Question for Graham...Deurne shoe

[Franklin]

Funny how a very simple slipper can become very complicated very quickly.

[gaiusseptimiuslucianus]

Funny how a very simple slipper can become very complicated very quickly.

Yes indeed! They strike me so much as moccasins in the way they are constructed and the way the feel on my feet. A simple, yet complicated moc, who'da thunk.

Lucianus

[Martin Moser]

FWIW, here are a few pics of my first try, not done as a turnshoe yet, however. I didn't darken the yarn yet, so the seams should be pretty well discernible.

[Peroni]

Beautifully done as usual martin! Laudes!

[Mark Headlee]

Martin,

hock:

[Robert Vermaat]

Very well done!

[Virilis]

Martin, you are a real artist hock: ! I would pay a lofty sum for a pair of those beauties...

[Martin Moser]

Hi Jyrki,

I would pay a lofty sum for a pair of those beauties...

Considering my output, I guess I would have to stretch your patience rather than your purse :-) )

[Mark Headlee]

Martin,

But considering what you make, its well worth both the wait and investment. I've waited longer for much less!

[Martin Moser]

Hi Lucianus,

almost forgot to answer :oops:

I assume you will skive down the uppers to reduce the thickness? Do you think you will do that just in the region of the seams or all over?

I plan to try and do that for all the leather that makes up the upper part of the shoe. Unfortunately it is rather uncommon for scholars to give the thickness of the leather, or to put it more general, to state more in measurements than only the maximum overall length :-( (

Little do they know what the masses (that would be me, me and me e.g.) really want ;-) )

[Crispvs]

That said, preserved leather has often lost mass over the centuries which is replaced by water. This means (so I am told) that shrinkage of up to 30% can occur in a recovered item, meaning that it can be virtually impossible to know the true original dimensions, including thickness in many cases.

Crispvs

[LUCIUS ALFENUS AVITIANUS]

I agree with Crispus. See the thin parts of some preserved caliga, it's ilogical it have been so thin originally.

[Martin Moser]

That said, preserved leather has often lost mass over the centuries which is replaced by water. This means (so I am told) that shrinkage of up to 30% can occur in a recovered item, meaning that it can be virtually impossible to know the true original dimensions, including thickness in many cases.

From what I read, ca. 10% is a normal assumption, at least for length. Make that a range of 10-30%, 10-40%if you want. Now if I don't have a measurement of the thickness as recoveredin the first place, I know nothing still. If I do have a measurement OTOH I can get a rough idea in what range the thickness of the original leather would have been.
In the end IMHO the point remains that interesting and valuable measurements just simply are sadly neglected normally.

[Crispvs]

I agree with you Martin about the lack of reported measurements. I have the same problems with drawings and descriptions of pugiones. Even if there is a cross section or two with associated measurments, there are never (or rarely at any rate) sufficient measurements given to start to reconstruct a reproduction.

Sorry to get slightly OT here.

Crispvs

[gaiusseptimiuslucianus]

Hi Martin,

Laudes, your shoes look great! (As they always do!)

I plan to try and do that for all the leather that makes up the upper part of the shoe. Unfortunately it is rather uncommon for scholars to give the thickness of the leather, or to put it more general, to state more in measurements than only the maximum overall length :-( ( Little do they know what the masses (that would be me, me and me e.g.) really want ;-) )

I will be very interested to see how the skiving comes out and how the shoes wear over the longer term.

I finally got a copy of C. van Dreil-Murray's article about the Deurne assemblage. Very interesting reading! How one wishes those items had been discovered in more recent years and had the advantages of modern archaeological excavation, sigh. I saddens me no end to think how much was lost.

Cheers,

Lucianus