Finished the period trecking breeches!
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I'm trying to keep the rig to what was used in the early 18th C and from what I can find out leather gaiters like this
http://victorians.swgfl.org.uk/themes/agriculture/gaiterobj.htm
came in later, firstly for riders then by the late 19th for agricultural workers in general and stayed popular until rubber wellies became the norm.
I'd certainly snap up a pair if I turned some up cheeap and they fitted but I'd probably find them , especially the quad soled ammo boots i'm planning to use, extremely heavy for bimbling about the woods and what have you.
Incidentally for any leather workers interested in them theres 6 A4 pages on leather leggings, including a pattern, in Rom Edwards excellent Bushcraft 7. Its a great book in a series that should be better known, theres 17 pages just on making a pack saddle.
I'll get my coat...
http://victorians.swgfl.org.uk/themes/agriculture/gaiterobj.htm
came in later, firstly for riders then by the late 19th for agricultural workers in general and stayed popular until rubber wellies became the norm.
I'd certainly snap up a pair if I turned some up cheeap and they fitted but I'd probably find them , especially the quad soled ammo boots i'm planning to use, extremely heavy for bimbling about the woods and what have you.
Incidentally for any leather workers interested in them theres 6 A4 pages on leather leggings, including a pattern, in Rom Edwards excellent Bushcraft 7. Its a great book in a series that should be better known, theres 17 pages just on making a pack saddle.
I'll get my coat...
So was there any kind of waterproof clothing in the 18th century, or did people simply accept getting wet?
Some, linseed oil/beeswax oilskins, neetsfoot oiled leathers, heavily lanolinised dense felted wool and tarred hats I've read of but there must have been a higher tolerance of getting wet.
The fabrics available didn't realy improve until the 19th C with stuff like rubberised cotton of Makintosh fame in the 1820s and gaberdine, introduced in the late 1880s. How available they were to the working man I can't say.
Certainly I've been suprised how well flax linen feels when its damp/wet in patches.
It' a subject that interests me and i would like to know more if anyone knows of published studies.
ATB
Tom
The fabrics available didn't realy improve until the 19th C with stuff like rubberised cotton of Makintosh fame in the 1820s and gaberdine, introduced in the late 1880s. How available they were to the working man I can't say.
Certainly I've been suprised how well flax linen feels when its damp/wet in patches.
It' a subject that interests me and i would like to know more if anyone knows of published studies.
ATB
Tom
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Thanks Tom. Would the flax linen you refer to be comparable to the kind of linen we have today?
I suppose as long as you are warm and wet as you are in wool and maybe linen? then that can be tolerated.
I suppose as long as you are warm and wet as you are in wool and maybe linen? then that can be tolerated.
I tend to qualify the word linen with flax as although once all linen was made from the flax plant at some point the use of the word linen came to mean more a type of domestic item, table cloths, napkins, pillowcases and bedsheets sort of thing most often now made from cotton, rather than the material used. It's a bit pedantic of me but I've been warped by the number of times I thought I'd found the real thing only to discover it was cotton. If you ask for linen now in most fabric shops they will bring out various very fine cottons and cotton / sythetic blends.
The linen I'm using now is pretty much what they were using back then except the looms are now powered. If I was using dyed rather than natural coloured linen there would be a bigger difference although you can get stuff that has been treated with correct period dyes although naturally you'd have to pay more.
I half jokingly offered to make the wife a handloom, our place is a buggered about 18th C industrial unit and the top floor is still a single open plan weaving shed so we have the space but I got the look and backed off pronto. Perversely I could make all the wooden parts, fit the metal ones but actually use it? I'd be hopeless.
Sorry, rambling I'll go and sew some more button holes...
ATB
Tom
The linen I'm using now is pretty much what they were using back then except the looms are now powered. If I was using dyed rather than natural coloured linen there would be a bigger difference although you can get stuff that has been treated with correct period dyes although naturally you'd have to pay more.
I half jokingly offered to make the wife a handloom, our place is a buggered about 18th C industrial unit and the top floor is still a single open plan weaving shed so we have the space but I got the look and backed off pronto. Perversely I could make all the wooden parts, fit the metal ones but actually use it? I'd be hopeless.
Sorry, rambling I'll go and sew some more button holes...
ATB
Tom
....and very cool they look too
If you want to have a pop with a No.4 MkII still very much in working order, I'm sure we could arrange that
Do you have a copy of the Lee Enfield DVD? A friend of a friend did it and its packed full of fun for the lover of the best bolt action battle rifle ever made!
Cheers! Its just a shame about the body they have have to hang on, it lowers the tone, somewhat....
Bizarely despite the number of live firearms I've handled, at the Pattern Room that was and a couple of times at Warminster I've yet to actually pop a cap! This fact has sometimes put my American friends into catatonic shock. Mind you some of them have actual walk in vaults for their collections with realy wide doors so they can wheel things out! I must get around to having a go one day. I keep thinking about trying black powder shooting as I can just about see as far as they shoot.
No I've not got a DVD about the Lee Enfield, I've been more into the paperwork side so far. I had the opurtunity to scan in quite alot of original stuff before the MoD pattern Room Collection got dumped on the Royal Armouries library, although I was mainly into LMGs and bigger stuff at the time . What with what like minded mates have sent me I've about 15 manuals and illustrated parts lists as files for the various Enfields.
Going way off topic here so I'm off to sew button holes, oh joy.
Happy new year to one at all!
ATB
Tom
Bizarely despite the number of live firearms I've handled, at the Pattern Room that was and a couple of times at Warminster I've yet to actually pop a cap! This fact has sometimes put my American friends into catatonic shock. Mind you some of them have actual walk in vaults for their collections with realy wide doors so they can wheel things out! I must get around to having a go one day. I keep thinking about trying black powder shooting as I can just about see as far as they shoot.
No I've not got a DVD about the Lee Enfield, I've been more into the paperwork side so far. I had the opurtunity to scan in quite alot of original stuff before the MoD pattern Room Collection got dumped on the Royal Armouries library, although I was mainly into LMGs and bigger stuff at the time . What with what like minded mates have sent me I've about 15 manuals and illustrated parts lists as files for the various Enfields.
Going way off topic here so I'm off to sew button holes, oh joy.
Happy new year to one at all!
ATB
Tom
Just need to waterproof the half gaiters and sew on the instep straps.
ATB
Tom
Just used a charity shop double boiler to melt equal parts beeswax, mutton tallow and raw neetsfoot oil and painted it onto both sides of the gaiters. It was rather blotchy so I used a hair dryer to warm it up and worked it in well.
They absorbed a suprising amout, of the pound I made about half is left
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Hi folks
the continuing crap weather has meant I've had plenty of time to sew so I have done all the seams and hems on the canvas shelter sheet. I now need to boil wash it and tumble dry it to shrink it as much as I can and after that I will sew the grommets on the corners and along the edges. It's 99" x 80" before shrinkage, the hems used up a good 4 inches in each direction.
Its made from a pair of 100% cotton canvas curtains picked up from a charity shop for £6.
I've gone off treating it with linseed oil as it will add a lot of weight, make it smelly and sticky and a fire hazard. From my reading plain untreated sail cloth was the most common material for shelters back in the day but on the sly I will treat it with TX10 cotton proof! Not very period but their materials were a lot better! If I was feeling like making it more authentic I'd sew in a false seam as the big sections far larger than anything commonly made on a loom back in the 18th C.
ATB
Tom
the continuing crap weather has meant I've had plenty of time to sew so I have done all the seams and hems on the canvas shelter sheet. I now need to boil wash it and tumble dry it to shrink it as much as I can and after that I will sew the grommets on the corners and along the edges. It's 99" x 80" before shrinkage, the hems used up a good 4 inches in each direction.
Its made from a pair of 100% cotton canvas curtains picked up from a charity shop for £6.
I've gone off treating it with linseed oil as it will add a lot of weight, make it smelly and sticky and a fire hazard. From my reading plain untreated sail cloth was the most common material for shelters back in the day but on the sly I will treat it with TX10 cotton proof! Not very period but their materials were a lot better! If I was feeling like making it more authentic I'd sew in a false seam as the big sections far larger than anything commonly made on a loom back in the 18th C.
ATB
Tom
Got around to finishing the shelter sheet
by sewing in 10 half inch grommets. I then boil washed it and while it was damp treated it with some TX10 cotton proof, gave it a short spin and dried it in the machine. Hopefully it has shrunk as much as it will.
It weighs just under three pounds so by my shaky maths means the curtains were made from 7 oz fabric.
Now to pick a blanket from the charity shop jobs and make a roll.
ATB
Tom
by sewing in 10 half inch grommets. I then boil washed it and while it was damp treated it with some TX10 cotton proof, gave it a short spin and dried it in the machine. Hopefully it has shrunk as much as it will.
It weighs just under three pounds so by my shaky maths means the curtains were made from 7 oz fabric.
Now to pick a blanket from the charity shop jobs and make a roll.
ATB
Tom
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