Alum tawed leather for reenactment

[3ntin]

Good evening ladies and gentlemen, I hope you can help me.

I'm in the process of making some medieval sword scabbards, and I need to make the belts that go with them (XIII Century). As far as I got from my research, my best bet is using white (or off-white) alum tawed leather, which should be strong enough to carry the weight of a sword, and supple enough to allow fastening the belt with a knot, which was the style at the time.

But, I'm finding it very difficult to get such leather here in Europe. Do you know any manufacturers?

If alum tawed leather is not an option, another way would be using some more modern but same looking leather. Is chrome tanned similar to alum tawed leather in appearance? What about latigo (which, as I understand, is double tanned - and it was made with alum tanned hides in the old days)?

[chuck123wapati]

veg tanning is just as old as alum tanning, so why not use veg-tanned leather?

https://www.sustainableyakleather.eu/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Vegetable-Tanning-Part-2.-History_.pdf

[Beehive]

I don't know of anywhere you could buy it but it's easy to do. I've Alum tanned a few whitetail deer hides. It's quite stiff and needs to be worked for any kind of softness. Makes excellent deer skin rugs. 

I used a recipe from the book, "Back To Basics by Editors of Reader's Digest". Purchased the Alum from a local pharmacy. Tanned using a plastic trash can. 

The tanned flesh almost looks like rawhide except it's a brighter white. Almost as stiff rawhide when it's dried. 

 

I hope this helps.