Next Projects…?

* Belt - this should be straightforward and quick if I can get to the harness shop for strap blanks and decide on a buckle to order.

The thickness you want is known as 4-5 oz.  Make sure you ask to ensure this is what you are getting.  Anything thicker than that will be too thick and uncomfortable.

Gus

It depends, as usual, on what you want to do with it.

I prefer a thicker belt (7-9 oz). Here's why:

If you use your belt as an anchor point to tie off the tops of your leggings, as I do, a thinner belt will eventually curl under the strain.

If you wear a "belly box," (and are not stuck with a British issued thin belt) the box is infamous for flipping over when you maneuver through the woods. A thicker belt is less apt to twist and thus resists this tendancy.

Absolutely. Great point. After the day I had yesterday, I can’t point my foot nearly enough to get into socks, let alone tight leggings. 

I wasn't thinking about you wearing leggings - only the suit of clothes you have often mentioned and what you intend to carry on it.  So, I bow to Paranger and Hawkeyes on their experience with leggings.  You can use the leather "breaking in" technique I mentioned earlier to make it feel well worn right off the bat, though.

Gus

Belts - I stopped in the harness shop today. They didn’t have blanks cut, but entire belts with buckles that they make in house were $15-$18. One type with saddle stitched edges was a spendy $20. I asked and they’ll basically cut me whatever I want for cheap. 

Which raises the question on leather type. We touched on buckles in the other thread, and leather weight here. How about appropriate leather? They have a variety of what I imagine is chrome and oil tan… even latigo. What were belts and other strap leather goods typically made from? Oil ‘stufft’? Better to stay with veg tan? 

If I get pricing, I’d be glad to do a bulk order for anyone here that wants. 

I got over halfway through this reply and then lost the typing when a new screen page came up, so here we go again.


TANNING

Until the invention of chrome tanning in the second half of the nineteenth century, little change had taken place in the three basic tanning methods for at least two thousand years. The most widely practiced method [in the 18th century] involved the use of vegetable tannins. Occidental tanners employed oak bark, gallnuts, and sumac leaves among their chief sources; other plants rich in tannins are found in every continent. 

Today, this tanning process is commonly known as “Vegetable Tanned” or “Veg Tanned” or "Bark Tanned" or “Veg-Tan” from Tandy and is the correct HCPC tanning process for our time period and for most of our uses of leather. What can get confusing is Tandy and some other leather suppliers use their own Trade Names like “Oak Tanned” for Tandy and “Bark Tanned” by other suppliers, to describe their leather tanned by this process. This to make folks think they have a special kind of Veg Tanned leather, which it actually is not.

Period Commercial Tanneries used Veg Tanning as well as in the “small tanning vats” that Doddridge talks about as common to most homes on the frontier.

OK, once the leather was tanned, the next step done to it was known as Currying in the 18th century.

CURRYING

Currying—whatever it may have meant to Homer (or to Alexander Pope)—is not a method of preparing hides and skins from fresh-slaughtered animals, but a complex of processes for treating leather already tanned. These processes include smoothing the leather, paring it down to even thickness overall, especially working fatty matter into it for pliancy and water resistance, and giving it whatever surface dressing, color, and finish its intended use calls for. Prominent among such uses in the eighteenth century were shoe uppers, harness and saddlery, upholstery, trunkmaking, and bookbinding.

During the currying process in the 18th century; leather that would be used primarily outdoors was stained the desired color and had oil, grease and/or waxes worked into it to better stand up to the sun, rain and snow. They referred to this as “Stufft” or “Stuffd” leather. So leather that was to be used for bridles, saddles and horse tack in general; was generally “Stufft,” as they called it. They could also order the leather stained and “pared down” thinner for boots and Shot Pouches to be “Stufft” at the tannery or do it themselves.

What they called “Stuft” or “Stuffd” leather is generally referred to as “Oil Tanned” or “Oil Tan” today. This can be confusing because it doesn’t mean the leather was tanned with oil, but has oil and/or waxes worked into it after it was tanned. Normally you get this kind of leather already stained/dyed, because it can’t be stained well after it is “Stuft.”

Examples of HCPC Vegetable Tanned Leather can be found in the link below:

tandyleather.com/collections/leather/Tannage_Veg-Tan?page=1&grid_list=grid-view

We also have leather today that is generally called “Latigo” leather, a descriptive term I have not found documentation for in our period (at least yet), but it would still fall under the "Stufft" description. The best quality of this kind of leather is Vegetable Tanned and is also HCPC. It is sometimes described as below:

The defining characteristic of Latigo leather is that it is heavily stuffed with oils and waxes, far more than harness or bridle leathers are. While harness and bridle leather does get modestly oil-stuffed, it's more for texture than anything else; Latigo gets fully permeated.

nicksboots.com/blog/post/what-is-latigo-leather/


The PROBLEM for we folks who want to make or have HCPC leather goods made is that around 90% of all leathers today are tanned in a chromium tanning bath or “Chrome Tanned.” This process wasn’t worked out until the end of the 19th century and wasn’t patented until 1910. It is a much cheaper, easier and faster method of tanning to tan huge quantities of leather compared to vegetable tanning, but it ain’t HCPC.

Also, modern Oil Tan leathers can originally be either Veg Tanned or Chrome Tanned. Retailers don’t always advertise which method their Oil Tanned leathers were originally tanned, so you have to ask how it was tanned. If they aren’t sure or don’t know, their leather most likely is Chrome Tanned for a lower cost.

Is there a way to tell if leather was Chrome Tanned, just by looking at it? Well, sometimes, but not always. If there is a bluish cast on the edges of the leather, then it definitely is Chrome Tanned. However, if the leather is Vat dyed with darker colored dyes/stains it can be difficult to almost impossible to tell.

Is Veg or Bark tanning better than Chrome Tanning? YES and even those in the Chrome Tanning industry will tell you that, but sometimes you have to back them against a wall to admit it. For example, the finest leather shoes, belts and bags are still made with Vegetable Tanned leather today. Is Chrome Tanned leather “good enough” for our use? Normally yes it is, as we don’t use the items near as much on a continual basis as they did in the period.


Generally speaking professional leather workers and those who make the best period repro leather items, will mostly or only use Vegetable Tanned leather for their work. FWIW and in my opinion only, after I learned these things, I will only use Vegetable Tanned leather for things I’ve made or will make. The cost of Vegetable Tanned leather isn’t that much more, though it can be more difficult to find at times.

Some, but not all period documentation on leather can be found here:

www.gutenberg.org/files/58293/58293-h/58293-h.htm

Finally, for those who are interested, the below link is a very good discussion on Chrome Tanned vs Vegetable Tanned and further down the article, gives a great explanation of the historic process of Vegetable or Bark Tanning.

leathersmithe.com/tanning-methods-and-the.html

Gus

Edited to add:
P.S.  By this point, you may be sorry you asked.  LOL

So veg-tan then? 😜

Honestly, that’s a great discourse, Gus. Thank you for taking the time. TWICE! 

I have buckles inbound. I’ll see what the harness shop has, otherwise cut strap from my side.