This is what one looks like all sewn up and filled up. I use a saddle stitch because I like it but there are other options if you want to hide stitching. I will do up the cap and lanyard tonight. The real ones just stitch up a few leg and butt holes and are done with it. My fake ones just try to copy the general shape a bit; enough to make it presentable for reenactor people.
I put loops in all four corners so it can be hanged on a tree or pretty much anything...
This is what the traditional goatskin water bags look like...
I am not interested in giving any of my customers any sickness or disease so I make it look presentable and use the modern liner. In daily use scenarios the old way obviously worked well enough over the centuries but modern humans do like their quality water without getting some pooping sickness.
There is a temptation to make this sort of stuff out of tooling leather and "bling" the hell out of it with carvings. Once you do that, people will not actually use it and toss it in lakes or even get it wet. They hang it up as a status display and tell stories. This is the main reason that I use blacksmith sides for leather and leave it pretty rough. That is not to say you can beat the hell out of it or anything as it is mostly plastic, but for how my customers use them it works fine.
I will frequently take just a few coffee bags on canoe trips on salt water. If I puncture one (duct tape) and ruin it, well it got a little bit more use than it otherwise would have given that it was designed to be a one use throw away item. They are pretty solid though and treated well last quite a while. I have never actually used a leather covered one in the field but they are a decent base camp rig I guess for people that like that sort of thing. A little easier on the eyes for a guy pretending to be a viking than a big blue water jug.
gutted.
