Laces?

[manevin]

Curious as to whether or not the laces in my brogans suffice as authentic? I have store bought leather laces, as do most of the boyos in my unit. I noticed from a photo though that something else may have been used, or atleast it yielded a different appearance than my laces. The devil is in the details.

Michael Nevin
69th NYVI

[Pvt_6thnhvi]

Re: Laces?

I have heard that atleast on the civilian side that they used something that looks a bit like thin ribbon, Could it have been used for soldiers as well??? Who knows..

Mileage may very....

Rob Tarbox

[Jarnagin]

Re: Laces?

Hungary Leather



Hungary Leather is leather tanned from alum, common salt, and suet; this very quick tanning process that was used for shoe laces and horse equipment. This type of leather was very strong leather. This type of leather could be tanned in about two months verses the 6 to 8 months of vegetable leather.

There is one tannery left in the US that tans by this process and we carry the correct lace for the time. For more information on tanning process of the time check out this link.

http://www.jarnaginco.com/leather%20...ns%20index.htm


David,

There is a fine line between contributing to this forum and promoting your family's company, and it has just been crossed.

Instead of linking to your website, you should provide the info to this thread.

Scott McKay, moderator

[Curt Schmidt]

Re: Laces?

Hallo Kameraden!

At the time of the Civil War there were two general methods for making shoelaces.
One of the most common utilized "pieces and parts" of the hide "scraps" after the shoe uppers were cut out. Circles would be punched or cut out of the pieces. Using a process similar to that done by a plastic tool Tandy Leather sells for just that purpose, a cutter sliced a continous width to produce a very long "strip" of lace.
These would have varied between scraps that had already been dyed on one side, and those that were undyed.
Another method utilized a straight type cutter that sliced hides or sides
into narrow strips for laces similar to the way strips or things are cut today.

I believe that the flat woven shoe lace appeared in the early 1840's, prior to that heavy ribbon was also used.

A number of reproduction shoes seem to come with the "yellow and orange"
so-called "rawhide" (latigo?) leather laces, which IMHO, are wrong and look even worse.

Curt-Heinrich Schmidt

[Djarnagin]

Re: Laces?

Curt,

There are two types of latigo, chrome or alum and salt. Both are period correct. I have found evidence that chrome tannage was around at the Civil War. This would have been an expensive and rare tannage but it did exist.

Alum and salt the earliest and stronger of the two tannages has been around for centuries. This type of tannage may be as early as ancient Egypt. I have read in army report about this tannage being used in shoes for laces. What the original color of the lace was is not told, but alum and salt tannage would need to dye and finished in order not to turn into raw hide. This is evidence that both north and south were tanning this type of leather.

Raw hide is what dog chew toys are made from and would not be used as a lace.

David Jarnagin

[Curt Schmidt]

Re: Laces?

Hallo Herr David!

As always, thanks for sharing and helping me improve my knowledge.
I appreciate it.

Curt-Heinrich Schmidt

[Jarnagin]

period name

Curt,

I forgot in the last message to state that the period name for alum latigo is Hungry leather. This type of leather is thought to be the strongest leather tanned, and is listed for use with saddle and tac.

Latigo is a modern term. I have found no period reference for this term.

David