Of shoes
Well, in a bit over 2 weeks the Hordweard project gets judged. AAAHHHH. I'm very nearly finished, but there's going to be a massive effort over the next couple of weeks to get everything done including the documentation. It's probably going to resemble an Honours thesis, but with jokes. And many many pictures of cats.
Tonight I cut my shoes. I've been doing a lot of research into C6 Anglo-Saxon shoes, which is sort of difficult because there aren't any C6 Anglo-Saxon shoes surviving. This lack of shoe actually tells us a lot about Anglo-Saxon leather - because you get Roman shoes from sites that were occupied by early Anglo-Saxons and Romans, but no early Anglo-Saxon shoes. This has led to the very compelling theory that early Anglo-Saxon tanning methods weren't as good as Roman tanning methods. It's known the Romans used vegetable tanning, because they tell us and the traces of the industry have survived. But if the early Anglo-Saxons were vegetable tanning, we'd have a lot more leather than we do. So the theory goes they were using the more primitive and less effective smoke-and-brain tanning. Yep, that's right, bashing animal skins with brains as a preservative. It's also known as "oil tanning" because you can use fish oil or plant oil similarly. It also sounds better.
I'm using a pair of shoes from a Danish bog as my basis. I spent some time feverishly hunting for oil tanned leather but couldn't find any, so I'm using vegetable tanned instead. I made some templates from felt first so I wouldn't go wasting my leather, and now I have to put holes in them with an awl so I can lace them up. But my head's going thumpy-thump, and holding leather and poking it with a very sharp instrument strikes me as being a bit foolish if you have a headache.
I was going to write about my braded cord belt (done), tablet woven belt (not done) and pants (nearly done) but I'm too tired so off to bed.
Tonight I cut my shoes. I've been doing a lot of research into C6 Anglo-Saxon shoes, which is sort of difficult because there aren't any C6 Anglo-Saxon shoes surviving. This lack of shoe actually tells us a lot about Anglo-Saxon leather - because you get Roman shoes from sites that were occupied by early Anglo-Saxons and Romans, but no early Anglo-Saxon shoes. This has led to the very compelling theory that early Anglo-Saxon tanning methods weren't as good as Roman tanning methods. It's known the Romans used vegetable tanning, because they tell us and the traces of the industry have survived. But if the early Anglo-Saxons were vegetable tanning, we'd have a lot more leather than we do. So the theory goes they were using the more primitive and less effective smoke-and-brain tanning. Yep, that's right, bashing animal skins with brains as a preservative. It's also known as "oil tanning" because you can use fish oil or plant oil similarly. It also sounds better.
I'm using a pair of shoes from a Danish bog as my basis. I spent some time feverishly hunting for oil tanned leather but couldn't find any, so I'm using vegetable tanned instead. I made some templates from felt first so I wouldn't go wasting my leather, and now I have to put holes in them with an awl so I can lace them up. But my head's going thumpy-thump, and holding leather and poking it with a very sharp instrument strikes me as being a bit foolish if you have a headache.
I was going to write about my braded cord belt (done), tablet woven belt (not done) and pants (nearly done) but I'm too tired so off to bed.