaeological record speak for itself.  Going
about it the other way is what fantasy crowd do for a living- fun and
creative but it does play hell when the Boris Vallejo crowd shows up at 
the
Pas D'Armes.

Hanse/Casey

On Sat, Jun 5, 2010 at 12:47 PM, Jasper <captain_jasperc at yahoo.com> wrote:

> If you want to know about patterns of tooling, as far as I know there 
are
> very few surviving examples from the archaeological record of actual 
leather
> having been "tooled" or embossed. I have included a pic from the British
> museum of a find near London. They claim it is the only surviving 
example
> but I am bet there are others. This upper arm defense is from the 14th
> century and would have been worn with a mix of maille and possibly a 
coat of
> plates. Tooling in period I think would have been more along these lines
> (floral patterns, knot work and the like) depending on the locale and 
time
> period. Osprey Men at Arms books like Scottish and Welsh Wars 1250-1400 
and
> Gallowglass 1250-1600 might give you an idea of where to take your kit. 
If
> you are going period I would stay away from bright colors, use naturals 
like
> light and dark browns. Period illuminations are also a good source for 
armor
> and kit ideas. Just my two schillings...
>
> Jasper C.
> Leather Guru
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: Adam Edwards <wilim.penbras at pandora.org>
> To: "Kingdom of Ansteorra - SCA, Inc." <ansteorra at lists.ansteorra.org>
> Sent: Fri, June 4, 2010 8:13:04 PM
> Subject: [Ansteorra] Leather Working Question
>
> Quick question about tooling leather.
> Are there any patterns particular to time and place that have been
> documented?  1350s Welsh is my chosen period but anything remotely close
> would be great.  Otherwise I'm just going to go with Images and patterns
> that have meaning for me.  More specifically I'm looking to make another 
set
> of armor that is tooled leather over kydex and just thought it'd be nice 
to
> go with something period if such a thing exists.
>
> WP
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