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Post by pease on Dec 30, 2012 13:09:18 GMT -5
I did alot of research on this one. This Winter is being spent upgrading a good deal of my equipment. The bag I built is small at 7" by 7" and follows the lines of a 18th century bag. There is a whip on the reverse side to tie the bag to a sash or belt, the strap is narrow and adjustable by a button in the back attacgment. Also it has a game keeper attached to the strap. The bag itself has a full divider and a folded gusset at the bottom. All that is left to do is dubbin the bag after aging the sinew.. Pease
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Post by hillbilly on Dec 30, 2012 18:18:20 GMT -5
Very nice work! You might consider linen thread for these projects, or the waxed nylon that isn't 'sinew.' The artificial sinew always looks artificial and modern to me...... And your work is high enough quality to have correct thread. If you want more strength than linen, most of the waxed nylon [white, brown, or black], looks pretty good, and is much stronger.
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Post by pease on Dec 30, 2012 18:26:07 GMT -5
Very nice work! You might consider linen thread for these projects, or the waxed nylon that isn't 'sinew.' The artificial sinew always looks artificial and modern to me...... And your work is high enough quality to have correct thread. If you want more strength than linen, most of the waxed nylon [white, brown, or black], looks pretty good, and is much stronger. David, I used this as a practice bag to test the pattern. It will be for sale at the show. I will make a few changes for my bag, including real sinew. Here is the real deal, the original bag in my collection.
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Post by hillbilly on Dec 30, 2012 19:46:43 GMT -5
Very cool Steve! I've done some sewing with real sinew. If you are going to try it.....i wish you luck.........
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Post by hillbilly on Dec 30, 2012 22:36:40 GMT -5
By the way..... It is very rare to find 18th century bags and such that were sewn with sinew. By the 18th century, even most of the Indians had given up on sinew, as it is miserable to work with, and linen or cotton thread was cheap. For brain tan buckskin stuff or back woods repairs you might find it, but nothing that was shop made or town made would have been likely to have sinew stitching, as far as I can tell.
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Post by doc on Dec 31, 2012 8:50:01 GMT -5
David is right on that, you do not find bags, leather goods made by white folks with sinew stitching except for field repairs. Most all the stitching done at home or in any kind of shop was linen and generally dressed with coad --( rosin mixed with pine pitch) not primarily beeswax. A little beeswax was occasionally added to the mix if it was too stiff . Marcia used to go to the Cordwainers guild meetings in Williamsburg and it was a topic of some discussion. When I was there this spring one of the journeymen told me they were still having fits getting decent pitch and rosin. The coad makes it tougher, bonds the stitches together and is more water resistant than plain beeswax and tends not to leach away. One source is to find the rosin used on violin bows, tends not to be adulterated like most rosins made for furniture/sports use. Pretty early on you seem to find native stuff with thread. Probably more gear has been made for the rondy crowd in the last 30 years with fake or real sinew than all of our colonial period. An entire different discussion on hemp vs flax linen thread as hemp is more rot resistant and stronger but hard to make smooth in a finer thread. Don't see much cotton till into the 19th century and even till now leather workers prefer linen.
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Post by hillbilly on Dec 31, 2012 10:21:30 GMT -5
Great info Doc. Thanks! do you have a recipe for mixing coad? Or a source for good authentic linen thread? I've got an old roll of linen out of a shoe shop, but it won't last forever....
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Post by pease on Dec 31, 2012 10:25:00 GMT -5
I appreciate both of your opinions. Guess the time has come to change over to thread. A friend of mine has some of the earlier cord that was made for Bass Shoes handstitching department, here in the original plant...in Wilton. It is very old stock and he has quite abit of it.... Guess its time to pay him a visit.
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Post by hillbilly on Dec 31, 2012 10:32:00 GMT -5
Get all he's got...and then trade a bunch of it to me!
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Post by doc on Dec 31, 2012 11:41:42 GMT -5
Then we'll need to teach you to correctly put a bristle on the ends and quit using metal needles. Also burn a little sample of the thread you get , some of their later stuff had poly in it.
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Post by doc on Dec 31, 2012 11:48:07 GMT -5
1 part pine rosin to 2 parts pine pitch melted together and then kneaded and pulled like taffy to form a firm but still slightly tacky ball. up to 10% beeswax (about 1/3 part measured against the other 3 parts) if needed to keep it softer The molten mixture was often poured into a bucket of water and worked underwater until cool enough to keep working by hand till it cooled completely
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Post by pease on Dec 31, 2012 17:01:25 GMT -5
Doc,... I will take you up on the offer... Looking forward to it. Made a belt shot pouch off of the same pattern used above. Measures just 5"x7" and is center divided for ball and shot.
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