Valkenburg/Castleford style caliga step by step

[Martin Moser]

Thanks for your comments, Ursinius!

The source of that pattern is Michael Simkins in his Osprey publication. I believe it was based on the german caligae from Cologne(?) published by Lindenschmitt in the 19th century and actually the same model as on the pic posted in this thread by Maurinus, so it is authentic?

Ok, this is one of the publications I still haven't had a chance to look at as it is not available in any of the libraries I have access to. (can anybody help me out here, perhaps?)

A lot of the Valkenburg shoe soles were published in the 1980's: see:
R.M. van Dierendonck, D.P. Hallewas, K.E. Waugh (eds.), The Valkenburg Excavations 1985-1988, Introduction and Details Studies, Nederlandse Oudheden 15, Valkenburg Project 1

I will try and find that (the Bavarian State Library doesn't have it :-( ( ) - could you perhaps help me out with copies of the relevant pages?

Thanks for sheding some more light on this, I hope I will some day be able to get a look on the underlying find of this pattern! (I still suspect the straps of most reconstructions are way to broad ;-) ) )

[Sutoris]

Other than the color, how is this stuff different from Bee's wax, or simply pre-waxed thread?

Well, bees wax and shoemakers pitch(we call it cod) are two different things.
Bees wax is a lubricant and cod is a "glue".
1 It prevents the hemp/ flax thread to take up moist.
2 It "stick" the thread to the hog bristles
3 Pulling the threads thru the leather the cod is warmed and after cooling down
"glue" the threads together and lock the stitch.

One easy way to make a cod:
take rosin and beeswax 50/50
melt it down au bain marie CAUTION: highly flammable, very hot, and stick to your skin !!!
mix some drops of veg oil in it, if the cod turns out to be to hard you always can ad more oil later.
poor it in a bucket of cold water and make a bal of it under water, it's still hot!

this is not the real shoemakers pitch but it will do the job