Scale Thorax Research

[John Conyard]

Yes Byron, if you oil rawhide, for example to stop water penetration, it will go softer.

I am tempted to re-iterate some definitions of “leather”, and perhaps more importantly their historical use. But I will limit myself. Parchment can generally be taken as meaning thin skin without hair, wetted, limed and stretched over a frame. In the classical period rotted vegetable matter may have been used instead of lime. It’s use to face shields suggests it was to help limit moisture penetration, and perhaps to protect the painted decoration. Not to greatly aid structural stability.

On a completely different note, I recently read an admonishment to Samurai to wear badger skin underwear to reduce lice infestation. Now that is something I would like to understand.