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Linen is long staple; it doesn't swell up the way cotton does. Cotton is a short (think about an inch and that's good, linen is over handspans) staple and it's thirsty. Linen breathes while cotton absorbs is a fair enough way to look at it. Personally I prefer linen, but, for tarps and the...

Forty years ago we found the end of a trawl net on the beach. We bagged it up and brought it home to use in the garden. I pinned it up onto the fence and used it to grow climbers, etc., We stripped off the fence last month, and that old trawl net, made of plastic, is still absolutely sound...

Well no, not ecologically.....but humanity needs clothes, and out of all the fabrics....cotton's thirsty, but it clothes a heck of a lot of the world. Truthfully hemp is much better. It grows here, doesn't need so much water or pesticides or fertilizers, but...it needs different machinery...

Waxed cotton makes an okay tarp. You have to be careful about the folds, and rewax as necessary, but it works well. Thing is, good waxed cotton is cotton, and that will swell when it's damp....ventile is the classic example....so even if it's not pristine, so long as you don't go too long...

You confused me. A purse is the wee thing I keep money in, not my bag..... That bag looks a handy size though; bread bags get a good rep too.

I'm an archaeologist....but my degree is from the faculty of science :D Quartz is silicon dioxide, most sand is quartz, not all, but in some areas it most certainly is. Heat and compress it, and you get a fused material. There are analogies with heating clay and it fusing into ceramics...

Sand is mostly quartz, silicon dioxide, it's hard, resists wearing, etc., Faience, as in pieces, not as a glaze, was made by heat and pressure and the resultant blob pressed into a mould to make the desired shape. It's is 'glass', and over time that was developed and the artisans added in other...

https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/objects/co43150/horn-lantern-candle-lantern This one's made of iron, but I know of reenactors who make wooden ones, and they claim they have provenance for them.

You asked about rudimentary glass, so that's faience. Glass as in transparent (mind opaque can let through a lot of light, old lanterns were made with fine slices of horn) then it's Mesopotamia about 4,000 years ago, made from sand, soda and lime, iirc. Glass as in window panes.....well it's...

Glass is basically melted sand. Well, it was. Sintered, melted together with heat and pressure, but not liquidised. So, faience, the original faience, being non clay based, and usually quartz sand, is kind of the first glass, the precursor, and the first step in moulding, etc., that led to the...

Faience is now really two things. Originally it's non clay ceramic....mostly quartz/ sand, so the first glass. Later on the name is used for tin glazed ceramics. If you look up Faience and bear in mind that you're looking for the earlier meaning, there's a lot online, not just in academic...

If it's tight it'll be fine, but for a brand new, and I presume happily anticipated new tool, I'd have been roundly dischuffed to receive one that looked like that. I call that an end of shift special...couldnae be bothered to do it 'right', even if technically it'll do the job.

You might truffle oil and see if he gets the notion ?

@Chris Nice one :D A quiet note on Youtube though; I am very deaf and the subtitles are a blessing. Can you switch them on for your video please ? M

I think the issue is not just that it's "Aluminium!!".....and I agree that that health concern has mostly been debunked......but that people use such bottles for more than just water. Fruit juice for instance is acidic, and it does affect metal and some leaches into the liquid. Tiny, tiny...

Those bottles are usually lined with something that makes them safe to drink from. It does not always do well with stuff like meths. Fine for a short trip, but not for storing fuel for any length of time. What they are good for is as hot water bottles :) Seriously fill with hot water and then...

Do you have a piece of antler ? If you have you can score it in such a way that you can break out a narrow triangular shaped length (metal leatherworking needles are still triangular shaped at the tips :) ) and go from there. It's easier working at least the start of the eye in while there's...

There's a twin 'spike' sort of nasal bone in cattle that makes a very good lucet for making cords :)

@Forest fella Nice range there :D I hated the smell from the sanding when making them. My Tom cat loved it though :rolleyes2: A squirrels front tooth works very well to cut in the eye.

I'm a good vegetarian, and even I think John Seymour had the right of it with these. Roasted veg is always tasty, but like Chicken of the Woods, oh the wind ! the wind is sore. Each to their own, but there are a lot of root vegetable to try :) I'm going to give Skirrets a go :)...