Okay, this one may get complicated, I don't know. I thought that when Andy sent me the plans and instructions for my boots, he told me what weight leather to use for the soles. Now I can't seem to find it. I'm also trying to think of some form of rubber sole to attach to the bottom of the soles to add some traction and yet not take away from the appearance of the boots. Any suggestions?
While I'm at it, I may as well ask this one too. Today I glued the field tips to the dozen arrows that I won on e-bay. I chose the field tips because I'll only use these for target practice anyway and I can't see getting a broadhead out of a styrofoam target that easily. So, now I need a quivver. What weight leather would you use for that? The Bowyer's Bible failed to mention leather weight when discussing quivvers.
P.S. I LIKE the way these arrows look flying through the air!
Some moc makers use a piece of conveyor belt material. I believe it's a impregnated cloth based material. Some also offer a rubber sole. At least one of the top moc makers sells soles separately as even their footwear needs to be resoled periodically. Check Sodhoppers, Catskill Mt and any of the other well known moc makers. They also have information on how to install them.
For quivers you can use a variety of leather weights. For a hard walled quiver a 8-9 oz leather will provide a good solid round of rectangular quiver, but it will be fairly heavy and will require you to line the inside with something like fleece or sherpa (synthetic fleece) to keep the noise level down. Native Americans used a quiver made out of much lighter weight leather ( heavy garment weight 2-3 oz equivilent), providing a soft sided "floppy" quiver. This is easy to work with and is fairly quiet in the woods even without lining. I've made several out of 4-5 oz weight. These provide a decent Europeon look (non-soft) and are reasonable quiet and are easy to line.
While 8-9 oz quivers can provide what many think of as a traditional "Robin Hood" look a lined quiver can weight 7-8 lbs empty. You can get a very similar look by going to a 4-5 oz tooling leather and your cost will be reduced too.
Eric, you mentioned you were planing on lining your boots with pigskin. Pigskin is a little rough against bare skin and is highly porous (due to the stiff pig bristles). On the surface this would appear to be an issue when gluing and if trying to keep them somewhat water resitant. Might I suggest goat or a thin lambskin, both are incredibly soft and easy to use. I have a bit of pigskin I can send down if you'd like to check it out.
Thanks for the tips again, Pete. I'll check the moc makers. I'll certainly consider your liner suggestions. It'll be at least next Friday/Saturday before I get to Tandy in Raleigh to check out the goat or lambskin. I plan to use my impending birthday (Monday) as leverage to get some leather supplies. If you don't mind sending the pigskin, that would be great.
The only goatskin that Tandy shows online is rawhide. It would be good for giving some rigidity I suppose, but I'm guessing it may not be real comfortable. Lambskin is the other option. I'll have to be careful of the price as we won't have the resources I was hoping for this weekend (as usual lately).
What about rabbit skin? My primary concern with that is that it will be hot in the summer months.
Rabbit with hair on is a pain to sew together. It's very hot in the summer and will add a lot of bulk to your shoe/boot.
I shipped out a package to you on Monday, you should have it Thurs or Friday. There is several pieces large enough to line your boots in it. I believe there is some lambskin, a smaller piece of goat and some calf if memory serves. I'd probably stick with the lambskin. The goat is thinner and may not be a large enough piece. The lamb being thicker should hold up better. The calf skin is a suede so all the types should be easy to determine.
The package was on the doorstep when I got home today. I really don't know what to say. Thanks a whole lot! I see what you mean about the pigskin. I haven't had the time to really look the pieces over like I want to though. I'll be checking them out more thoroughly when I'm done with this post.
Thanks for the B-day wishes as well.
Well, we went to Tandy today. It seems the manager has been looking for me, but he didn't have my new phone #. Last year I traded him a piece of .078 gauge bandsaw steel for a leather-working class. He has almost used up the steel making knives. So he was ready for more steel.
As I said, the budget wasn't going to be what I wanted for a trip to the leather store. I was looking for leather thick enough for the soles on the boots. The guy searched through the scrap box, then went into the back and brought out a large piece which is 1/4" thick throughout most of its length. It'll be enough for at least my boots, if not my wife's too. I asked the price and he told me to hold on. When the store cleared out, he said that it was his personal piece of leather and that he would trade it for more steel. I told him bartering is not out of the question. So now I have the sole material! And I was able to buy waxed thread for the project. I'm hoping that will work for the stitching. I'm about ready to start making a pattern and cutting out. I just need to make sure that I have most everything. Now I need to get the piece of steel back to him.
If you don't mind sending the pigskin, that would be great.