mideival leather flask

I buy large boxes of leather scraps for my knife sheaths and some of it is too thin to use for sheaths. So I play around with other leather projects that can use thinner pieces.

It's hand stitched and sealed with beeswax and pine rosin just like it would have been made 1000 years ago.

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Leather canteen I made a couple months ago while healing from my sinus surgery. It's much bigger but made the same way. The stopper/cork is carved out of a scrap of rosewood and the lanyard is braided hemp stained with strong coffee.

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It takes about a week to bulge out the leather. After completely soaking it with water I then pack it real tight with hot sand and let it dry. Then repeat the process a couple more times. After it's formed then it gets several coats inside and out of a 1:1 mixture of beeswax and pine rosin.

Brent,
It's fantastic!!! You're a wonderful craftsman. I wish I had your skills

Brent, you are so clever. I could never do anything like that.
I am no good with my hands. I write and take photos, that's it.
Dont do too much of either of those these days either.

I love the medieval style and replication.
My husband is very impressed.

Pen

Very nice work, Brent

So cool, Brent!

Makes me think of my grandpa and the beautiful leather tack items he used to make. It takes technical, artistic and some engineering skills. Impressive talent!

This guy was on The Colbert Report.

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/311944/june-08-2010/mark-frauenfelder

I thought you might like the things he's made.

(I thought of Brent while watching the segment).

Brent,

So jealous. Wish I had time to play with that sort of thing. Just one question - where do you get scraps from? I don't know that many places that produce that sort of by-product and I'm just curious.

Becky

Those are fantastic! I'm amazed at your crafting abilities.

As an experiment I once decided to see how long it would take to polish a small piece of stone til it was nice and shiny. Since this was how many people spent their winters back when, I thought it would be a good experiment. I chose a fairly soft stone but even so I polished for ages! Off and on for several days. I got one side done and quit. I proved to myself that it is a lot of work.

It is pretty amazing when you think of what our ancestors accomplished without power tools, electricity, and the benefits of our modern society. Makes me feel lazy sometimes.

Beautiful work!

Cheryl

Would you consider selling your stuff? I would love one of those!!

Thanks for the feedback. I have had some strange looks and comments while hiking from other hikers that I have stopped and talked with. The "where did you get that" question is the most common. So I tell them I made it and that before there were Nalgene and ABS plastic water bottles this is what was used while traveling. That or assorted animal bladders (yuck!!!!)


Leslie, I liked the video and I am not quite as hardcore as that guy. And my hair only looks like that when I first get up in the morning.

Becky, I get 20 lbs boxes of leather scraps from different leather upholsterers. The scraps are more then big enough for my projects but way too small for what they use them for. So I get them pretty cheap compared to if I went to the Tandy Leather Store.

Alli, Don't laugh but I not only didn't use any power tools but I made all my leather working tooling. I have a metal shop and know how to heat treat so I make a lot of tools. Many of the tools I make and sell to other knife and sword makers who want to use the same tools they used 1000 years ago. The ones you can't buy at home depot. In fact many of them are not even available from knife making supply stores.

It helps offset a moderately expensive hobby and at this point I have paid for all my machinery many times over.

But many things I make I don't sell because the amount of time involved would make them very expensive. For gifts it's worth it since my time is part of the gift. Even the little flask has around four hrs into it. The hand stitching on the leather is very time consuming.

Now I really feel lazy. Making your own tools is so cool! That must be a lot of fun. The most I do is solder some jewelry every once in awhile. My son would love to talk to you. He loves to work with metal and such. Here is a fire flower that he built. [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

He is working on a tulip now. He is discovering an artist streak in himself.

That is pretty cool. Does it use propane?

This is my newest leather awl (punch) for leather working that I made. The handle is bronze and bucote wood. Just about ever commercial awl has a undersized handle and since you push it through the leather a much bigger handle makes it easier. And the tip is a far superior type of carbon steel then you will ever see from a leather or saddlery store.

I also made the tip interchangeable so I can use an assortment of sizes.

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I love the big handle on your awl. The one my father has this little bittie handle, about the size of 1/2 a roll of quarters, and it's hard to use, so yours would be much nicer.

Yes, it uses propane. He has plans for adding powdered elements to add colors to the flames on the third one he is doing which will be like a mum or something.

He is planning on a garden of fire flowers that he will take to Burning Man for display.

Your awl is beautiful! Your workmanship is so exact. You're so right about the handles being small. Mine has a really small handle and bruises my hand when punching through tough leather. Your tools would be precious possessions. Not ones you lend to the neighbor!

Such neat stuff! My grandfather used to do a lot of work with polishing gemstones, but he did his on a powered machine. He was part of a gem club that met each month. They even made a mosaic of the state seal that hangs in the state Capitol even now. That was really intricate work. Most of my grandfather's stuff was gems that he made into jewelry. So after my grandmother died, I got several of her necklaces and earrings that my grandpa made. They're not all that special in design, but they're special because Grandpa made them.

That is another craft I could so easily get into. I even have a close friend who cuts stones and is always bugging me to get into it. One of our future vacations will be gem hunting in Nevada and Oregon.

I have a few things from my grandparents that I will forever treasure. Me and gramps fished a lot and I have two of his poles. They are way too old and fragile to use but they are hanging on the wall of my hobby room.

I still have the Sears telescope he bought me when I was ten. It still works and it has "Made in USA" stamped on it. That alone means it's a relic from the past.