Currach

I have learnt quite a bit from my the last currach/coracle/bullboat I made. On that one I did a lot of mistakes, most of which I managed to avoid this time. This site also gave me a lot of needed new inspiration.

First of all, what you need to get is a cow hide (or some other large animal). Making the frame takes about 1 day, but dehairing the hide in a stream takes substantially longer.

The frame is started by sticking a circle or semicircle of an equal number of rowan rods into the ground. They don't need to sit deep, but they should preferably be stuck to an angle outwards.














Next you start a special type of weaving where you bring in one and one rod so you get a type of diagonally overlapping weave. The currach site explains it better.














The secondary weaving is done in the ordinary fasion with one round at the time before starting an opposite one.














Bend the withies down and pull 2 and 2 over eachother. This will give the boat a slightly more rectangular or square appearance in the end. Tie the crosspoints with strong cordage or leather. There was in my case no need for it to be weighed down for the recommended 10 days.














Take the dehaired hide and stretch it gently on. Use the longer parts, the legs and such for rope and tie it to the frame. I didn't bother to cut the protruding points and they made it easier to tie the hide to the frame.














The currach ended up quite big and very stable. Here is a photo of two of the viking voluntaries, Brage (14) and Gaute (12), rowing the currach with oars.

Viking Era Shoes

I've been to the Viking Museum Lofotr for over one month now. There I have been making quite a few items which I'll post over the next weeks. PS! A warning for the purists: These things are not made with stone tools only.

The shoes were made on an evening course run by viking era shoe maker Fanny Larsson (she makes shoes on order for those who are interested). Though they are a little too big for using without woolen socks they are very comfortable. The pattern is taken from Hedeby, currently in Germany, but formerly in Denmark.














I've used these types of shoes and my bare feet only now for almost 5 weeks straight and the 2 times I've tried on my modern shoes it has been an awful experience.

Buckskin Leggings Tutorial

It has been a while since I made a pair of leggings. My last set was stolen out of my friends pickup truck during a trip. The bag held all my buckskin clothes and was the only thing taken. It's been long enough now that I smile when I think of what the person who took this bag must have thought when they got home and opened it up!

When making clothes of any kind with buckskin it is crucial that the skin needs to be washed first. I don't mean a trip through the washer (which you can do with buckskin!) but rather a dip in some water. When buckskin is worked soft in a frame, which I do, it tends to come out in a 2 dimensional shape. Deer are obviously not 2 dimensional so getting the skin wet and slightly working a little as it dries allows it to come back to a more normal shape. After giving the skin a dip I wring out the smokey water, catching it in a bucket to be used later for a braining. The smokey water helps keep the brains from going sour and also make it a little easier when softening the skin. The reason you want to soak the finished skin is because if you don't you might end up with one leg that wants to twist weird ways or a sleeve that is shorter than when you started.

One should also try to find matching skins when making clothing. That is to say that the skins should match in overall thickness as your first priority and optionally in coloring. To help with color matching smoke two skins of the same thickness together. The skins I use here were not smoked as a matching set and you can tell the difference if you look carefully.

I have found it much easier to use old clothing that you like the fit of and taking it apart rather than useing patterns or measurements. I went to the second hand store and picked up these old jeans for 2$. I simply cut out the crotch and then split them up the outer side seam. They are now my pattern. You can see in the pic where I have laid the "pattern" on the washed skin. You will note that the skin is not flat but has curves in it. This is normal. Buckskin is not like working with any other material. Your finished garments will never look like they came out of a factory.

I traced an outline of the pattern onto the flesh side of the skin. You can use some sort of straight edge to help make up for the ripples but again, it's never going to be perfectly straight. Be sure to keep track of which side of your skin will be the front part of your leggings and which part is the back. The side of the pattern where you can see the old pocket from the jeans is the front side. It will be that side that is eventually made into the fringe.





This pic shows the buckskin that has been cut away from the back side of the legging and also the crotch area. Before you cut into buckskin make sure you think about what your doing, then think about it again as you cant really fix a screw up too easily with buckskin. I made the cut about 1/2 inch away from the exact tracing line of the back part of the leggings. This is to allow for a little overlap in the seam of the sides of the leggings. Next I used an awl to poke holes on the line of the back side of the leggings, or the side that has been cut. Do not expand these holes by shoving the awl through the holes. Leave these holes small. All holes exposed to stress will become larger over time. This is why you want to leave the holes small. These holes are about 1/2 inch apart. You can space them wider or smaller to charge the appearance but much further apart and you run the risk of the seams becoming saggy over time. Much closer together and you run the risk of having the seems rip into each other.





This pic shows the seam on the outside of the skin. This is called a running stitch. In this case this would be called lacing as this skin is not really stitched as much as laced together. There are many variations of making seams. I like this one for it's simplicity. You can get really crazy and make seams that look like little x's or seams that look braided. Whatever seam style you decide to do you want to make sure that when you cut your lace that you take note of the different thicknesses of the skin. Thinner areas on the skin will stretch much more than than thicker areas. So when you cut your lace make the cut wider in thinner areas and a little narrower in thicker areas. Get your lace wet and pretstretch it. No need to let it dry before using it but you can. Note also how the same side (hair side of skin) is showing on the lace as well.





When I lace I lace from the bottom of the leg and work my way up. I leave about 8 inches of lace on the bottom just in case I need to make adjustments somewhere. When I finish off the end of a lace I tend to just weave it on the inside of the garment rather than tie it off and cut it. That way I have something to work with later if needed and I also know I have a little stash of lace on me in the event I need one and don't have one. I don't lace the the very top and will show what I like to do there next. Now we have the skin laced up the side. The big flap on the right can be left as is or made into fringe. To me half the fun of buckskin is the fringe and as you will see I love to get nuts with the fringe.





There are a number of ways to make the part that keeps the leggings on you. Some folks suggest a suspender type set up while I prefer a belt. To make the belt loop I lace the inside part of the flap that is left on the inside of the legging. I fold it over to create the loop and include this in with the lacing on the top and keep going all the way up, folding over the outer extra skin. That way I have a strong loop that does not want to stretch.





Making the fringe is pretty simple. Just cut strips of skin until they are as small as you would like them. I like to make some initial cuts all the way along the lateral flap just to make sure my fringe is as even as I can get it.





I like the look of twisted fringe which was practiced by some aboriginal American tribes. I wet the fringe and then stretch each individual part of the fringe and twist them tight, giving a nice pull on the end.




I really suggest wearing the whatever your making around a bit before you do a lot of trimming. Again, you can't correct mistakes too easily and buckskin takes a lot of work to get to the point where you're making clothes and don't want to waste all that work. After you've worn it a while you will see and feel where you want to make some different trimmings. I am going to leave the upper parts of these intact for a while before I do any trimming.

And there you have them, leggings.

I really prefer leggings to pants for several reasons. My favorite reason is that they are adaptable. When you get up in the morning you put your skirt/breech cloth on and then add your leggings. When it warms up you simply take off your leggings, no need for a wardrobe change. When it cools back off then your leggings come back on. Leggings also cut down on laundry especially when used with a skirt which I what I prefer to wear with leggings. This makes them go for longer stretches where they don't need to be washed than do pants. While buckskin is pretty breathable it can get hot and musty in a hurry. Leggings cut that right out. Leggings also allow for much greater flexibility and range of motion than do pants and you never get butt sag as buckskin pants tend to do over time.

Some may think this a little drafty of a system but I have never had any problems with it having lived year round in a skirt and leggings outdoors. Buckskin is so naturally warm that a little ventilation is nice and the extra ventilation helps keep one cleaner in my opinion.

In final analysis the most important part of leggings is that leggings are just damn sexy!

Needle Case

Needles are as a rule; small and fragile. Consequently being prone to loss and breakage. The needle case does the job of containing and protecting them towards breakage and dulling. Needle cases can be made very elaborately or very simply, from wood, antler, ivory or bone. This one can only be classed as very simple and is made from sheep bone. When I get my hands on some reindeer (caribou) leg bone I will make a bigger, more beautifully carved version.

This design is of Inuit origin, but I know that other natives, including the Scandianavian Saami used similar designs. The idea is simple. You have a hollow case, a leather/buckskin strip and two stopping devices. When closed it looks like the photo below. The needles are then protected inside the tube.














To open it, simply pull the opposite stopping device.














The needles are stuck into a buckskin pad.














A proper belt hanger could be made for it, but for this one I used only a stick to make sure the thong doesn't go all the way through. I will just carry mine in a pouch.

Skin Pouch Update

To make the pouch easier to tie off, I made a lining of roe deer buckskin. The skin is cut against a board. Keep in mind that it is easier to cut reliably in a pushing motion rather than pulling.














The sinew thread is single ply strands from reindeer backstrap sinew. It is twisted like this to keep it together. For longer, stronger threads I'd use two ply threads, but for this project that wasn't needed.














The small tear down in the bottom is sewn tight with an antler needle. For this I used a simple overhand stitch. For the rest I used running, double stitches.














On the top of the lining I sewed in a short braided cord of elm bark to tie off the opening of the pouch. The knot here is excellent for tying off the end of a seam.














The finished result: A tinder pouch.

Skin Pouch Update

After having soaked the pouch in a lake an dried it again, the tannin smell is pretty much gone now. The skin has been oiled and was today softened by breaking it in. It takes time. To get a more even result I would use a sharp, shredding object, but due to the risks of tearing the thin skin and that the hair will be out anyway, I omitted this step.














The rough, hard edge on the thicker skin on the "rim" is cut off and evened.














All that is left now is to sew up a hole and a tear. I also want to make a buckskin lining on it if I have enough scraps left. It will be wrung back for sewing, but for this picture it has been left hair out, like it will be in the end.














This is just the tip of the ear. I am also thinking that skinning the whole ear would make easy, quick to make mittens. Especially smaller roe deer ones for children.

Skin Pouch Update

Just a quick update on the skin pouch. I took the thinner ear, plus some scraps out of the solution today as it has taken some colour and probably is sufficiently tanned for the use I intend for it.

It now hangs to dry, I don't know how long that will take, but likely in the region of a week.

Skin Pouch Update

For eight days I have had the skins in the water along with the alder bark. I checked upon the skins today and turned them, as parts were not totally submerged before. The skins show yet no signs of having soaked up any tannin, no change in colour whatsoever. I am beginning to think my solution is too weak. The ear skins are thinner than the leg hides, so I will probably take them out of the solution to dry if they show signs of changing colour in another week or so.

If I find time, I may add more bark to the solution at a point over the next days.

Skin Pouch Update

Started yet another project yesterday. The ear skins and two of leg hides of an elk (moose) were thawed and the excess moisture was soaked up by the snow.














I scraped the bark of two alder trees off with my cannon bone flesher. It is very effective for that purpose and even shreds the bark at the same time. I gathered enough bark to about equal the weight of skins.














The bark was distributed evenly on the flesh-side and the skins laid in a stack.














Lacking a waterproof primitive container I decided to cheat a little here, please bear over with me. I used a empty ice-cream box, put the skins with the bark on in, filled it with water and have now left them to soak up the tannin with the lid on to conserve moisture. I will leave them for a few weeks, but I do a check every now and then to see how it goes.

Coracle

The coracle is probably one of the most ancient and widely used vessels around. Although it may not have the grace, manoeuvrability and speed of the canoe, it is very quick and easy to build. Where I come from a small coracle is much more useful than a canoe. The place is hilly, with lots of small shallow streams and small to medium sized lakes. Using a canoe outside the main valleys would involve a lot of portaging. A coracle on the other hand could easily be carried around from lake to lake and you would still be able to carry your basic survival and fishing gear at the same time.

Being a purist, there is no other road for me than using stone age tools only. To accomplish that I found that the Welsh coracles were too complicated without adding a lot of work to it. As one of the great advantages with the coracle is the simplicity I decided to settle for an Irish type called the “Boyne currach”, with one modification: Making a seat seat would involve a lot of chopping with a stone axe or a long time searching for a suitable, wind broken tree. Because I left out that detail, it ended up resembling the Native American bull boat in that manner.

The construction begins with putting an equal number of thumb-thick saplings in the ground, opposite of each other on two of the sides. For easier penetration of the ground it is a big advantage if the saplings have already been broken to a point while harvesting. After all of them has been placed in the way they are supposed to, all of them are bent over into the hole of the sapling stuck on the opposite side, creating a number of arches. Since it is desirable to maintain a reasonable stability to the coracle, you need to weigh down these arches to flatten the bottom.

The same process is repeated on the other two sides, but here it will be a little more messy, since the saplings has to be stuck underneath afterwards. Now you are probably thinking: Why weigh down the arches before making the second ones? Actually, I have tried both. I finished a frame that became far too big for the hide I managed to obtain. On that one I made all the arches before weighing it down. It worked, but it was quite a puzzle to manage all of those rods at the same time. If you weigh down from one side first, you can just press the next ones underneath the first ones and get the correct depth at once. On tip when making the frame: The longer between the rods, the more likely that the frame will lose it's shape later. The corners are especially important in that respect.

After the frame is weighed down and the depth is approximately the same all around (and even if it isn't, that can be adjusted in the end) you can start weaving. Since the frame consists of an equal number of rods, you need to weave in layers upwards instead of a continuous weave. Use smaller saplings than on the frame and substantial overlap when adding a new sapling. The further up the frame you weave, the less likely it is that the frame will loose it's shape when you take the frame out of the ground.

The first frame I made I let dry for about a month in the ground. When I pulled it up it kept shape reasonably well, but scraping on the bark revealed that it was still quite green. The second one I started and finished in the same day and it spread out quite badly. So instead of having steep sides, it resembled a river Severn bowl coracle in shape. Nothing wrong with that really, except a loss of stability. Next time I will build the frame months in advance, in dry and sandy soil so the frame will stay exactly the same when I pull it out.

Anyway, after you have finished the frame, pull it out and break off the ends of the rods that has been stuck in the ground. The only thing that is left then is to attach the skin.

The elk (moose) skin I got from a local slaughterhouse. No one uses the skins any more, so I got it for free. To make the coracle as light as possible, the hide was soaked and the hairs removed. After having measured the a proper fit on the frame I cut the hide with a freshly made flint flake. Here is a couple of lessons to be learned. Use a flake with a long working edge, otherwise it takes A LOT of time. Also, the hide is very thick, so the edge dulls quickly. Make a new one as soon as it starts to dull, a sharp flake is a pleasure and the used flakes can be remade into arrow points or whatever.

Finally you need to cut some long strips of the leftover hide pieces to tie it to the frame. Make a hole at least for every rod that stuck in the ground and tighten it down over the weave and behind the arch. Hard to explain, it is better to have a look on the picture. There was a bullet hole in the skin. To remedy that problem I simply stuck a small, dry piece of wood into it. When the hide dried up it kept tight in the hole. The photos are of the drying coracle in the tree and the dried coracle.

Testing the coracle was somewhat scary. The ice was starting to freeze over the pond I planned to test it on. Because of that I had to choose a spot where it was deeper close to shore. Hardly an ideal spot to practise using this craft. Despite being a little low and unstable, consequences of the frame not keeping it's shape perfectly after pulling it out of the ground, it seemed to handle well. I didn't have a paddle yet, so I don' really know though. But I got to experience that it requires a lot of effort in the way of keeping it stable. To remedy the drawback with instability and making it usable for crossing bigger lakes, further experimentation with temporarily building it into a very simple raft will be carried out. But as pointed out earlier, making the coracle a little bigger, and making the bottom totally flat would make it more stable in the first place.

Hide flesher

Due to upcoming exams and thigh rolling cordage between the reading, I will post mainly from my backlog to until next Friday. My backlog is quite extensive, but be prepared for a lot less pictures than in my current posts. I used to be rather lazy with the camera...

When I got the elk/moose hide for my coracle this autumn I was lucky enough to come in time to also secure two legs and two ears as well. To prepare the hide for stretching it on the coracle I decided to make a cannon bone flesher. After skinning the leg and taking off sinew and cartilage with a sharp flint flake the bone was scored on the inside of the depression where the main tendons are placed.














After scoring about half way through I gave it an indirect blow, with my antler hammer on a chisel. Predictability wasn't of the essence here so the rather rough edges didn't bother me.














The marrow and bone splinters was fished out of the bonecavity with sticks and the edges smoothed and sharpened with a flake.














The hide was skinned very poorly and lots of big chunks of meat was stuck on the hide. To remove them, the only possible way was using a sharp flake to make a starting cut and rip the chunks off. This tool comes in to use when removing the small pieces of flesh and the membrane, something that wasn't neccesary on the hide for the coracle. So this tool remains largely unused.

I got to test it on removing the inner bark of the fleshing beam of pine. It is probably excellent for taking of alder bark for tanning. Is likely to shred it at the same time!