Real Deal Spolas

[Crispianus]

I've stopped this project, because I now feel that the spolas was likely made from layers of leather, perhaps water-hardened, instead of oiled and waxed hides..  Rawhide is still too susceptible to moisture, even wrinkling with humidity in the air, though it could be used for scale armour if sealed properly.  I am going to suggest something controversial..  I suspect that the white color seen on what could be spolioi in depictions might actually be lead white ground in oil.  Here's why:  The other white pigments available at the time are too powdery --they would crumble right off the leather, and they don't have the covering power of white lead, as well as being extremely susceptible to moisture.  Painted designs wouldn't adhere properly etc.

Have you thought about baking rawhide to remove excess moisture and then sealing it?

I'm also of the opinion that the pteurges could be made by tablet weave from suitably robust twine and I suspect would hang better...

I think the spolas could be covered with a white leather, tawed and even tanned leather can be naturally white or close to it.

A White Hellenistic shoe from Egypt (allegedly)

https://collections.mfa.org/objects/164463

I still think the rawhide would be too hygroscopic; a little humidity or sweat and it will warp or worse.  Alum tawed hides are even more hygroscopic, as alum is excellent at pulling in moisture, and alum tawing creates a very soft product.  Apparently the processing of hides in Egypt or certain processes did indeed create a paler hide / leather.  I suspect with the decoration on some of them that they were painted, perhaps with a white pigment, though as you say, perhaps it was the processing. I do have a different T & Yoke armour that is twined and is partially done; I suspect that some of the T & Y armours were twined.  All speculation until we can find some remains!

Ok so lets speculate....

The point is to make it less hydroscopic by baking and sealing the rawhide, as far as I'm aware this was a technique still in use by a professional scabbardmaker 20 years ago for dress swords (think Life Guards), the object was to stop the scabbard from warping and stabilise the material, my own experience proved that simply drying even in a fairly warm place was not enough and the scabbard would still warp. How you'd do it with such a large piece I don't know perhaps stretching it in a frame wet and then baking it? unfortunatly I dont know the temperatures used but a bit of experimentation with a few samples should prove it either way.

Assume you have a rawhide front, back and shoulder and these pieces are streched wet in a frame and dryed naturally and then baked before final cutting out, excess offcuts can make up the scales for the sides which otherwise might be made from more flexible material, the rawhide covered on the outside by a layer of thin white leather of your choice for the main components

With tablet weave you get exactly the width you want for the pteurges with a very thick flexible material the ends can be tasseled to represent the finish that you see in contemporary illustrations. You could even weave them altogether as a single piece with a starting border on a frame loom etc.