Leather In Scottish History

[budd4766]

Thanks! I'll check that out for sure!

donnie

[Nighthawk]

One thing I'm surprised I haven't seen in this thread is mention of the targe.

They were usually just just leather stretched over wood and secured with nails, but they often were very intricate with tooling.

[JJLeatherworks]

Well, I live in the nice part, by the Marina lol. We tell people we live in Richmond and they look at us funny, and then we say "the nice part" and they ask ",...it has a nice part?" ^^.;

I've been to Pier 39, I didn't see a leather shop! Sad. but maybe it found a new home!! What's a Kepi?

I still haven't been to the Jelly Belly factory, I might go in March. As for Busch... blech. Don't/can't drink lol. (allergies! whoooo!) Thank you for the awesome ideas!! :-D

I like it here, to be honest...all of my family is from California. I live with my mom (she's the one with the job). I pretty much ignore politics. I'm not much for them... too much posturing, too little truth. I actually think that my issue with it was back when I lived in Illinois and our rep was Dennis Hastert, the then-speaker of the house, and when we asked him to sign something to help juvenile diabetes, he refused because of some stupid political thing... like it can look bad to help sick kids?! Ugh.

Sorry for the rambling lol...

The only leather shop in S.F. I know of any more is off Folsom. Thats if your into the kinky stuff. As for Fairfield do the Jelly Belly thing. Thompson candy and Guittard chocolate are around the corner. Just don't hang around town too long. It went ghetto from all the hilltop mall gangs. Thank the Lord I got out of California. Good luck to anybody who is hanging on out there.

[scottishshoemaker]

Old scots word for shoemaker was a snab or snob if your english, he got the pick of the good leather and the cobblers got the what was left,this is where the expression comes from if someone is called a snob. Kilmarnock in Scotland was the biggest shoemaking city in its day. Apart from shoes,scabbards,sword belts and targes I think it would be like any country if there where coo's in a field.

[budd4766]

Luke,

I'm thinking gillies might be too much on top of the kilt belt, sporran/straps I'm already making. And, I'll use the belt and sporran stuff, not sure I'd wear gillies after this is over with..

But, I could take some upholstery leather and make some of these, perhaps:

[Luke Hatley]

Luke,

I'm thinking gillies might be too much on top of the kilt belt, sporran/straps I'm already making. And, I'll use the belt and sporran stuff, not sure I'd wear gillies after this is over with..

But, I could take some upholstery leather and make some of these, perhaps:

Hopefully you will impress the Clan with embossed lines on the straps...But i beleive the Gillies will be the right way to go Iff'in you or they are wearing a Kilt.LOL....

missed you today.........

[druid]

Just read this post.

Bagpipes - the bag's made from sheepskin (okay, they do nice goretex ones now that you don't need to 'season') but the purists still like the original leather ones as they can muck about with treacle and stuff to keep them airtight. And the valve on the blowpipe was leather (platic and rubber now but I still use a leather one - just something else you can use offcuts for).

HEY HEY! I'm one of those "purists"! :D ...lol. I HATE the Goretex and my Pipe Major is forever on my tail about getting one. As a retired grade II Piper, I still use to this day, an L&M Elk Skin bag [large]. They just "feel better" because they have substance...not like the Hefty Hefty cinch sacks...uh...I mean...goretex. In fact, my L&M is 21 years old and in that time, my Pipe Major has replaced his Goretex bag FOUR TIMES....

...I also prefer my cane drone reeds to the plastic ones..although...for competition, you try to sound as "one" as much as possible...

All the different sorts of sporrans with various dead animals on the front (badger, deer, otter, seal, horsehair and so on - until CITES made some of that difficult).

Just a few random thoughts.

Gary

One thing I'm surprised I haven't seen in this thread is mention of the targe.

They were usually just just leather stretched over wood and secured with nails, but they often were very intricate with tooling.

I was in fact, going to post that ^^ ...lol.

Also, a coat of plates as armor:

and these Ghillies seem more historically correct than those posted:

[Nighthawk]

I was in fact, going to post that ^^ ...lol.

Well then, I thought I might just throw this into the mix...

I made this targe to go with my Renaissance festival costuming! It's not exactly historically accurate because of the color, but it certainly works:

Beanie baby wars!!

The leather I used on this was junk. It sat in a friend's basement for like 3 years. I spent several trying to soften and restore it. I oiled it, I cased it... and it still cracked when I unrolled it! Still it came out fairly nice for what I had to work with. So this is a thought on the historical side of things. Leather mugs were also common:

Here's a link to some good information on the history of leather drinking vessels, too. http://www.hidebound.co.uk/history.htm

[budd4766]

The speech went off quite well the other night. I made my own sporran, straps, and kilt belt:

I talked about that coat, (which is actually called a "jack"), being a leather or canvas coat with metal plates riveted in...they'd also hang chains from the bottom to help protect their legs from sword slashes. Armor, at least as we envision it from T.V., would have been a rare sight in ancient Scotland. The terrain and tactics of the highlanders required them to be more mobile...and plate armor just wouldn't cut it for them.

I talked about how the Scots were known for being frugal....and that any people who would come up with haggis, knew how to get the most out of the animals they slaughtered...

I took a piece of cowhide and did a demonstration of how they would make ghillies. The picture I posted previously is pretty historically accurate, as they wouldn't worry with tanning the hide they used for these "shoes", but would wrap it around their feet....fresh off the animal, and strap it on.

They'd wear these until they fell off, or they killed another animal. The highlanders weren't very worried about fashion as much as they were about functionality. Life for a highlander was so hard, only the clan chiefs could afford to worry about being pretty.

All in all, I think they were duly impressed. Got a lot of good comments afterward, so I was happy.

Thanks to all for the help!

Donnie

[Nighthawk]

The speech went off quite well the other night. I made my own sporran, straps, and kilt belt:

I talked about that coat, (which is actually called a "jack"), being a leather or canvas coat with metal plates riveted in...they'd also hang chains from the bottom to help protect their legs from sword slashes. Armor, at least as we envision it from T.V., would have been a rare sight in ancient Scotland. The terrain and tactics of the highlanders required them to be more mobile...and plate armor just wouldn't cut it for them.

I talked about how the Scots were known for being frugal....and that any people who would come up with haggis, knew how to get the most out of the animals they slaughtered...

I took a piece of cowhide and did a demonstration of how they would make ghillies. The picture I posted previously is pretty historically accurate, as they wouldn't worry with tanning the hide they used for these "shoes", but would wrap it around their feet....fresh off the animal, and strap it on.

They'd wear these until they fell off, or they killed another animal. The highlanders weren't very worried about fashion as much as they were about functionality. Life for a highlander was so hard, only the clan chiefs could afford to worry about being pretty.

All in all, I think they were duly impressed. Got a lot of good comments afterward, so I was happy.

Thanks to all for the help!

Donnie

Wow!! I love the color of the sporran!! Guess I came in on this a little late, though! Glad it went off well.