The Armour Archive

Does anyone have some information about making your own leather jack or bottle? I get conflicting views about how thick the leather should be. Some say 6 to 7 oz other say 8 to 9 oz. I have some 5 to 6 oz leather that i hope i can use. I also have some 12 oz but i think that would be way to thick.

Also about the inside. Would beeswax from hobby lobby be good to use? or does it have some wierd additive? I have not found a good source of 'brewer's pitch'.

Also, what time frame are we looking at for leather bottles?

For God's sake, even if you find it, don't use pitch for the inside of your jack, it's toxic as hell. Beeswax should be just fine.

Here you go... Brewers pitch is not the toxic version. You can get Natural, pine tar pitch. Good for foodsafe, water-tight coatings of wood or metal containers. Comes as a bag of chunks and chips, ready for melting.

http://www.jastown.com/bulk/bp-293.htm

Directions for making a leather bottle.

http://www.geocities.com/ladysveva/Leather/LeatherBottleInstructions.html

Sigeric

[This message has been edited by Sigeric (edited 04-09-2003).]

Russ: I did not know "brewer's pitch" was toxic. I have heard that it is just pine pitch and i have that on several wooden buckets. I know regular pitch is bad...

Sigeric: Thanks for the links.

I think there is some confusion here between pitch and asphaultum.

My understanding was that even pine pitch was seriously not good for you. If that's not the case, groovy...

brewer's pitch.. is this stuff heat resistant? it prolly sounds silly, but I've been trying to find something to line my maille coffee cup with

The common Brewers Pitch you can purchase today is non-toxic, however it is not approved by the FDA. ...personally I'm not planning on eating it anytime soon

Hot liquids should not melt the pitch, but may soften it. The melting temperature of this pitch is higher than bees wax. I've heard that there are pitch sealers available, but I don't have any info as to who makes them.

Hope this helps,
Sigeric

I have a leather jack which uses brewer's pitch to seal the inside (got it from Jas. Townsend). Doesn't seem to affect the flavor, and I haven't gotten sick. It's my vessel of choice for drinking proper English ale.