Braintan moccassins - prepping for WSS Hunter Gatherer Course - part 1 of 4

Mr Cake

Forager
Jun 20, 2005
119
5
my house
I’d been considering signing up to the following course from Wilderness Survival Skills as I thought it looked interesting and a bit out of the ordinary

http://www.wilderness-survival.co.uk/the-hunter-gatherer/

Part of what made the course a little different was that before attending the course there was a requirement to show

at least four examples of personal craftsmanship - to include something you have carved from green wood, sewn from your own handmade buckskin, knapped from flint and woven from plant fibres.

In itself this wasn’t going to be a major problem as I had some items I’d made earlier. I currently didn’t have anything made of buckskin but I did have a brain tanned deer hide which I had made previously and it wouldn’t be too much of a strain to make a simple tinder pouch or something similar.

As part of my decision making process as to whether I would attend I had read the course description and the following line had particularly caught my attention:

You may also bring...
· The clothes you stand up in. These must be natural fibres only.

I therefore emailed Joe to get a bit more detail on what kit I could bring along to the course and more specifically what the above phrase actually meant especially in relation to footwear. As I suspected for practicality sake the rule on natural fibres only was relaxed for footwear which was an immediate relief.

But then I got thinking…why not make my own shoes from natural materials and more specifically buckskin. I’d have my example of buckskin craft and would have learnt something new. And of course if the project went horribly wrong I could always make a tinder pouch and still fulfil the criteria. More broadly the course rules don’t allow the use of metal tools so any crafting on the course would have to be done with natural materials.

By completing the four projects using flint tools as much as possible I’d get some valuable pre-course training in. I didn’t get to use natural materials much as tools for the moccs though, as due to the bad weather I had to do all the cutting indoors and my wife understandably didn’t want me using the floor or our dining table as a cutting board.

Like so many of my plans this one might have got no further than a great intention, some research on the internet and then my attention switching to the next interesting project and the whole sorry process starting over again. This project however was going to be different; I already had done all the planning to make buckskin moccasins and had actually made an abortive start some time ago.

To be perfectly honest I’m not as manly as I perhaps ought to be at times, and family holidays at the seaside have often been much enlivened by my pathetic hobbling and whining whenever I had to walk with bare feet on anything other than a perfect sandy beach. Therefore my moccasins were going to have to have a hard sole or at the very least some cushioning within.

The original plan had been to make foot cloths from a wool blanket with outer moccasins made of buckskin. The sole area of the buckskin outer was fairly thick and rigid offering some protection and the blanket inners would provide some cushioning. As I said above the project had faltered and I’d got no further than roughing out inner cloths and making a single basic side seam style moccasin outer.

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Since the time of the original project I’d become the proud owner of an old sheepskin jacket from a charity shop. I decided to make the inners from this. I decided to make the inners as moccasins also so that would give me the advantage of being able to wear them separately as slippers around the house. The obvious disadvantage would be that I would be trying to make an inner to fit inside the already existing outer. Oh well I like a challenge.

There are many different styles of moccasins and often more than one pattern for making any particular style so it would be a brave or foolhardy person who would expect to make well fitting moccasins on his first attempt. It’d be more reasonable to expect to make a serviceable pair of moccasins on my first go then using the same pattern with a few alterations drawn from experience to make a second better fitted pair. Me …well I made the inner moccs in one style and the outer moccs in another. Why? I wanted to have a go at two different styles and at the time I only had one sheepskin coat and one buckskin hide.

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The inner moccasins I made in a pucker toe style with a vamp. Because the panels of the sheepskin jacket were quite small and I’ve got large feet I wasn’t able to make them with much material going up the ankle and so had to use part of the yoke to cover the ankle. Sewing sheepskin was quite easy except for an unfortunate tendency for wool fibres to get caught up in the stitches. If and when I make another pair I’d definitely trim the wool short around the edge of each piece before beginning sewing.

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As slippers they were great – very comfortable and warm. I was very pleased (and relieved) to find my first inner fitted inside the outer moccasin I’d made previously though admittedly after quite a bit of prodding and poking of the sheepskin mocc to ensure it fitted inside the outer without creases or wrinkles. The opening of the outer moccasin was also a little narrow so I made the opening larger on the second one.

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The differing styles did not make a huge difference though the amount of faffing around to smooth out any creases on the inners would have probably been less if the inners had been a side seam style also.

Sewing the outer moccs was significantly more of a trial than sewing the inner moccs. Firstly making the buckskin had involved considerable work and so I didn’t want to have cut it up to no useful purpose. Since it was the first and only brain tan buckskin I’d ever made at that point it was a bit hard in places which meant that sewing it up necessitated using an awl to make a hole for the needle and then at times a pair of pliers to pull the needle through.

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The heel tabs were the worst part and the stitching would have been better had this area not been such a chore to complete (more patience on my part would have helped too of course).

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Finally I had both sets of moccasins completed and the wider opening of the second buckskin moccasin made putting the boots on as well as getting the inner in position considerably easier. I’ve been wearing them only around the house so far and they seem to fit OK if just a trifle snug. I haven’t attached the buckskin thongs yet as I want to be sure where I want them before committing myself; instead I’ve simply been tying them around the uppers.

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So what did I learn?

- never make your outer moccasins before you make your inners as it would have avoided a lot of worry and measuring to have made the inners and then made the pattern for the outers based on them. I got lucky this time but I might not have.
- the tongues on the outer moccasin should have been wider (the measurements given in the pattern were wrong). I could stitch them at their bases to the ankle part but it might make the opening too narrow again. Time will tell on this one.
- to have made both pairs in side seam style would have been easier; sewing the pucker on the sheepskin mocc was a bit of a trial too.

Will I wear them on the course? Yes I think I will though I will most likely ‘waterproof’ them with beeswax and animal fat first. They might be rather hot to wear but I can always wear a modern pair of trainers instead if they’re not suitable for any reason.

As an extra bonus I was able to use some of the off cuts to make the tinder pouch that had been my fallback item if the main project had been a bust. Again it’ll need waterproofing and so will serve as a practice piece for doing that. The eagle eyed amongst you will notice I’ve cheated and used chamois for the thong; the reason being I’m intending to alter the method of closure and didn’t want to waste any braintan on a thong I was going to remove at a later date.

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At the same time as doing the above I worked on the other three projects – green woodworking, knapped flint, and woven natural fibres - and I’ll report on them in future threads.

Having made my ‘winter warmers’ as I like to think of them I’ve now got a yen to make some more footwear. I’ve got a definite hankering after making a pair of Otzi the Iceman boots – anyone got any bear skin they’d be willing to part with?
 
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Coming back to this after a bit of thought i have a couple of questions
i saw an article involving this sort of moccasin being made ( it could well of been written by Mr O'Leary)
he applied some sort of liquid rubber onto the sole to add grip is this something you plan to do or does that take it away from the natural fibres kit rule?
do you think using the moccasins will be comfortable/practical in the UK's wondrous and varying weather?

also what else ya making? look forward to your other posts regarding this course
 

Mr Cake

Forager
Jun 20, 2005
119
5
my house
I won't be gluing anything to the bottom of my moccasins although that wouldn't break any rules. As a consequence of not doing so I may well be slipping over and landing on my *rse every five minutes in which case I'll be changing into something more modern which would be a shame but I've reached the age where I don't bounce as well as I used to. I have an idea to create grip using natural materials but I want to try it out before I go telling others about it.

All being well I'll be out in the woods next weekend trialling the moccs so I'll be interested to see how they get on.

I'm sure my feet are going to end up somewhat damp even after I've 'waterproofed' the moccasins. Fortunately I can remove the inners to dry them out. If I get time I'm going to make some extra inners from a blanket so I can have one set drying whilst wearing another.

They may turn out to be a disaster but I won't be too disappointed if they do. I enjoyed making them and I'm sure my next footwear project will be better as a result of learning from the mistakes I made doing this one.

Next project is going from hazel sapling to finished knife using only stone tools (oh and some cordage of course).
 

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