Daggrim

Um, I'll have to look into my stored pictures for any examples of my displays. As for colors...I mostly just find a color that looks good with the product. I bought lots of fabric remnants, and just keep them on hand. I use mostly solid colors...the patterns tend to camouflage the product. Royal blue, wine, forest green, rust. I also use small, inexpensive, one-foot square felt pieces purchased from a craft supply store, for accents. Navy blue, red,yellow,tan, green, etc. I try for a rich display of color. Makes the shop feel warm and inviting. I don't like small cutesy decorations. I just "paint" the shop with broad brush strokes, and let the product be the decorative details. Oh, and mirrors! I make things for people to wear, and have up to 5 mirrors of different sizes placed so all that anyone needs to do is turn their head to see themselves. Finally, I place some really nice displays outside the building or tent, with a conspicuous mirror. It's a magnet! Daggrim

One last thing...shoes. I make turnshoes, but I'm swamped right now. I'd recommend the following website. Lady Oren's prices are very reasonable, and her product is a good one. She doesn't attend RF's, so her overhead is tiny, and keeps her prices down. http://ladyorensmedievalshoes.com Dag

Make sure you check out the replies to my post about the Singer 29K58 machine. There is a huge resource base there. Especially the http://shoerepairer.info group in the UK. Dag

Most awesome help! I've been to the UK site, and there are lotsa people still using these machines. Also, now I have a couple sources for manuals. Sounds like I should keep this one, and get some help finding the right thread to go w/ my needles, get more tutoring, and lube a lot. Many thanks. Daggrim

OK, I've been doing Renfaires for 4 years, single weekend, and multiple weekend faires, and here's my experience with merchandise display. The display is critical. I'm not even speaking about quality of display material, but about just where and how the merchandise is displayed. You absolutely need a feel for how a customers eyes will rove thru your space. I have doubled the sales of certain items by moving them to a different location in my tent. It needs to be absolutely clear, at a glance, just exactly what the item is, without asking them to read anything. I have separated my headbands and my chokers to opposite sides of my space, because no amount of signage would help people tell them apart. Lotsa people were trying to get small chokers around their heads. I'm the same way in a strange space. There's so much to see that I just look at the objects. Also, clutter is deadly. When I layed out thirty headbands, people ignored them. They looked cheap. When I laid out fifteen headbands, they looked more valuable, and people bought them. I also use visual ques to separate similar objects into distinct groups. I lay each group on a different color tablecloth. Simple, but effective. Also, the heights of the displays need to have variety. I have about 5 different levels for the eye to roam across. My display materials are plain, decorated with spots of colored fabric. Really nothing expensive, or fancy. Mostly it has to be mobile and collapsible. Y'gotta keep experimenting. Over the run of a 5 weekend faire, I tuned up my display constantly, after observing how people walked thru my space. Eventually, I had it dialed in, and people were exploring my merchandise with ease, and missing nothing. Ideally, it should almost work automatically, with the merchant not needing to guide people around. Daggrim

That looks very much like the Singer 29K58 that I was just inquiring about. But yours looks even older than mine along the top rocker arm. I found a manual online at the Smithsonian Museum website! Managed to get it printed out, too. I can't recall just how i searched their archives, but I could check my copies for a web location. I think we might have machines left over from the Iron Age. Daggrim

Very nice boots. I've been making turnshoes, too, including the Jorvic boot. The heel looks well done...for me a very difficult area to perfect. I'll post a few pics later. I'd like to see a shot of your heel and sole sometime, if you don't mind. I'm still trying to perfect my techniques. You glued an outsole on a pair? Shoe Goo? I've heard Barge recommended, but I just haven't been able to believe it'd bond tough enough. I've sold a few Hedeby (?) style turnshoes at RenFaires recently, and plan to grow into this market. Not with the Viking boots, though...way harder to make. The two piece uppers don't demand the near perfection as the one part uppers. Thanks for the post. Daggrim

A clarification on using the plastic baseball helmets for bra forms. Of course y'gotta have a bra cup-shaped piece of leather that you can slide around in the helmet mold, looking for the spot that gives you that nice, natural shape...more full on the outside, etc, etc. I use the hot water cuir bouilli molding technique for molding the leather. It makes a bra as hard as any leather armour. Daggrim

Nice site. I have one suggestion, though. I was a little slowed down by the first segment of text, the list on your homepage, in upper case letters, of all the items you can make. Then the next paragraph was much easier to read, saying how the only limits on what you can make is the customers imagination. Maybe put the more folksy, engaging paragraph ahead of the list. A personal touch right away. IMHO, Doug

I'm looking for any words of wisdom before I give up on this machine, and buy a modern one. I bought it used in hopes of sewing medieval style shoes...like moccasins. A great buy, and the chance to make lotsa money. I know a guy in town with a shoe repair shop who makes his living with one of these old treadle machines. Anyway, it's just never worked well. It did when I bought it, but when I got it home, it was a different story. Even the guy who owns one could only get it to work sporadically...dropping stitches, not advancing well, etc. Another sewing machine repairman just told me to give it up, as it was only designed to sew short segments of leather (patches) and not a couple of linear feet. So, does anyone think it's worth pursuing, or would you suggest moving on to a modern machine. I guess I loved the old look of the machine...so in keeping with the old look of the medieval shoes. Thanks for any replies. Doug

The plaster impregnated gauze for making casts works well. i made a form fitting torso of my wife, and made a halloween breastplate out of that. I just had her wear a wet t-shirt, so I could get it off. Looks okay on the outside, but very detailed on the inside. Also, I've used those hard plastic kids baseball caps as molds for stiff, heavy leather breast covers. They have a nice natural curve, rather than just spherical, or nosecone shaped.

I see that there are iron on design transfers for woodworking/woodburning. Would somrthing like that work for leather? Doug

Elad...dude! I just checked out your website. I'm speechless. I have nothing more to say about leather, because you ARE the master. How can one man produce this much awesome stuff in a lifetime? It must've taken you many years to get so proficient. Daggrim

Thanks Elad. And just one more point about hardening in an oven. I've done it, and it works, but it's not a first choice method. I've had helmets that just ended up a little too flexible, so I soaked them in water for maybe 10 minutes, then baked them in an oven, preheated to 200 degrees, until they felt mostly dry...maybe 45 minutes to an hour. Door was closed, but I checked them often. Y'gotta preheat, or otherwise the heating elements will be on for a long time with your leather in there, and it could get scorched. The leather noticeably darkened, but it looked cool that way. Any part of the leather that's resting on metal will look burnt. Dag

Elad, I'm always looking for ways to improve the durability of my helmets. Can you tell me what you use for a coating? Dag

Okay...was in a hurry on my last post. I see my member profile needs to be restored, but in the menatime you can see some of my leather helms at "leatherhelms.com". http://www.leatherhelms.com Daggrim

Hey JG, Daggrim here. I don't fight or make real leather armor, but I do make heavy leather helmets (12 oz.), hardened in hot water...the cuir bouilli technique. For smaller pieces I immerse the leather in 175 to 180 degree water for about 2.5 to 3.5 minutes. Watch the leather carefully, and if it starts to get dark, get it out asap. By then it has begun to shrink. If it is sandpapery on the flesh side when dry, it got a little too much heat or time. As soon as you take it out, get it onto your mold. For larger pieces I heat the water to 200 and pour it into a tub which holds the leather, and soak it for about 5 minutes. Oh, you need to presoak your all your leather in tepid water for about 5 minutes. This prevents the thermal shock when immersing it in the hot water. No wax necessary. You also need to start out with stiff leather. You can't cuir bouilli soft leather, even if it's thick. It just shrivels up before it's ready to remove. Daggrim

I'm rather new to the LARGE world of leather work. What's gum trag? Daggrim

Thanks Skip. I follow your description. Do you have any pictures of how a finished rivet/burr look? I expect it would look really authentic to the period. I gotta try this after Christmas. I also need to figure out a way to steady the helmet while pounding. My jig looks kinds like the letter "C" with a three inch long dowel screwed into the top of the C. The dowel sticks straight up, and is my anvil. Its top is recessed to hold a small round steel button anvil. The inside of the helmet sits on the dowel, with the rest of the helm hanging in the open space of the C. I

Again, thank you all for your input. After looking at the R J Leahy site I realized that the rivet head would need to be inside my helmets, and the burr on the outside. I do all my pounding on the outside, with my anvil and jig on the inside. It'd just be too difficult to try to hammer the burrs on the inside. So...does anybody DO that? Seems like it'd be ugly having all those peened rivet tips on the outside.

So, it sounds like the copper is the way to go. So, are the tubular rivets the ones that spread like a starfish when they're pounded? And do the split rivets just spread out into two halves? Dag

Okay, maybe you reenactor types can help me pick a better style rivet for my helmets. I'm using Rapid Rivets, which are the only rivets I've ever used, but I'd like something more durable. So, tubular? Split? Solid copper? Daggrim

Thanks Freak. I'll post my question in the reenactors section. Love the picture with the dark glasses. Is that a dog's butt? Er...forgive me if that's actually your real face. If it is, you need to be told a terrible truth, bro. Dag

I rivet these helmets with double cap Rapid Rivets, but now I'm looking for something more durable. I know there are tubular rivets, and split rivets, and solid copper/brass rivets. I haven't used any of them , so I'm not sure how they even work. I can't use a press because of the really wierdly shaped anvil I needed to make. Thanks to everyone for all the replies to my previous questions. 'fraid my experience is rather narrow. Daggrim (which, by the way, is my "persona" name, and means "day mask" in Old Norse. Kinda like a helmet hides your face, but lets the daylight in. My real name is Doug...Dag (day) in Old Norse)

Thanks for the link!