Nighthawk

Yeah, Amerikilt sells those with loops sized to fit a 3 inch wide kilt belt. Been considering getting one, but I recently aquired 2 horns, so I think I'll make myself a drinking horn instead.

Where did you get the designs? It looks a lot like Book Of Kells kind of art. Very impressive, by the way.

One of my hobbies is knife making. I made an antler handled Scottish dirk for myself over the summer, and was never satisfied with the sheaths that I had made for it. Since finding the tutorials on this board, I have become somewhat knowledgable of the techniques of wet molding leather, so I made a sheath that I am finally happy with! Here it is: And the new olde tool! I do basic leather work demos at historical events- festivals and such- with a living history group called the Renaissance Living History Association. My son, who is apprenticed to our blacksmith, forged the needle from a piece of spring from an old garage door. The top of the handle is carved oak, and the handle itself is deer antler. Te black stains all over the place are the result of a really irritating fly, who spilled half of my bottle of USMC Black. Little !! Anyways, those are my latest (finished) projects.

Those kinds of bags, if I'm thinking of the same thing you are, are pretty simple. Get some chromium tanned leather, cut a circle, cut the circle in half, sew it together around the round part, leaving the flat part open as the top, punch some holes for lace, and pull it tight. I have one that I'm making right now- it's a little more complicated with a veg tanned lid- and when I'm done, I'll post some pictures.

4 months unemployed, a good teacher, and lots of hard work is what it takes. Lot's of trial and error. With my friend gone, this board has taken his place, at least as far as learning about leather goes. The tutorials are excellent! Bow making is the next thing I plan on learning. I wish I made that thing- it's killer. Oh, and my boy is a third generation Maiden fan. Have you heard their new album? Came out a week ago, and it's badass!!

Nice! I've been thinking about doing things like that this off season. I do mostly reproductions of historical pieces- pen holders with ink horn and the like, basic leather armor, sporrans, things along those lines. I'm actually making one of these: http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O133556/pen-case-and/ It's on it's second incarnation. We'll see how Take 2 turns out! So what's it like doing ren faires? Is it lucrative? I've never done any. I just work in the historical reenactment community, which in a lot of ways is a lot like the old barter economy- I make the blacksmith a belt, and he makes me 2 belt buckles (or in reality, teaches my son to make the belt buckles!) I actually had the thought that I should set up a booth a mile up the road from the Colorado Renaissance Festival because buying into it is so expensive, and they don't just let you do one or two weekends. It's all or nothing, and it's just me by my lonesome making product, so there's no way I could make it lucrative, which is why I ask how you make out. Oh, and one more thought- since you have sold at ren fests, you may have an insight. I've been thinking about making leather whiskey bottle coozies that are made more or less the same way as bracers. Think that would sell?

My friend's doctor actually told him that it would be healthier for him to wear a kilt instead of pants- the airflow is better! But they have no pockets!

My first sporran! Sorta... I have a friend who has MS. He has a hard time walking, and uses a walker. He can't wear a regular sporran because it gets in the way of his legs, or it gets in the way of his walker. So I watched him walk with his sporran on and it occurred to me- the sporran is too long! It's not the belt, not wear the sporran is worn- the body of the sporran itself hung just right to get in his way. So I did some research into belt bags. I found this on eBay, which I liked: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...=STRK:MEWAX:IT But it's not all that big and won't hold wallet, keys, cell phone, etc. So I made a sporran that is a hybrid of a traditional sporran and a belt pouch! The clan crest is Lyle. I'll be making a sporran belt that attaches like a sporran chain, using spring clips to make it easy for my friend to attach the belt. I can't wait to get a picture of him wearing it! I think he's going to be stoked! And a big Thank You to the person who posted the molded bag tutorial. I had been trying to figure that out for a while, with little success. This was my first attempt. I'm all that happy with the corners, but they will be better on my next one!

I would advise you to sign onto the chat board at www.xmarksthescot.com and get into the DIY board. There are some excellent leather workers there- particularly Thorffin and Artificer- who can help you. They make sporrans, which if you don't know are the bags that kilt wearers wear around our waists. This is an example from one of the works in progress threads going on over there right now: They'll set you up with the information and patterns that you will ever need to make any kind of medieval bag or pouch. Thank me in three days after you've read and absorbed so much information from those guys that you can no longer remember what your project was!!

I just finished using the tooling/soaking in hot water/baking at 180 method on a reproduction of a molded Italian pen case from the 1500's. It looks COOL! This method works great, and is really easy! I only did the bottom, though. I need to make a wooden mold for the top half tomorrow. I should have pictures to post tomorrow.

OK, for some stupid reason, the edit function is not working, so I will make a whole new post. I said "I know what the SCA rules are- they stopped playing with us because we regularly beat the hell out of them!" That sounds snipey. It's not meant to be. What I meant to type was "I DON'T know what the SCA rules are- they stopped playing with us because we regularly beat the hell out of them!" Apologies. Having left out that one little word made the whole post read as sarcasm.

Nice thing about the Panther stuff is that you can get just a fly and a couple of poles. That will give you essentially the same as the EZ Up tent that you had, except that it won't get crushed when it get hit by a microburst, like the St. Andrew's Society tent... On the other hand, our blacksmith's tent took that microburst and just smiled at it. That's actually why I suggested them. The simple flys are so universal, and so incredibly durable! The Shetland... That's not so universal! It's deffinately in the realm of reenactor, which is why we're making it! So what kind of fairs do you go to, if I may ask? And what kind of work do you do? And as to us having done well by Panther... You have no idea, until you actually see our camp! We have 1 pavilion, 2 of their biggest marquees, the blacksmith's fly, and my baker's tent, which we're retiring this year. We have done VERY well with our Panthers, which is why I always suggest them. They take a lickin' and keep tickin'!!

I do a lot of competetive sword fighting. I know what the SCA rules are- they stopped playing with us because we regularly beat the hell out of them!- but I do know that simply molded leather armor made from 12-15 oz saddle leather is perfectly sufficient. It protects really well, as a matter of fact, especially with a heavy piece of wool tartan folded up double underneath it. But I do have to say that in truth, we do Scots style fighting, which means that the most armor we wear is a pair of bracers and a targe. The late Renaissance Scots were a people in poverty and had to learn technique and skill to avoid getting hit since they couldn't afford armor! So I guess that most accurately, heavy saddle skirting molded to shape works extremely well for bracers and shields! Now you know why we were nothing but bracers, gauntlets and shields. But do you know why we wear kilts? Because zippers scare the sheep away!!

Interesting to hear that Fight are back in the studio! Being a huge fan of Iron Maiden and Bruce Dickinson's solo career, I have to love Roy Z! He's a damn sight better an engineer than Kevin Shirley- Maiden should have taken Roy when they took Bruce back. Ah well, that's neither here nor there. Nice jacket! Good luck with the Halford thing!

Need any more be said? That stitching is sweet!

Well, myself and a friend of mine are spending our offseason making one of these. It's a 16th century Shetland tent. So if you're feeling ambitious and want something that will last 30 years, you can get the canvas from http://www.pantherprimitives.com/ Or you can get one of their small flies. Our blacksmith uses one, and it seems to work out well. Look! A dancing banana in a kilt! I bet he sleeps in a Shetland tent... We actually have a Baker's tent that we use. We're retiring it because it's not period appropriate. It's Fur Trapper era, and we're late Renaissance. We serve haggis and lamb stew as sides...

Awesome!! Thanks!! No problem at all! It's pretty common. I demo basic leather working at Celtic festivals with a living history called the Renaissance Scots. People confuse the two all the time. I've actually learned to lecture about the different pieces of armor- paldrons, grieves, breastplates, etc.I'm planning a pair of grieves for my son to wear to the skate park. How cool would that be- he shows up on the half pipe one day wearing those on his legs!!

I was about to post that! I just got several clasps from them and the quality and speed of delivery are great. So I guess, I second Hardware Elf.

I think you're thinking bracers- gauntlets are more like heavy gloves.

I'm looking to make myself a pair of gauntlets. Anyone have a line on patterns for them?

I've done that. It only seems to work well on small designs- ones that take too much time, not so well. The moisture leaches out of the leather and into the paper.

That's only mostly correct. One thing that I have learned from examining things like Viking shoes, comparing them to modern reproductions, is that the leather from back in the day was a lot more dense. My understanding is that it has to do with modern growth hormones causing animals to grow bigger, faster, stretching their skin. Half tanned leather is a big factor in the thicker, harder scabbards, but so is the way animals grow. If you're getting leather from Finland, you should be good to go- they don't use the growth hormones. Leather from the Nordic countries is highly prized in the living history community for that reason. I'd love to get my hands on enough 3 oz Finalandian leather to make myself a pair of bog brogues... I'm stoked to hear your review!

Thanks, guys! This is a very friendly forum! Great welcomes!