Review of half-tanned leather from Russ Mitchell, Greaves

[Kilkenny]

Back in September I got a side of half tanned leather from Russ Mitchell.
Russ was great to deal with, sent the leather along in a very timely fashion despite problems getting the stuff to fit in a box.

I apologize to Russ for the long delay in reviewing this leather, but I didn't want to write anything until I had a decent understanding of the material.

It's taken me awhile to get a handle on working with it. The characteristics are quite different from fully tanned leather, in some peculiar ways.

I've found it's best to cut it wet. Dry it's rather like trying to work with thin, flexible plywood. Wet, you can flatten it out and a knife cuts it much more easily than when it is dry.

In a sense, you don't need to harden it - you can wet form it and let it dry and you get a pretty stiff piece of leather again. However, when I hardened these greaves using the water/glue solution and baking method, I got something quite interesting.

In my learning process I made a couple of test pieces, including a simple elbow cop like the ones I normally make from fully veg tanned leather. The half tanned cop wasn't as stiff as the veg tanned versions...but I could turn it inside out, completely invert it, and then pop! it back to the original configuration. The fully tanned cops crack under the same stress.

These greaves were the first full project, and I ran into a problem related to that springiness in the half-tanned. On the first attempt, I allowed these to harden with too tight a curve. I thought that with the springiness, the greaves would open up enough to fit but would also hold onto the client's leg. Turned out that they didn't just hold on, they clamped down and dug in. The leather's memory was strong enough that the greaves could not be worn.

So here they are after being soaked and baked again, reformed so that they should be trying to spring out, rather than in. Hopefully now they won't bite.

The extraordinary resiliency and memory of this leather is unlike anything I've worked with before.

I'm currently working on a pair of simple schynbalds from the half-tanned, which I don't intend to shape at all. I'll leave the pieces flat and the form will come from the straps pulling them into shape when they're worn.

Something else about this material - it really doesn't tool at all. The rawhide center makes efforts to stamp, bevel, etc. pretty pointless. It dyes normally and can be painted and finished as a regular fully tanned leather.

Pix of the greaves, dyed black. (btw, the half-tanned is a deep chocolate brown to start with)

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/gavinkilk ... pg&.src=ph

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/gavinkilk ... pg&.src=ph

Gavin

[Cet]

Thanks for the review. I also have a half hide of this from Russ waiting to be made into armour. I figured the tooling would be problematic as the surface is very pebbled unlike reg' veg tan. I've experimented with hammering some test pieces to smooth them out and it worked quite well though I haven't had a chance to judge what effect the compressing had on the strength of the material. I expect to restrict decoration to a painted and gessoed surface, perhaps with added metal bits so it's good to know that it takles dye and paint well.

[Russ Mitchell]

Thanks for the reviews. The original gents I had do this tannery run won't be back... but I've learned how to do the job in the mean time, and the next batch I run (I've got two hides getting ready to go in) shouldn't have that pebbling.

Did you use a last when hardening? I have a piece made that way which is hard as a brick... but much of my own hardening w/o lasts matches your experience.

If I were to do another tan run, what use do you think might be an appropriate use (since SCA guys aren't worried about stopping blades)?

[Cet]

Hi Russ, No pebbling would be cool as I'd like to incorporate tooling into pieces.


As far as appropriate use, I'll know better once I make functioning pieces. My plan is to make last formed upper and lower arm cannons, greaves, and possibly gauntlet metacarples ( or cuff/metacarple pieces id I can get it the stuff plastic enough. As far as usefullness in an SCA context I think the material properties are most similar to some plastics such as HDPE or Kydex, so it would serve in any context that material works for. Put another way; I'd use it for everything but the required armour of helm couters and poleyns. It would probalby work fine for couters and poleyns provided they were padded well.

[Kilkenny]

Cet, having tried tooling this stuff, I'm not encouraged to try it again, even with a smoother finish. I think the rawhide center prevents a good impression from stamps or bevelers.

Gavin

[Cet]

Interesting. The "scabbard butts" used by Dobeson for his vambrace reconstruction sound the same from his description but there's a clear difference in that they could be tooled and had a smooth surface. Cetainly looking at the stuff inmy shop I can't imagine tooling it.

[Edward MacTavish]

I would be very intrested in a globulose breast plate in something like this.

Edward

[Kilkenny]

I would be very intrested in a globulose breast plate in something like this.

Edward

If I'm recalling my terms, that's a "curie". It would be an interesting project.

Gavin

[Russ Mitchell]

Interesting. The "scabbard butts" used by Dobeson for his vambrace reconstruction sound the same from his description but there's a clear difference in that they could be tooled and had a smooth surface. Cetainly looking at the stuff inmy shop I can't imagine tooling it.

I think this was the difference in the initial tanning. I'm pretty certain I can get enough of a tannage on one side of the leather to allow for tooling. I think the folks who did that run for me used too astringent a tanning mix (thus the pebbling).

@MacTavish: I don't normally make globose stuff, but cuirie in general are not hard. If you'd like to get in on the tan, drop me a PM...