Making an Iron Age Leatherwork kit
- Thread starter Tengu
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I have been sorting through my kit and have found some useful things.
Such as a wooden box I will carve with a Celtic design.
And am making a list. Ive also got some bone for winders and (I hope) needles.
A deer leg bone for a needle case, and some cow sinews.
But what would I need for edge cote?
And a beeswax mix...I have wax and linseed oil...I assume I can make my own. what proportion would it be?
An what would I use as a bain marie for my beeswax? I have a brass jam pan. I could always find a bigger pan to put it in.
Such as a wooden box I will carve with a Celtic design.
And am making a list. Ive also got some bone for winders and (I hope) needles.
A deer leg bone for a needle case, and some cow sinews.
But what would I need for edge cote?
And a beeswax mix...I have wax and linseed oil...I assume I can make my own. what proportion would it be?
An what would I use as a bain marie for my beeswax? I have a brass jam pan. I could always find a bigger pan to put it in.
Reverse-engineer this. What leather goods do you need to have?
1. foot-ware. You don't need to be immobilized by injury and infection.
2. hand-ware for protection to work with stone, bone and iron.
3. pouches and bags to organize valuable kit (butchering kit, foraging tools.
I'd need a shelter to work out of the wind and the rain. Now, who am I going to find to smelt the iron and what might I have to barter with? Food?
1. foot-ware. You don't need to be immobilized by injury and infection.
2. hand-ware for protection to work with stone, bone and iron.
3. pouches and bags to organize valuable kit (butchering kit, foraging tools.
I'd need a shelter to work out of the wind and the rain. Now, who am I going to find to smelt the iron and what might I have to barter with? Food?
Would it not be a cutting edge and needles.
You would have to do a lot of research on what they did and how they did.
You would have to do a lot of research on what they did and how they did.
You need the tools for the things you intend to make.
Needles are more a cloth thing, though the bone/antler needles could be used for sewing thonging rather than thread (or sinew). Boar's bristles are the most common leather sewing tool later and i suspect in the IA too.
Knife. A small sharp knife and/or a head knife have been aroind since the 1st century at least in the uk
Beeswax is used to seal and burnish edges, but to be honest the bevelling and dressing of edges on leather is something that only starts appearing a couple of hundred years ago. You don't need a banmarie to melt it, just a small pot or ladle and care near the heat source. Unless you are dipping drinking vessels, you can spoon liquid wax over the item (as i have been earlier this week)
Dye can be oak galls, blood, vinegroon or just left fleshy to darken on it's own
Hole punch. The romans especially liked punched decoration as well as the utilitarian round lacing holes.
Awl. Certainly round and square holes are seen, diamond holes are likely since they dominate much of known leatherworking history but i don't know of IA examples
Needles are more a cloth thing, though the bone/antler needles could be used for sewing thonging rather than thread (or sinew). Boar's bristles are the most common leather sewing tool later and i suspect in the IA too.
Knife. A small sharp knife and/or a head knife have been aroind since the 1st century at least in the uk
Beeswax is used to seal and burnish edges, but to be honest the bevelling and dressing of edges on leather is something that only starts appearing a couple of hundred years ago. You don't need a banmarie to melt it, just a small pot or ladle and care near the heat source. Unless you are dipping drinking vessels, you can spoon liquid wax over the item (as i have been earlier this week)
Dye can be oak galls, blood, vinegroon or just left fleshy to darken on it's own
Hole punch. The romans especially liked punched decoration as well as the utilitarian round lacing holes.
Awl. Certainly round and square holes are seen, diamond holes are likely since they dominate much of known leatherworking history but i don't know of IA examples
That is why I wondered about needles as that the point of the awl to make the hole. The big problem would be what did they use before iron/metal as it may not have survived and I bet there is not a lot of examples of the work to look at either.
If you can make a bone needle surely a bone awl is not to much of a stretch?
A flint edge should cut leather considering how it has cut my bike tyres and fingers
Depending on where you are the Iron age is before the Romans or it is divided before them and after them. They were master craftsmen.
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