Brogan Laces

[JimConley]

Pards,
Due to severely wet conditions at the last event, my laces have broken leaving too little to even necessitate the holes. I have been pouring over a few threads about period laces and have found that the leather laces that came with my brogans are incorrect. In an effort to rectify the condition, can anyone point my in the direction of a vendor that provides correct laces? Or at a minumum, some period remedies?

[Wild Rover]

Re: Brogan Laces

Jim,
Do a search for the Wooden Hamlet- Good cotton/linen laces.

Pards,

[Curt Schmidt]

Re: Brogan Laces

Hallo Kameraden!

Courtesy of Tom Mattimore from a previous post on an older version of the AC Forum:

"In the period of the war shoelaces were made by two methods. the most common was the where the cutters in the factory would go thru the hides after the uppers were cut out and punch or cut circles of leather out of the scrap. Then a cutter would take the circles and using a drawknife or freehand begin to cut a strip of the desired width from the circle. the circle was often fastened to the end of a stick with a tack and the stick held between the legs or on a bench . this process is somewhat akin to the playing of a phonograph where the needle would be a knife a suprizingly long strip of leather may be cut from a small circle, I have cut 25 feet of 1/4" from a six inch circle. the leather would have been scrap from shoe uppers and either undyed or dyed on one side. Some of the larger manufactorys would sell their scrap to houses that would specialize in this. The other method was an adaptation of the strip cutter used to cut strips of sole leather. In this process whole sides or hides were cut into strips just as they are today. In the 1840's flat woven shoe laces began to appear and are seen on many antiques and originals. in my opinion life is too short to get carried away on cutting your own but if you want to Tandy's or leather factory sells books on rawhide braiding that cover the technique quite well. Tom Mattimore"

Curt-Heinrich Schmidt

[Moonshine]

Re: Brogan Laces

Jim,

Ditto to Mr. Anders use of Wooded Hamlet. For a time I used some thin white cotton trim from them that were UGLY until they aged. I swear my shoes looked like something from a 1940's football game! Once they were through the holes, I knotted the ends to keep them from fraying and coming out.

Then I got replacement leather ones like Herr Schmidt's reposting from above (don't recall where) and when one side broke short like yours, I simply passed what I could through 2 holes and kept them that way. If you have enough leather lace left, try this method. Never, and I mean never throw anything away. You may still be able to use it or find another use for it... as my grandma who grew up during the Depression from Arkansas taught me.

I looked at the Winslow Homer "Prisoners from the Front" image for inspiration (the old man's shoes) and various dead photos. Some time ago, I posted a question here on the Appomattox shoes that were on display when I visted the site in 1993 (are they still there???) and I think those shoes had some type of twine or cord lace.

Hope this helps...

Jim Ross