Thornale

Hi ! I would like to show you a corset I made for a friend's fantasy themed wedding. It is made from 3mm vegtan shoulder, dyed with eco-flo pro and finished with an homemade blend of caranuba wax and neatsfoot oil. The black herringbone lacing is made with kangaroo lace. I have some room of improvement, especially with my carving, which is something I don't do often and need practicing. I have used this pattern several times in differents sizes and it has come from a long way of trials and errors but I think I'm getting to the shape I want. I am in the process of writing a tutorial about it and I would like to know if you think that I can sell the pattern (in a near future, I still have some work to draw it multi-size in my CAD software) and if yes what cost would you think fair ? Best regards, Leo.

Hi, I am selling my copy of Leather Secret by F.O. Baird (1973 edition complete and in excellent condition). I ask 160€ (+ 20€ for shipping within EU, 15€ for France). This book is a great addition to any leathercraft library and to anyone interested in traditional carving. (here is the eBay listing : http://www.ebay.fr/itm/Leather-Secrets-by-F-O-Baird-/141688000518? ) Thanks for looking.

That will definitely solve the bleeding problem, however, it will create a hundred new issues (loosing the color into a brownish/blackish color, very little flexibility ...) About your dye, do you use Eco Flo or Eco Flo Pro ? In both cases you have to buff the leather after dying in order to remove the excess pigment. I, for instance, use the Eco Flo Pro and haven't had any bleeding issues. Heres my dying routine. Firstly I case the leather (I have found that the dye spread more evenly on cased leather than on dry). Then I apply my dye with a sponge or a cloth. When its dried I buff the leather. Finally apply the finish compounds which depends of the destination of the item. For armours and outdoors gears I like to finish with several coat of neatsfoot oil (with a good buff between each application), and then a home made cream made from neatsfoot oil and caranuba wax.

Good job on the knifes restoration and the scabbards, they are lovely ! @Oldtoolsniper : The only purpose of the dent you spoke about is to interlock the rivet head on the stud so the rivet won't (theoretically) move sidewards when you set it. When you cut a rivet stud to adapt it to your leather pile's thickness it is more important to round again the stud'section than remake that dent.

That's funny to see when forums overlaps. I have just seen your scabbard on myarmoury and now here. Anyway, congratulations on your scabbard. However I'm a bit concerned about the stitch. Let's put away the historical accuracy, I find this stitch expose a lot of thread to wear and tear, so have you encountered a problem of thread breaking over time on older scabbards you made ?

Hi, That's funny because I did the other way around, I taught myself to work with leather for re-enacting and LARP (armours, shoes, scabbards ...), and now I am starting to build a book with creations of luxury items to validate a "CAP Maroquinerie" as an external candidate. Anyway, welcome here and if you need some French resources about armours let me know !

Hi everyone, I'm planning a project where I will use some ostrich leg inlay and I was wondering what to use as a finishing product on it. Thanks for the help !

I'm planning to make a holster with a coin as decoration, so I have to ask, is the coin glued to the leather (if yes, which kind of glue did you use ?) or the retention from the top leather piece is enough to hold it in place ?

Sorry I didn't know that net shoes was considered as calcei, I only thought about the type of footwear that have been found in Dura Europos.

Calcei is almost too early given its last use was in third century AD (and in roman context). So it is not good either for Saxon Invasion. 400-750 is a huge time-frame and 750 is closer to the time of York Type III than the time of roman calcei (NB : the opposite is also true). I have re-checked about Stepping Through Time. The last part of the book is about the shoes worn in Roman and Germanic context and in the north of the roman empire from 200 to 500. So you'll find there some interesting resources. And I found another article from a UK late roman re-enactment group you might find worth a look : http://comitatus.net/Documents/ComitatusIntheirShoesweb.pdf .

It looks that I cant attach svg files here so I uploaded it on my server. There you are : http://www.latelierdowen.fr/doc/tuto/type3_44_A2.svg . For info this one correspond to (French) size 44 and needs to be printed on a A2 sheet of paper. But you can resize it to any size you want ! If you don't know any softwares for drawing svg I recommend Inkscape (the one I used to make this pattern) which is free. The green triangles should align. You can use some thick felt to make a prototype and check the sizing. If you have more questions about turnshoes construction do not hesitate to ask !

If you searched a bit I bet you already found it but you have Marc Carlson's page "Footwear of the Middle Ages" which is a good (free) starting point for both building instructions and patterns lookalike (the images are not actual patterns but mostly silhouettes of what your pattern should look like). Here it is : http://www.personal.utulsa.edu/~marc-carlson/shoe/SHOEHOME.HTM In free resources you also have a huge paper called Leather and Leatherworking in Anglo-Scandinavian York which was released by the York Archeological Trust. It contains an extensive chapter about the shoes (but maybe a bit late for your period) : http://www.yorkarchaeology.co.uk/resources/AY17-16-Leather%20and%20leatherworking.pdf I confirm that Stepping through Time is the Bible of historical footwear and well worth its price (if you want I can check what it has for your period). More affordable you also have the book Shoes and Pattens : http://www.amazon.com/Shoes-Pattens-Medieval-Excavations-London/dp/0851158382 which is good but less complete. If you need I have made a pattern for York Type III that I can share in svg so you can adapt it to any size you want.

Nice design ! Though I think it miss a bit of colours, for example red laces on the straps and back would look great ! I'm in the process of making an underbust corset. I also drawn my own pattern as I didn't find one freely available and it was a hard task, I can understand both of you on this.

Hi all ! I have found a free software that allows to draw easily interlaces. You can download it from here : http://knotter.mattbas.org/ And here is a tutorial to explain how to use it : http://knotter.mattbas.org/Tutorial It is based on the graphs method that you also use to draw them by hand ( http://www.entrelacs...k-The-ultimate- ) Have fun ! Leo

Be careful though whit patterns from The Armour Archive, these are patterns for metal armor, doesn't work exactly for leather.

Here's my pattern, I took the time to redraw it on Inkscape because the paper pattern was in a bad state. However I can't find photos of the frogs I made with it. I hope the diagram is clear. frog.pdf frog.pdf

I used to make some (with not exactly the same form) a while back, I will dig in my pattern folder, I'll post it here if I find it !

That's a nice hide ! If you ever look for this kind of colours and can't find a stock you can always look for stuff like that : http://www.cuirschadefaux.com/catalogue/cuirs/chevres/article/turquoise the hides are small but the color range is huge and it looks really good (and the hides are rather inexpensive ~20-25€).

This blue is really an eye catcher, is that goat leather ?

Haven't thought of that, you do have a point :-) .

I used to wear mine at 244h shooting rally in the middle of the summer with no inconveniences. The vikings didn't use horned helmet, this misconception has its origins in the representations of the vikings from the 19thh century.

This is how i do mine. I just drawn the pattern quickly on the computer (I usually draw a new pattern each time I make a new arm-guard as the measures are always different), as so don't mind the holes position. Here are the measures : - A : Forearm circumference at the widest (with elbow folded) minus 1 3/4 inch - B : Wrist circumference minus 1 3/4 inch - C : Inside forearm length (when the elbow is folded) minus 1 inch Hope it will help ! armguard.pdf

That is a hell of a work, but I have to admit that I do not like the mix of late roman helmet and belt, lamellar, late medieval protection and fantasy leather armor. You should also think of replace the lamellar lacing with strong leather lace or linen cord. Especially if you are on horseback. The move of the horse make the lamellae to act as scissors and cut the thread if it is not stiff enough.