Leatherworking

[jbd_29349]

I am looking for two things:
ONE: leatherworking tools that the Romans used (awls, punches, needles, knifes, etc..). I make all my leather goods by hand but with modern tools, I would like to be able to use or at least show the tools used by Roman leather workers at events.

TWO: period leather dyes. I know nothing of how the Romans made leather dyes. I know red and black are proven from the Cave of Letters bag found in Israel; are other colors known or possible? What about painting the leather? How did they seal the leather or did they seal it after dyeing/painting?

Thanks!

[Vindex]

Hi

If you use the search facility and put in "leather dyes" you will see quite a lot of discussion about this subject already.

As for the tools, the saddler who is making my roman saddle has made her awls out of deer antler (the base of the antler fits well into the palm of the hand) and she has made her needles out of bone, too (cattle, I think). It may be that you'll have to make them yourself too rather than purchase them.

[Crispianus]

You can add purple from the Southfleet shoes, often described as having gold thread which is actually very thin gilded metal strip, the holes through which this was laced were very small indeed but appear to be punched.

Any leather working kit should include a number of knifes and awls for specific purposes, also small chisels and edging tools for finishing... not to forget hammers, punches(which could include a plier type) stamps and bristles, thread and wax for sewing.
For shoe making lasts and appropriate tools, adze, axe, saw, rasp etc.
For hobnailing a specialist anvil and seat/stand also useful for hammering the soles of finished shoes on.
Some of this is obvious and examples or at least contemporary illustration/carving exist, smaller items like awls with specialist shapes (eg making the long tunnel stitching in soles) to my knowledge dont exist in the find record but I wouldn't be surprised to find one tomorrow...

hope this is of some use

[Martin Moser]

I am looking for two things:
ONE: leatherworking tools that the Romans used (awls, punches, needles, knifes, etc..). I make all my leather goods by hand but with modern tools, I would like to be able to use or at least show the tools used by Roman leather workers at events.

No complete workshop found yet I'm afraid, but buy
Leguilloux, Martine. Le cuir et la pelleterie à l'epoque romaine, Editions Errance, Paris, 2004
for a number of leather working related tool finds.

TWO: period leather dyes. I know nothing of how the Romans made leather dyes. I know red and black are proven from the Cave of Letters bag found in Israel; are other colors known or possible? What about painting the leather? How did they seal the leather or did they seal it after dyeing/painting?

You asked about 4 months ago here: http://www.romanarmytalk.com/20-roman-re...tml#348409
and I answered:

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jbd_29349 wrote:
What about other colors than black, like Red, Green, Yellow? How did they achieve these colors?

These colors existed, they are mentioned in Lau, Otto: Schuster und Schusterhandwerk in der griechisch-römischen Literatur und Kunst. Bonn 1967, together with white (alumn tanned leather). Earlier Egyptian finds come with green and red leather, a Roman/Jewish 2nd century bag has red and black, late Roman/coptic shoes have red and gold (gilded leather). The Germanic belt from Gommern came in (most probably) white and gilded leather.
Red can be done with madder, a yellow of sorts with birch leaves, but generally we know very, very little detail about the exact processes unfortunately :-(
An excellent book on dyes (but from around 1500) is the Liber Illuministarum from the Tegernsee monastery.
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Add to that the purple Southfleet shoe mentioned above. Painted leather also existed, see the shields from Dura Europos. Check the reports from Dura Europos, exp. Simon James, 2007 (I think it was) to see if there are any details on what type of colors or other chemical analyses exist - I don't recall anything in that direction though.
I'm not aware that anything is known around what was used to make these dyes last better/longer. My guess is that most dyeing was done as part of the tanning process, but other methods quite certainly were known as well.

Finally, also see http://www.romanarmytalk.com/20-roman-re...tml#336852