RuehlLeatherWorks

You could make leg wraps the way I did; 2 yards of scrap canvass. Sure, they're not period cloth, but when they're being used for that purpose, it doesn't really matter, you know? It's a basic costume. I know it's Texas and all, but it's odd seeing a viking costume without a cloak!

I'm not sure what to suggest for preventing sliding. I've always worn them over a medieval style shirt and most people I know wear them over a padded gambeson.... So in short. I don't know. Another thing you could do is to attach an elbow cop and rerebrace and affix those to spalders which you can anchor to your arming shirt! ...of course then you'd need an arming shirt, rerebrace, elbow cop, and spalders.

Very nice! On my bracers, I use grommets to reinforce the holes, making lacing a bit easier. I also tie it with deerhide thong, and have the lace double back on itself at either end. Antique Brass grommets are wonderful as accents too! http://www.grannd.com/Merchant2/merchant.m...teners-grommets

Yeah, they almost look like a combination bazuband / vambrace.

They look great for his first attempt! If he's looking to make more armor, I suggest this site: http://www.armourarchive.org/patterns/ I can answer your question, twofour878: no, vikings did not wear horned helmets and very rarely wore furs. For the most part they had wool for their garments. Fur would be more of an accessory, so you wouldn't see a boatload of guys looking like Conan. (Well, I guess it depends on your vision of Conan really...) In the thread for Cal's hat, I posted a pic of my viking gear. It doesn't look like a 'viking' but it's based on historic accounts and archaeological findings.

My new Mead Horn! :D

This pouch is now for sale on eBay http://cgi.ebay.com/Medieval-Style-Leather...%3A1|240%3A1318

Here's the pix of the back stitching. Sorry it took so long to post!

For anyone interested, these are on eBay right now and going for a very good price. http://cgi.ebay.com/Cuirbolli-Leather-Vamb...A1%7C240%3A1318

Still think I look like Link?

10 oz leather body, 5 oz leather gusset and straps. Dyed with light brown and ox blood Fiebings. Three brass rivets hold the strap on to the body.

Here's the finished hat!

I made this hat out of wool (Grey body with a dark green edging) and it turned out great! I'll have to post pics of the whole kit after Halloween!

Wax hardening for Cuir Bolli is as much a guess as anything else. I've read many pieces on this concept (Especially Cariadoc's Miscellany) and I've got these conclusions: 1) As Cariadoc mentions, wax is a lubricant. To fully harden the piece with wax would really only prevent damage from bludgeoning force. Blades and Points slide right through (I've also test this bit....it's quite right) 2) Cuir Bolli is a technique that is very old. To wax harden pieces into armor in, say, the Bronze age, you would have to harvest a LOT of naturally occuring hives. Wax is far more plentiful today. Everyone had access to water, though not everyone could get a sufficient quantity of wax. 3) I've found that the water-hardened leather is actually more durable than the wax hardened. I've water hardened small pieces to test and whacked away at them with axes. They suffer a bit of a dent, but remain pretty much intact. That said, the impact would certainly have broken some bones, but would have prevented massive injury none the less. The only thing I've run into is that I have to coat the outside of formed surfaces with mink oil to prevent cracking. That said, it makes for a very nice shine as well! :D

10 oz. Veg tanned leather, water hardened. I found out that it's a BAD idea to attempt to water harden stuff that's been pre-dyed with alcohol based dyes since the alcohol affects the temperature at which you need to harden stuff.

I do have some pics of that, but I'll have to wait until I get back to my own computer to upload them. I can tell you that on the back I did a double needle "X" stitch on the inside so the outside looks like simple bars of stitching going across the seam.

Looks good. I was going to say that it looks a lot like the Birka pouches, but someone beat me to it!

6 oz leather, hand tooled, dyed, and then sealed with beeswax.

They're great when you call as well. They're willing to match things for you and get something in the shape/description you need or at least close to it. I had them send me a matched pair of turtle shells for dual rattles at one point.

I second that site! Moscow Hide and Fur is a great place.

Is there a specific date or location attached to those bags?

I've made plains style hard sole mocs (Not my favorite) and some nice center-seam woodland style mocs. The center seam ones turned out very nicely and once the bottom wore through, I cut the sides off and made a hardened sole for them out of tooling leather. http://www.nativetech.org/clothing/moccasin/mocinstr.html This pattern is pretty close to the one I used, though I did set it up using both feet next to each other. I simply placed on foot down, measured out about half an inch from the send toe, out (Forward) and then drew two arches going to either side. This way you don't end up treading on the seam. I also made the side flaps a separate piece since you can bead and decorate them easily if they are removable. These fit great and once you have a good pattern, you can make hard sole mocs easily without using too much of the soft leather (Of course you'd need veg tan leather for the soles).

I'm surprised to see this many people from WV on here! I'm from Monongalia County, myself!

I tend to get a lot of my materials from here: Hide and Fur

For the heavier set girl (Considering she wants to have it look more like armor) perhaps you could recommend basing hers on Roman Musculata instead? Of course it would almost HAVE to be from veg tan, but it would probably be more complimentary for what she's looking for.