Good enough for the common man

[ForgeCorvus]

I just watched this youtube by Tod.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9r8cmUUz-m8

And it got me thinking, is our kit too good ?
I mean, none of us are kings or princes (not even ones in hiding) so shouldn't our gear and garb look a bit more homemade ?
Not that I'm saying everything we own should look like piecework rejects made by a drunken ork but neither should it all be perfect.

In my Larping days I was always the guy with the rough, slightly tatty kit because I wanted to look like I lived through the time between events not that I was unpacked from a box the night before.... I described this as "Spaghetti Larp"

[redhandfilms]

He makes an amazing point (with references as well!). We see so much beautiful carving and leatherwork here, but that wouldn't always be the case. It certainly makes since for a few pieces, especially if it is something meant to signify rank or station. You might imagine that a fine ranger's long sword would cost the equivalent of a new luxury car in today's money, but there are a lot more people driving a 20 year old Toyota Camry.

I imagine rangering as a fairly lean profession. Not much gold to spend on luxury craft goods. You're better establishing relationships for small trade or barter, and that can often mean raw materials, rather than finished goods. Perhaps you establish a relationship with a leatherworker in town to trade a few pounds of tanned leather offcuts for a rabbit or squirrels. I just did a video on making pouches from random leather scraps. With just a knife, an awl, and some needles, I could be sat by the fire in the tavern, stitching up a new pouch, while I spend my coin on what I really want - a good meal.

[Manveruon]

Love this video! I watched it a couple months ago and it has been very close to the front of my mind ever since. In that time I’ve started working for a somewhat prominent high-end leather workshop that sells at several Renaissance festivals around the country, and I have found myself quoting and paraphrasing the video often with regard to the very high standards of fit and finish the company maintains for their products - and how their customer base apparently demands nothing but the absolute best, most perfect, premium finished goods. I always have to chuckle, thinking about some guy in the Middle Ages scraping away with an awl at some much-too-thin leather for his 200th knife sheath that week and thinking, “eh, this’ll do.”

For my part, I will say this - I like to make my kit *just so* - particularly as I’ve gotten older and developed my skills as a craftsperson. There are, however, areas I will cut corners or be satisfied with a less-than-perfect end result. That being said, if I am making something for someone else, I hold myself to VERY DIFFERENT standards of what is and is not acceptable - some higher, some lower. Even so, I take the time to do things like measuring my stitching holes, patterning and mocking up my designs ahead of time, etc. because I don’t want them to look too sloppy and haphazard. On the flip-side, however, I don’t take much time to do things like burnishing all the edges of my straps (something which I know sends other leatherworkers into fits of apoplectic rage).

I think there’s definitely a compromise. Tod was clear in pointing out something that I think about a lot, which is that almost everything in the Middle-ages was heavily decorated or embellished, even if it wasn’t decorated or embellished WELL (by modern standards). This is something I’ve been trying to incorporate more and more into my kit - the little details in all the corners that tell a story about the culture from which my persona has emerged. The fact that most of these details are at least moderately symmetrical, or that the materials I use are usually fairly sturdy and well-finished (and dare I say, sometimes rather over-engineered) is more of a personal preference than something I think is strictly “authentic.” And yet, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Dúnedain, in particular out of non-Elvish cultures in Middle-earth, took a bit more time and effort in the construction and embellishment of their accoutrements than most.

Also - more or less related - I will point out that, historically, most people really did make a reasonable attempt to take care of their garments, personal accessories, and general belongings, even if that meant repairing them extensively to prolong their life. This was especially true of lower classes, but still true of the upper class in many cases as well, since textiles were extremely valuable before mechanized production became the norm. This video is a great dive into the idea of keeping your kit well tended, as a reenactor, and why that’s appropriate for most impressions:
https://youtu.be/IM0-Gcq_3KU

[Elleth]

Hunh.

A bit of this is counter-intuitive. Tons of work goes into tanning a hide or weaving a bolt of wool - then at the very last step its finally time to be lazy and do a slip-shod job? I get that the archaeological record shows but it shows, but I can't help but think we're missing something.

The biggest difference I see in traditionally made stuff isn't so much a lack of quality as a much less uniform item all the way through production. That is - woven cloth has more slubs, there's the occasional pit in the iron because it was hammered to shape then filed smooth instead of run through rollers or something, etc. If our stuff has discrepancies, I think it's less that the handwork is too good, and more that there's decent handwork on top of industrially perfect materials.

I also think that the relatively depopulated nature of Eriador means we're dealing with an economy with less trade, more domestic production, and hence a somewhat different incentive structure. The guy carving a pattern on his new rough-made knife sheath by a camp fire isn't in quite the same position as the guy rushing through a couple dozen sheaths in a morning because he's selling as piece-work and wants to afford bread. How that manifests though, I'm not sure yet.

All of which is to say... yes, I think our stuff necessarily looks a bit different than it would have in the real Eriador.. but that that difference is a bit harder to define than just "too much care has been taken."

[ForgeCorvus]

I suppose what I'm trying to get at is if a 21st century Europian/North American being decides to make a shirt (to pick something at random) and cuts it too tight in the body or short in the sleeve then what they tend to do is get another bit of fabric and remake the peice at fault..... An Eriadorian would just work out a way to make up the shortfall using whatever materials to hand, possibly (or more likely, probably) making a feature out of what was a mistake.

We have some amazing crafters on here, but shouldn't we encourage the 'have a go' mentality for those of us who (like me) find some of the truly wonderful and nearly perfect things people post photos of intimidating

[Elleth]

Oh, ABSOLUTELY have a go! That is the most awesome thing - and I promise, every single photo of the very best handwork you see comes from someone who started from scratch, just like you.

In fact, I suspect in this we're more like those denizens of Eriador than the pieceworkers Tod talks about in his video. You're doing a hundred things in your life, and can just spare a few moments here and there for craftwork. Just like the ranger scratching a bit of decoration into his leather to pass the boredom of a long watch, just like the momma adding a few extra stitches of decoration by candlelight before collapsing in exhaustion from another day - these are things do in the corners of our lives because we enjoy them and they bring us comfort. Not because we can make another penny or two over the week by doing a slipshod job for a careless master.

[ForgeCorvus]

I think we're on the same page really, my take on Tod's vid (as opposed to what Tod was actually talking about) was less about sloppy piecework made down to a price (my first job was as a blacksmith and we had to compete with cheap crap thrown together by paid monkeys ) and more on the concept that 'perfect is the enemy of prompt '..... In other words, lets get something thats OK now rather then spend months painfully crawling towards an impossible ideal.

[Peter Remling]

About 20 years ago, I made a leather short sleeved tunic. Not having a lot to go on, I took a cloth duster pattern, made some alterations and went to town. It laced up in the back (1/2 lace up 1/2 pull over). It looked pretty good until I put it on and realized the front chest was WAAAy to large. Either tear out the seams on the side or experiment were my choices. I went with the latter and ended up cutting three elongated diamonds on both the right and left side of the chest. I pulled the edges together and stitched them up. I covered the ends of the sleeves an the neck opening with fur trim to hide my not too clean edges. I wore it a couple of times to events and actually got some compliments on it. If only they knew! I think this fits with the nature of the post as it's "Good enough".