Of shoes

[dream_wind]

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

Comments

[dream_wind]

Over the past month, I have been reading *a lot* about various methods of tanning and tawing leather, to the point where I could probably have a go at it if I wasn't worried about the smell. And the *ick* of massaging brain into leather.

There's another, primitive form of tanning using oil that actually reacts reasonably similarly to the brain enzymes, using olive oil, that was first used in the Mediterranean area. There's actually some good preservation of it from the Levant area and Egypt. It tends to get lumped in with the smoke and brain tanning because of its primitiveness. I hunted all around the world, but in the end the cost of getting the leather here, for something I probably won't use much, was going to be stupid. Not to mention the hassles I probably would have had with Customs.

So I'm using some vegetable tanned leather. I was quite amazed at how easy it was to work with. The shoes are going to be laced together with leather thongs rather than stitched. Hopefully that should happen by the end of the weekend, along with finishing off my pants.

[virginiadear]

I'm not saying they're not similar or even very closely similar: I'm only saying they're not the same and if scientific accuracy counts for anything (and with me it does), then the two methods ought not be equated.

I'd had some vague ambitions to try my hand at tanning, but there is that issue of smell, for one thing, and pit/oak tanning requires both a pit and time and I doubt my neighbors would be so tolerant, if not forgiving, for so long: someone would be bound to complain in a densely-built and densely-populated urban environment like mine.

I'm hoping you'll share images of all the items in this project once they're all completed. :-)

[dream_wind]

My neighbours complained when I smoked fish once. I don't know what they'd think if I started smoking skins and massaging them with brains... and I don't have enough yard to dig a big enough pit to try oak tanning.

[virginiadear]

I think I have a fairly good idea what my neighbors, especially the people behind me, would suspect if I dug a pit from which soon after the digging emanated vile odors. And I've a fairly good idea they'd involve the police in short order and that I'd be standing before some judge on a violation of sanitation laws charge (smells like garbage/rotting, attracts vermin.)