MikeDB

Hi Jana, If you follow the pattern above you'll get close to a period piece. The intergrated hanging belt was a complex and therefor expensive item. Here is one of mine, the inner core is in cuir boulli as opposed to wood but the shape and later construction is similar. Cheers Mike

Hi Jana, Yep, it has an inner core/sleeve which the lid slides over. I'm working on re-doing the picture but it's taking a while as my workshop is a tad busy at the moment. Hope these help. Cheers Mike

Hi all, Sorry about the missing pictures. I had a serious pc problem and at the same time managed to delete the contents of my photobucket album hence the lack of posts and missing pictures. I will try to get them restored but the workshop is a tad busy at the moment so it may take a while. Here is one (bad I know) of the scrivener however. Thanks for all the interest. Cheers Mike

Just thought I'd show this commissioned brace of cuir tankards. The engraving and colouring took a while but the end result seems worth it. Makes pleasing change to add some colour. Cheers & good ale Mike

The ones in the pictures are lined with brewers pitch by the looks of it. I know that Stephen & Gillian at Hidebound use pitch for their tankards. Mike

Historically it's accurate up until the mid 1300's then it lost favour to direct attachment to a girdle belt. It does take some working though as the straps not only intertwine but also run through the outer scabbard leather under the second part of the sword belt. The finish on this one is done with layers of different colour dye then different colour wax and finally a few coats of carnauba. Thanks chaps. Mike

A final decision on the belt suspension & some better pictures hopefully :D Thanks all for your kind comments Cheers Mike

My thanks for the kind words. I should add that the belt shown is not the final one. It's doing a fine job holding open the suspension loops until a final design has been agreed with the commissioner. Cheers Mike

A large EDC Sir! I was asked to make a copy of a scabbard for an arming sword. Circa 1300 with an integrated sword belt (not seen much after 1350) It's taken me a while but it's nearly done. Cuir bouilli central core, calfskin over wrap and a wet formed hide outer. I'll replace the pictures when I talk the camera into a better mood. Cheers Mike

Just like one of my musical heros I appear to be living in the past A piece for the same chap that commissioned the scriveners case. A simple traditional design with an antiqued Tudor Rose emblem dyed in then stiffened with wax. His bracer but very much my longbow! :D Cheers Mike

Not knife related but my latest form ye olde workshoppe. A Scrivener or a Scriveners Case. Based on piece from the mid Tudor period. Waterproof cuir boulli designed to keep parchment and pens safe. Possibly of little other than historical value & living history but I think a longer one may be protecting my fly rod next season. Cheers all Mike

Bill, First of all, thanks for the kind words. Some answers to your questions.....and sorry for the delay. Been off away for a weeks fishing! The overall pattern is very common, certainly, as far as I know, used in the period you mention. It's actually pretty much similar to an Elizabethan bombard so the pattern and certainly the technique of construcuction would have been known from at least 1500. It is easier to make than a traditional Tudor style tankard but the first pattern is a little more difficult to plan as, on the flat, it looks wrong. I've no empirical evidence for paper patterns from the period but can only summise that a pattern was used, either something in wood or, more likely in leather. I haven't done a full photo session on making a traditional Jack but if you want some more detail then feel free too drop me a PM and I will try to help. Mike

Hi Jeremie If it's a costrel, tankard, jack or bottel you really need to saddle stich, in which case just backstiching three and cutting off flush is the way I do it. Assuming you are then treating with wax or pitch then it wont notice. This piece was saddle stiched. The jack on the right is saddle stiched although it's not as neat as a modern one as I had to copy an actual piece from the Crimea period. Or, if you want a Tudour style pattern then this sort of thing. Mike

No problem, I only use beeswax as it's more accurate historically speaking for the vessels I make, brewers pitch came along later. Waterproofing vessels was accomplished in several ways. As the skin side of hide is most naturally waterproof it was used as the inside of the vessel. The outside of the vessel would be rubbed with animal fat in earlier periods and later with either beeswax or boiled birch tree sap. Birch sap turns black when boiled and from its application to the outside of a jack came the phrase "Blackjack" which was adopted as a generic name for most types of drinking vessel. As time progressed only the inside of the vessel was waterproofed. Again beeswax was used, but beeswax was very expensive. Birch sap was used until, more recently, it was replaced with Brewers Pitch None of these are suitable for use with hot liquids. I don't use paraffin wax for food items although either paraffin wax on it's own or mixed with beeswax is good for armour depending on its application and the hardness of the finished item you require. To give an example the bottle in the pictures is hard enough to stand on. Hardness is really a product of the cuir process as a whole and mostly down to the correct soaking and drying of the hide, the wax really acts as a replacement for the water in the hide and a waterproofing barrier. The longer you dry your leather, the harder it will be. Eventually, there will be no moisture in the leather at all, and it can crack when hit. Not good for armour! There are two ways to avoid this. The first is to know when to stop drying the leather (trial and error I'm afraid). The second is to wax the leather. You can do this in a few ways, either the immersion method I've detailed or you can use an oven. You still have to stop drying the leather at the right time though. Once you have dried the leather out in an oven, coat it in Paraffin wax, and put it back into the oven to soak in. The wax replaces the water, makes the leather a little more flexible, and creates a waterproof barrier. More importantly, paraffin forms a crystalline matrix within the leather fibres as it cools adding to the overall strength of the piece. Hope some of that helps. Cheers & good ale! Mike

Then you will need to plan your carving very carefully to allow for distortion caused by the curvature on shaping. To get an idea of that try drawing a design with marker pen on a balloon, then blow it up and see how the original design has altered. Also, casing your work with hot water may lift any fine detail you have already added to the hide. If I'm adding a design to a costrel or flask then I form the shape first, wait for it to dry slightly then add the decoration. The main drawback with this, especially if it's a bottle/flask is that it can be difficult to prevent any accidental marks hitting the damp hide. Mike

Hot water will work, not boiling though. If you use boiling you'll end up with glue. The process is like casing leather for tooling. Dip your leather into hot water, if it's veg tanned (chrome tan won't take moulding) you will see little air bubbles escaping. It's this process, also seen in hot wax dipping that gives the expression of 'boiling leather'. When it's soaked you will have something thats quite soft and pliable. Be careful with it in this state as any scrapes or marks you get on it will be there for good. I tend to let it just air dry rather than accelerate the process with heat but it will be much harder and keep it's shape when it dries out. After you have the shape you want then you can go onto dye and finish etc. To make it really hard then dip in hot beeswax. An ancient form of ballistic armour. Mike

Thanks Peter, Yes, some of my work is over on BritishBlades. In the historical record there is indeed a vast array of sizes for bottels, made to individual spec or just regional variation so it's almost impossible to make a standard. I usually go for multiples of the pint as it's a fairly easy size for someone to imagine. The one in the tutorial is actually a two pint bottel. I try to have any cuir work ready in batches as it makes it a lot easier time wise for dipping. You're right in thinking the double boiler takes a while, approx 2 - 3 hours to get up to dipping speed so to speak. The one I've shown in the pictures is about 15ltrs but I will end up using something bigger if I'm dipping something like full or half size bombards as I prefer to completley immerse the item. The downside to something like a 4 or 8 pint bombard is removing it from the boiler, you end up trying to juggle with a very hot and fairly soft jug full of molten wax - It can be painful! Cheers Mike

Thanks. Yes, scaling down is no problem, neither is altering the shape. It's only when things get too big for the dip tank you have issues. Yes, the stopper is not there when the vessel is dipped. When cuir is taken out of the wax it is not only hot but also pliable. When it cools it's then very tough stuff. The wax is impregnated into the leather so it doesnt really need a secondary inner coat, other than to add additional sealing to any seams however most cuir vessels were given a second, inner coat. It adds to any integrity and, looking at the historical record it aids any field repair as the wax can crack (gertainly in very cold conditions) and can then be re-sealed with a lighted taper. Hi Bob, It's not always easy to find beeswax in that quantity and it's expensive too. I buy mine 25kgs at a time. I'll dig out the supplier and PM you a link. UK wise I'm from sunny Hampshire but now live on a farm in East Yorkshire. Mike

It will eventually cause some erosion of the wax lining but nothing that cannot be field repaired with a lighted taper. I've seen a few examples of rolled leather being used as a stopper but I think the wear would be similar. Ultimately these pieces are not as tight as say a modern screw-cap so would have need to have been carried upright. Saliva works really well, a mix of enzyme and sugars I guess. On other items such as belts etc I'd use gum trag but I couldn't find any empirical evidence for this on the period pieces, hence the spit I'm happy you all found it an interesting read. Thankyo to everyone for the kind comments to a new member. Cheers Mike

And your good self Sir! Mike

The beeswax is really impregnated into the leather so really the additional inner coating of wax is mainly a seam sealer. Unless you are putting something corrosive like cola or something hot into the flask then the wax will stay solid and mix with the contents. Beeswax, as far as I know is foodsafe & won't coat anyones insides but it does sometimes give the user an impression of having added some honey-like flavour to the drink. I cant say I've noticed a taste but you certainly get an faint aroma which may expalin some of the anxieties. Hope that ramble helps. Mike

Thanks for the positive comments. I don't line the flasks with pitch just the beeswax. I've used brewers pitch a couple of times in tankards but I prefer the hardness the cuir gives, also there is some argument over the food safety on pitch in the EU so many clients won't use the finished article even if it's more in keeping with the period of the item they have chosen. Mike

I'm not sure if this is the right place to put this or if it's ok for someone new to post such a thing but I thought some may be interested. A very non-definitive guide to how I make a leather bottle. This bottle is based on the ones recovered from the wreck of the Mary Rose. Bottles like this were commonly in use in Great Britain from the 11th century to the beginning of the 17th and hopefully this will be an example of traditional wax cuir bolli (soaked in boiling beeswax to create a great strength within the leather and a waterproof and fairly easily maintainable finish. It starts out with a paper pattern and some 3.5mm (ish) veg tan shoulder I have a master pattern in card but use paper on actual cutting. Cut out the two halves and then the welt. Some of the recovered bottles only had a partial welt, it seems to preserve the round shaping of the neck but I have found that the full welt not only adds much to the strength but also, when combined with a narrow edge prevents any warping of the leather. The above shows the two halves and welt glued and the stitching pattern marked out with an adjustable groover. You need to be a little more creative with the stitch marks around the handle sections, just a matter of care, time and patience. If I'm going to add any decoration I scribe in the design at this stage, be very careful not to go through the surface of the hide, if you do it can split open when it wet moulded. Once I have got this far and am happy that it looks ok I mark the handle holes and cut them out. Now it's looking more like a bottle, hopefully! Now it's off to the bath. I soak a bottle this size in several changes of hot water for a couple of hours, at least until the leather stops fizzing. Pointless picture of leather fizz…. Once I'm happy the leather is pliable enough it's time for shaping. I used to use sand but found it a bit of a pain really and now use pearl barley. It's still traditional and much easier to remove from the item. Packing the barley take a bit of time and the judicious use of a length of dowel to make sure it takes the shape you are after. It's a fair effort too, a guide being that if you push hard enough to break the dowel then that's too hard! You also need to take care that you don't mark the surface of the leather; any scratches on it now can be a pain to remove later. I've just used a cork to seal the top here and will now let the poor thing rest on some scrap leather till it's dry, weather permitting a couple of days. Any hint of water in the bottle can ruin the wax dipping so it's really worth waiting. It at least looks more like the final shape now. Well it's been 48 hrs and the bottle is near dry so just a few more steps to go in the making. Time for a tidy up of the edges now the leather has settled a bit. There are many methods for smoothing the cut edges but I just use a bone folder and either gum trag or saliva. (if you want to be traditional then spit works really well as the enzymes react with the leather fibres) It's really just a matter of patience and work till you get the level of smoothness you require. I've tried to show here how the bottle edge isn't straight, this is caused by the moulding process and sometimes the leather drying out at differing rates, however this can be corrected after the bottle is wax dipped. After I have the edges and any handle cut outs smoothed off to the degree I want it's time to start adding colour, the process that for me starts to change the whole look of the item. For a period looking bottle I'm going to use three oil dyes. First a coat of mahogany then mid brown ending in a coat of dark brown. These coats are not even so when the bottle is waxed you can see a slight variation and depth of colour. Looking more like the finished bottle now methinks. You need to bear in mind that the wax dipping will change the colour so the whole bottle will be darker when it's finished. Next the waxing…….. Well I guess it's time for the last bits on bottle making. Waterproofing and hardening the bottle. I'm not going into too much on Cuir Bouilli methods of which there appear to be legion, lets just stick with dipping the finished bottle into hot liquid beeswax. Firstly then, get yourself a reasonable amount of wax and a gert great double boiler and let it melt. For a pan of this size (13 litres) it took about 2 ½ hours to melt fully. I usually do this on a propane burner in the workshop but to aid pictures you will have to put up with the kitchen. Always keep a fire blanket to hand chaps, while beeswax melts at a mere 62 degrees and has a flashpoint of something like 254 degrees it will still burn if ignited, think huge candle and the sort of burn injury Ivan the Terrible would classify as 'most amusing' When the wax is melted it's really just a question of immersing the object (turn off any flames) (As you have spent a long time and much effort to get this far I'd recommend trying a test piece first) When the bottle is submerged in the wax any air in the leather is given off and it bubbles, possibly another route for the term boiled leather as opposed to water boiling. You can just see in the above picture the amount of fizz generated by the bottle. I leave the bottle in the wax till the bubbles stop, no real timing as different pieces and different leather thickness will change the immersion time. Once the bubbles have stopped remove the bottle carefully. Although it was fairly rigid from the wet moulding it will now be pliable and a tad hot! Wipe away any excess beeswax while it's still hot, much easier than trying to remove it when it cools and leave the bottle to cool. When the bottle is cool enough to hold but still fairly warm you can turn your attention to coating the inside and the seams. I simply use a funnel and pour some of the liquid wax into the bottle, keep the bottle moving to swill the wax around. After you have built up a goodly coating of wax on the inside of the bottle let it cool off totally before you test it for leaks. Filling it with cold water too early can cause the wax to crack. After it's cooled off I just fill with cold water to test it. If that's all ok then I fill it and leave it full for 24 hours just to be sure. All that's left now is some polishing and fitting of a stopper. I've seen many types of stopper fitted to period bottles, some roughly carved from wood, others more elaborate and made from rolled leather. I've just added a rudimentary wooden one here but may well change that, anyhow, it looks a little different from the flat and undyed shape of earlier. Thanks for taking the time to read this and suffering my rambles. Cheers Mike

Hi, Nope, not tried a plastic bag. The barley is easy enough to get out when it's dry. Some of the flasks require a fair amount of force to mould being in 4mm veg tan, hot and very wet so I would think a plastic bag would rip. The main issue with cuir is the wax dip. You can never really be sure if your work will come out right or looking like crispy bacon

Thanks for the kind comments Ken. Many people do use sand but I find it a real pain to fully remove from the dry flask. I actually use pearl barley which is easier to reuse and much easier to empty out. After I've taken the barley out of the item the few grains that are always left inside are easy to get out with either some coins or a couple of smooth metal balls. The cuir work is dipped and lined with beeswax. Mike