Just so we're clear, I do not claim to be a leather expert, nor do I claim that this is the *only* or the *best* way to make a sand-packed leather bottle. This is the way that *I* make them. They hold water, and they look much better than a plastic water bottle at events. If you come up with a better method or some suggestions, please feel free to put them in the comments for others to learn from.
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| Materials that I use |
Materials
- 5-6 ounce leather
- Waxed linen thread or sinew
- Utility knife
- Large-eye, blunt needles
- Paper
- Pen
- Awl
- Scissors
- Diamond stitching chisel (I used a two-prong and a six prong chisel)
- Cutting mat
- Small bowl of water
- Sponge or paper towel
- Block of wood
- Wooden or rawhide mallet
- Beeswax
- Small-rock sand
- 3/8" dowel rod
A note about the materials: You can use heavier or lighter leather, but there are pluses and minuses to both. Lighter leather will tear more easily when sewing and when packing, but will also give you a bit more definition and will be lighter when full of water. Heavier leather will be heavier to carry, harder to sew, and will probably require more wax. It will be sturdier, however, and more resistant to damage and wear and tear. I've found that the 5-6 ounce leather is about the perfect weight, as it is easier to sew, lighter to carry, and still holds up well for use.
The diamond stitching chisels are a godsend, and are relatively cheap, so far as tools go. They keep your holes evenly space, and the diamond shape makes it far easier to sew than a simple round hole made by awls. If you don't have these, make sure that you have a pair of pliers on hand to pull your needle through the holes, and a slew of extra needles, as you'll end up breaking the eyes on those often.
Process
Make Pattern
Take your paper and pen and draw out the pattern of the bottle that you want. When you do this, there are a couple of things to keep in mind: 1) Your bottle must have smooth sides and no sharp turns, or you won't be able to get the sand into the spaces to puff them out; 2) You're going to be sewing this bottle, and the more weirdness you create now, the harder it will be on you later; 3) Make sure that the mouth of the bottle is neither too large nor too small.
I chose a simple teardrop design for my little bottle, with added "handles" to tie it to a belt. I folded my paper in half, and drew only half of the bottle shape. Then, I cut the shape out and unfolded the paper. This gave me an even shape that matched on both sides.
I then laid the paper pattern down on the leather and with my awl, traced it out twice. I didn't wet the leather at all, though you could. In this case, I didn't find it necessary.
Now, I had two pieces of the same size and shape. Yay! Now you're ready to mark your design and make your holes.
Design and Holes
For my little bottle, I used my awl and drew a star shape on one side and a stylized M on the other. To do this, I soaked a paper towel with water and damped the leather faces evenly and thoroughly. I didn't want the leather to be drenched, but I did want it wet enough to easily take the designs. Make sure that you dampen the whole face, even if you're only going to put the design in one small area. Every time the leather gets wet, it discolors the leather slightly. To avoid weird water-marks, wet the whole thing.
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| Bottle design after the holes were already put in |
I also marked the front and back up a bit with my awl because I wanted the bottle to seem worn and battered for the CosPlay it's going to be used for.
Sofya, my friend and instructor on all things leather, had this amazing tool that she used that she would run along the edges of the pieces. It cut a groove at exactly the same distance all the way around, while giving the thread a place to settle into so it didn't stick out above the leather surface. I, however, don't have one of those. So, instead, I took my awl and carefully drew a line all around the edge of the bottle, trying to keep it the same distance from the edge all the way around. (The distance being about 1mm.) It wasn't perfect, but it gave me a visual for where to use the chisel, and created a slight dip for the thread to go into.
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| The grooves drawn into the pieces |
Then I took the chisel out and started making holes. I should note that the leather was still a little wet when I started, and this caused the chisel to stretch and distort the holes a little bit when I pulled it out. As the leather dried, it because much easier to punch the holes.
On one side at a time, place the chisel at the top of the bottle, near the lip of the mouth. Pound the chisel through the leather onto the board with a rawhide or wooden mallet. Remove the chisel, and place one of the tongs in the last hole made, lining the rest down the length of the aw-drawn edge lines. Pound those holes in, then repeat all the way around. By putting one of the tongs in the last hole you made, you maintain the same distance between the sewing holes.
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| Pounding the chisel into the bottle |
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| Tools used to make the holes |
You can see that I probably should have used the two-prong chisel around the bottom curves to make it less straight, but for this bottle, I wanted it to have a rustic, unprofessional look, so I didn't worry too much about it. Use the tools you need to make the bottle what you want, even if what you want is ungainly and ugly. :)
While you're going around, do your best to make sure you're creating the same number of holes on both sides of the bottle. On this little bottle, that was easy. I just counted how many times I used the six-prong chisel, and made sure they matched up. On larger bottles, it's a bit more difficult, but the six-prong chisel is incredibly helpful with that. It spaces everything out evenly, and if you've cut your patterns out to match, it should all match up well when you sew. If not, there are methods to fix "odd" holes.
Sewing
Here's where things get a bit tricky. When you're sewing these bottles, the objective is to minimize leakage. When done correctly, there should be zero leakage. The best method to do this is by sewing the bottle with a stitch called a "saddle stitch". Because there are far better tutorials on YouTube and a variety of different websites than I'm likely to make, I didn't bother getting into the nitty-gritty of that particular stitch here. (I really like the Instructables step-by-step, found here: http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-saddle-stitch-leather/?ALLSTEPS. As I said, though, there are a lot of options. Look around until you find one that makes sense to you.)
The interesting thing with these bottles is that you can't just start at the top hole. If you do that, the very top of the bottle (the lip of the mouth) will split open. So you have to wrap around the top edge first, and then follow the holes down and around the edge of the bottle.
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| You can see how I went around the top edge and then down the length of the bottle. I sewed the "handlles" after the whole bottle was sewn together, though I could have done it at the same time by just going back down the same holes next to the handles. |
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| Here is the bottle completely sewn together. I also trimmed up the straight edges toward the bottom of the bottle. |
If you find that you're got an "odd" hole as you go around, what I normally do is double-up the sewing on the side with fewer holes to make sure that there are no gaps. What I mean by that is I will take the needle on the side with the extra hole through the extra hole and out on the other side through a hole that has already been used. Then I'll take the other needle back through the same spaces. Take that same needle up to the next empty hole, and pass it through to the next empty hole on the other side. That way you're not leaving any empty spaces which might create leakage later.
I'm not sure if that makes sense or not. I'll draw a diagram later and put it up.
Packing the Bottle
The type of bottle that we're making requires that the bottle be soaking wet before we put the sand into it to form and shape it. Because my bottle was so small, I just stuck it in a bowl of water and let it sit for a while. For larger bottles, the easiest way to soak the bottle is to open the mouth under the faucet and let it run for a while, making sure that the whole thing is getting wet. This isn't a time to be light-handed with the water. You want the leather saturated through.
Once it's water-logged, grab your funnel, your sand, and a 3/8" piece of dowel rod. Put the funnel into the mouth of the bottle, and pour sand in until it won't hold anymore. Take the dowel rod and ram the sand in hard, packing it as tightly as you can. Take care not to rub the leather when you do this, as it might distort the leather into lines or ridges. You want the sand to shape the bottle, not the dowel rod. Pack as much sand into the bottle as it can possibly take, making sure to stamp it down throughout the length and depth of the bottle. Once the sand is all the way to the top, tamp it down tightly into the neck of the bottle so that it is round and open.
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| In this case, the funnel is larger than the mouth of the bottle. I had to carefully hold them together to get the lentils in. Plus, since the bottle was so small, I could only put about six lentils into it at a time before I had to tamp it in with the end of my awl. |
Whatever shape your bottle is in right now is the shape that it will be when it's finished. Make sure that it's what you want. Then set the bottle aside to dry completely. Depending on the humidity, it can take anywhere from 24-48 hours for it to dry totally.
On my little bottle, I used lentils because they were handy, and I only had a few on hand anyway. (Who's going to eat just a 1/4 cup of lentils, really?) The issue with lentils is that they can, and often do, get stuck inside the bottles when they dry on the leather. You can remove them by putting a couple of screws into the bottle and shaking it vigorously. You'll probably have to do it a few times, especially if your bottle has squared-off edges anywhere. This is why sand is a lot more popular than lentils.
Waxing and Sealing
Once the bottle is completely dry, pour all of the sand out. To make sure you get all of it out, drop a couple of small screws into the bottle and shake it vigorously, then pour it all out. Do this several times until the only thing that comes out are the screws.
Now you want to heat up your beeswax. It seems easiest to heat the wax in a double boiler system with a metal can sitting in a water bath on a fire. I have mine in a small cauldron that it stays in most of the time. Use what you have that won't scorch the wax.
Set it on to heat, and once the wax is completely melted, you're ready to go. Using a funnel that will now be dedicated to waxing things, put it into the mouth of the bottle. Pour some wax into the bottle and swish it around, paying close attention to the seams. Pour out the excess, and then do it again. You're going to keep doing this until you can see the wax permeating the leather, and that takes a while. Just keep pouring the wax in, letting it rest in the bottle for a few seconds, then pouring it out. Again, you want to pay closest attention to the seams, but you also want the whole bottle to be saturated through. Don't worry about build up. Each time you pour the hot wax into the bottle, it melts away the build up inside, and reheats the leather, making it easier to permeate it.
Once the entire bottle has changed color, you're done! Pour any excess out, and hang the bottle to cool and harden. When it's completely cooled, pour some water into it to determine how water-tight it is. If there are any leaks, heat your wax up again, and redo the waxing process, allowing the wax to settle mostly where the leaks are. Keep doing that process until there are no more leaks.
Because the cauldron overheated the wax, the leather started to wilt a bit. You can see that in the middle picture above. I put the dowel into the neck to maintain the shape while it cooled and dried. It's still slightly off-kilter, but that actually works for this bottle, since I was going for that rustic look. If you want your bottle to maintain the shape that it has while the sand is in it, though, be very careful not to overheat the wax. A double-boiler will help a lot with that.
Now, it's time to buff the heck out of the bottle. Take a clean, white linen cloth and buff it until it shines. You're getting rid of any excess wax in the bottle, and giving the bottle a beautiful glean. Once that's done, you're good to go!
Once the bottle is completely dry, pour all of the sand out. To make sure you get all of it out, drop a couple of small screws into the bottle and shake it vigorously, then pour it all out. Do this several times until the only thing that comes out are the screws.
Now you want to heat up your beeswax. It seems easiest to heat the wax in a double boiler system with a metal can sitting in a water bath on a fire. I have mine in a small cauldron that it stays in most of the time. Use what you have that won't scorch the wax.
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| My wax in my cauldron. Not the best way to heat wax, it seems. It got too hot and overheated the bottle a little bit. |
Set it on to heat, and once the wax is completely melted, you're ready to go. Using a funnel that will now be dedicated to waxing things, put it into the mouth of the bottle. Pour some wax into the bottle and swish it around, paying close attention to the seams. Pour out the excess, and then do it again. You're going to keep doing this until you can see the wax permeating the leather, and that takes a while. Just keep pouring the wax in, letting it rest in the bottle for a few seconds, then pouring it out. Again, you want to pay closest attention to the seams, but you also want the whole bottle to be saturated through. Don't worry about build up. Each time you pour the hot wax into the bottle, it melts away the build up inside, and reheats the leather, making it easier to permeate it.
Once the entire bottle has changed color, you're done! Pour any excess out, and hang the bottle to cool and harden. When it's completely cooled, pour some water into it to determine how water-tight it is. If there are any leaks, heat your wax up again, and redo the waxing process, allowing the wax to settle mostly where the leaks are. Keep doing that process until there are no more leaks.
Because the cauldron overheated the wax, the leather started to wilt a bit. You can see that in the middle picture above. I put the dowel into the neck to maintain the shape while it cooled and dried. It's still slightly off-kilter, but that actually works for this bottle, since I was going for that rustic look. If you want your bottle to maintain the shape that it has while the sand is in it, though, be very careful not to overheat the wax. A double-boiler will help a lot with that.
Now, it's time to buff the heck out of the bottle. Take a clean, white linen cloth and buff it until it shines. You're getting rid of any excess wax in the bottle, and giving the bottle a beautiful glean. Once that's done, you're good to go!
And so you can see what an intentionally pretty bottle looks like, here's the one that I made for my husband for events.
That's it. Not too terribly hard, is it? I'd love to see what you create. Please feel free to comment with pictures, suggestions, or just to say hi. :)
If you like how your bottle turns out, you should thank Sofya. If I do something wrong in the teaching, the assumption should be that I misremembered what she taught me, or just plain screwed up.
DISCLAIMER 2: I have yet to find any documentable evidence that bottles like this were period to the SCA. The only thing that I've seen are ceramic bottles made to resemble these types of bottles, and molded bottles that have a similar shape. If anyone has evidence to support these things being used prior to 1600, please share your links in the comments. I would absolutely love to see some. Until it happens, however, please assume that these bottles are period-esque for SCA purposes, rather than a true representation of historical items.
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