[This is an article from
Cariadoc's Miscellany. The Miscellany is Copyright
(c) by David Friedman and Elizabeth Cook, 1988, 1990, 1992. For copying
details, see the Miscellany Introduction.]
The Perfect Armor
Suppose you were drawing up specifications for the perfect armor. It would
be easy to make from inexpensive materials using commonly available tools.
It would be light, strong and rustproof. It would look good. And, of
course, it would be period.
Hardened leather, also known as courbouilli, meets all of those
requirements. Since discovering how easy it is to make, I have used it to
make forearm and elbow protectors, greaves, a half gauntlet, body armor,
and edging for my shield. I even made a hardened leather hockey cup, on the
theory that the usual white plastic version was the most strikingly mundane
item in my armor bag.
In this essay, I will describe how to make several pieces of armor out of
hardened leather: a bazuband (a medieval Islamic forearm and elbow
protector), a klibanion (Byzantine body armor), a gauntlet and a basket
hilt. The techniques described can be applied to a wide variety of other
pieces.
To start, you need some leather. It should be vegetable tanned leather
rather than chrome tanned leather, and undyed. Chrome tanned, which is the
most common modern variety, can usually be recognized by the grey color of
the cut edge (unless the edge has been dyed). Vegetable tanned leather is
used for carving, making belts and similar projects; it is often described
as saddle skirting. Its color, before you harden it, is a light tan.
The thickness of leather is defined in ounces per square foot. One ounce
corresponds to a thickness of 1/64"; what is actually measured is usually
thickness rather than weight. Ideally you should use at least 12 or 13
ounce leather. Leather as light as 8 or 9 ounces can be used for armor, at
least over places that are not too vulnerable; if you make your bazuband
out of something that light, use two thicknesses over the elbow. The
klibanion is made of overlapping lamellae, giving a total thickness of
about twice the thickness of a single layer of leather, so 8 ounce provides
at least minimal protection.
Before you start making hardened leather armor, let me give you three
warnings. The first is that, although beeswax is attractive, pleasant
smelling stuff, people who do not make armor and do share your kitchen may
object to finding hardened drops of it scattered over the floor, stove, and
countertops. The problem can be minimized by being careful with the molten
wax. If you are not good at being careful, you will want to know that
hardened wax is easier to remove if you use something soaked in hot water.
The second warning is that wax can burn-which is why it is used to make
candles. I have never had beeswax catch fire on me when I was using it to
harden leather, but I expect it could happen if you got it too hot. I have
no experience with paraffin or other waxes that you might use instead. Be
careful, and keep a fire extinguisher nearby.
My final warning is to remind you that the bag that separates your inside
from your outside is made of leather. Any tool designed to cut leather is
also designed to cut you, so be careful. As Kipling put it in "The Wrong
Thing," "Do your work with your heart's blood, but no need to let it show."
[Image] Figure 1
To Make a Bazuband
Figure 1 shows what a simple bazuband looks like; Figure 2 shows the piece
of leather you will use. The measurements are the circumference of the
wrist (a), the maximum circumference of the forearm (b) and the distance
from the wrist to the crease that divides the forearm from the upper arm
(c). I have given the measurements of the piece for my arm as an example.
Cut out the piece, fill a pot with cold water from the tap, and put the
leather in to soak; if you do not have a pot big enough, use the sink or
bathtub. After the leather has soaked for half an hour or so it gets
flexible and slightly stretchy. If you are making something that requires a
good deal of stretching, such as a bazuband or greave, let the leather soak
overnight, then take it out, cover it with a damp towel, and leave it for
eight hours or so.
If you were simply making a forearm guard, all you would have to do to
shape it would be wrap it around your arm (with padding), or around
anything else about the same shape and size, and let it dry. A bazuband is
a little trickier because of the part that covers the elbow, which is
curved like part of a sphere. To make that, you have to stretch the central
portion of the leather that goes over the elbow-the shaded area on Figure
2. The different degrees of shading are intended to give a rough idea of
what is stretched how much.
[Image] Figure 2
One way is to use a medium sized bowl-say 6"-8" in diameter. Put the bowl
upside down on a convenient counter and stretch the leather over it by
hand. Another way is to use two bowls, one a little larger than the other,
with the leather in between.
When the leather has been stretched enough, the next step is to tie it to
the form. The form should be something about the size and shape the
bazuband is going to be. That means that it should be cylindrical for eight
inches or so, with a diameter of about four or five inches and an end that
is roughly spherical-increase the numbers a little if you are a giant.
I happen to have a steel bazuband the right size, so I cover it with Saran
Wrap to protect it from the wet leather and use it as my form. If you do
not have any antique armor lying around, look on the shelf where you keep
empty jars, wine bottles, and the like; you should be able to find
something about the right size and shape. It does not have to be exact; you
will be able to do a certain amount of reshaping of the damp leather after
you take it off the form. If you are really ambitious and good at
whittling, you could probably make a wooden form and use it to make
bazubands for everyone in your group.
Tie the wet leather onto the form, using strips of cloth to avoid marking
the leather. Better yet, use a roller bandage-one of those elastic bandages
they sell to tie up a sprain, made out of stuff that sticks to itself. You
probably have one left around from the time you sprained your ankle
fighting.
The basic idea is to get the wet leather tied tightly onto the form, so
that when it dries it will have the shape of the form. The only hard part
is the spherical section covering the elbow. Work that onto the
corresponding part of the form by hand, trying to get it as smooth and
wrinkle free as possible. I generally leave it for fifteen or twenty
minutes, in the hope that it will stretch a bit more, then untie that part
and try again. When you are finally satisfied, leave it for a few hours to
dry.
At that point the leather should be stiff enough to hold its shape as long
as you treat it gently; take it off the form so the inside as well as the
outside can dry. If necessary reshape it a bit-open up the cylinder that
goes over your forearm if it is too tight, or close it a little if it is
too loose. Then leave it somewhere out of the way to finish drying. Do not
start the next step until the leather is thoroughly dry, which probably
means waiting several days; if you try to harden leather that is still a
little damp, horrible things will happen to it.
Leather is hardened by impregnating it with beeswax. Some people do this by
melting wax in a large pot and putting in the leather. This method requires
a lot of wax, and I have never tried it. I harden my leather in the oven,
using a large pan or a sheet of aluminum foil. In the pan I put the
bazuband, with the hollow side up and a large chunk-half a pound or so-of
beeswax inside it. Then I put the pan, leather, and wax in an oven set at
about 220deg. .
When the leather is hot and the wax beginning to soften a little, take the
pan out, rub the wax all over the surface of the leather, and put the pan
(and wax and bazuband) back in the oven. Try not to spill wax anywhere
where it is likely to catch fire. Continue the process for half an hour or
more, rubbing wax on both sides, letting chunks of softened wax melt in the
hollow part of the bazuband and running the melted wax around the inside,
until the leather is soaked through with wax. Then turn off the oven and
take out the pan, bazuband, and what is left of the wax. As long as the
leather is hot the bazuband is reasonably flexible, so do any last minute
reshaping to get the size just right, then let it cool and harden.
This is a simple bazuband, made of only one piece of leather, so all that
remains to do is to punch holes in it (as shown in Figure 1), run a leather
thong through the holes, and put in whatever kind of padding you prefer.
You are done. You now have light, strong, rustproof protection for your
sword arm and elbow. It is a beautiful brown color and looks (and is) very
real.
[Image] Figure 3
If you wanted a somewhat fancier bazuband, you could make a second piece to
cover the inside of your wrist, as shown on Figure 3. The hinge is simply a
strip of unhardened leather, rivetted to both pieces as shown. The side of
the main piece that does not attach to the hinge has a lip for the wrist
piece to fit over. It is simply a long rectangle of hardened leather,
rivetted to the main piece as shown. The bazuband is held closed by two
buckles. The figure includes an end view of the piece, seen from the wrist
end, showing how the hinge, the lip, the main piece and the piece for the
inside of the wrist go together.
In addition to covering the inside of the wrist, the bazuband shown in
Figure 3 is fancier in another respect as well. The tip of the part that
covers the elbow has a reverse curve, to make it more comfortable-that way
there is no edge pressing against your arm just above the elbow. Some
bazubands were made this way, some were not. Figure 4 shows one where the
design has been modified to provide a little more protection to the sides
of the elbow.
[Image] Figure 4
Obviously, there is lots of room for varying the details of the design to
fit your taste and body. One of my bazubands currently has two extra holes
in it near the elbow end, so that part of the lacing comes across the bend
at the inside of my elbow; I think I like it better that way but am not
quite sure. You can use buckles and straps instead of lacing. If you
usually fight with a basket hilt, you can extend the bazuband at the wrist
end a little, to provide a flap that covers the back of your hand and
improves your wrist protection, like a half gauntlet.
What has your bazuband cost you to make? Where I live, the local leather
stores sell scrap vegetable tanned leather, usually about 8 ounce, for $3 a
pound-apparently leftovers from making belts. Sometimes they have pieces
suitable for something like a bazuband, sometimes not. For leather that is
not scrap the price is usually given in dollars per square foot, but works
out to about $6 a pound. If your arm is the same size as mine, the piece of
leather shown in Figure 1 is about two-thirds of a square foot; allowing
for wastage, you will probably have to buy about one square foot. If you
are using 12 ounce leather, that will weigh 12 ounces and cost under $3 if
you can find it as scrap, under $6 otherwise. Add another dollar or two for
the wax and you have a very nice piece of armor for less than eight dollars
worth of materials.
After you have been using the bazuband for a few months, and blocking far
too many blows with your swordarm instead of your shield, you may find that
the leather has gotten a little soft in places and the color has gotten
lighter. The solution is simple; put it back in the oven-provided, of
course, that your padding is either ovenproof or removable. Ten or fifteen
minutes in a 200deg. oven will remelt the wax, reharden the leather, and
restore its original color. If it has been badly beaten, you might want to
rub in a little more wax.
I have described the making of a particular piece of armor, but the same
techniques can be used for other pieces. My greaves are essentially
oversized bazubands (with a second piece covering the calf, like the wrist
piece in the fancier version). Once I have gotten the knee part adequately
stretched, I use my leg for the form to get the rest of the greave to
shape. I have to hobble around for an hour or two with my leg wrapped in
leather and roller bandage-but the final result is a greave molded exactly
to the shape of my leg, like ancient Greek armor.
One problem I have occasionally had in making such armor is that the
spherical parts come out not quite spherical enough; I have not stretched
the leather sufficiently, with the result that my knee or elbow does not go
quite far enough in to be adequately protected. There is a solution to this
problem. Leather can be worked with a hammer on an anvil, much as steel is
worked. The essential idea is to stretch the leather, before or after
hardening, by hammering it against a hard surface. For details, consult a
friendly armorer. An alternative way of solving the problem might be to
make a two or three inch cut starting at the point marked X on Figure 2,
overlap the edges of the cut, and rivet or sew the cut closed; I haven't
tried that, but it seems like one obvious way of getting the hollow deeper.
To Make a Klibanion
Lamellar armor is made from lots of small plates of some rigid material,
such as metal or leather, laced together. It was used by many different
peoples, from Scandinavia to Japan. I call the piece I am describing a
klibanion because that is a particular kind of lamellar armor for which I
happen to have a name, but similar armor was used by many different people.
Making lamellar armor is a project I have been thinking of for years but
only got around to doing recently, while writing this article.
[Image] Figure 5
The first step is to cut out lots of lamellae. Figure 5 shows the size and
shape I used, as well as several other shapes based on surviving lamellae
(from Thordeman and Robinson). The material I used was 8 ounce vegetable
tanned leather. A sleeveless lamellar vest, protecting me from the waist
up, required about 180 lamellae.
The next step is to harden the leather. Since the pieces are flat, you can
simply stack them in a cake pan or something similar, put a big lump of
beeswax on top, stick them in a 220deg. oven and let the wax melt. When it
is mostly or entirely melted, turn the pieces over, rearrange, and
generally fiddle with them until every piece is saturated with wax. Then
take them out and let them cool.
The next step is to put in the holes. You could do this with a leather
punch, but I think it is easier to use a drill, especially if you have
access to a drill press. Mark out the positions of the holes on one
lamella, put it on top of a stack of five or ten others, make sure they are
all aligned, and drill a hole through the whole stack. Put a nail or
something similar into the hole to make it harder for the lamellae to shift
around, then drill a second hole. Put another nail in that hole, then drill
the rest; two nails will keep the lamellae pretty well aligned. Make sure
you are drilling straight down, so the holes are in the same position in
all the pieces.
Figure 6 shows a group of nine lamellae laced together and a diagram of the
lacing pattern I use; it is slightly modified from a reconstruction by
Bengt Thordeman described in Byzantine Armies 886-1118. I use leather thong
for lacing. I lace the lamellae together into long horizontal strips, then
lace the strips together. The lamellae in each strip overlap over those in
the strip above, so the overlap is upward-just the opposite of scale armor,
which overlaps down.
[Image] Figure 6
Figure 7 shows my klibanion, laid out flat. It fastens at the right front.
I have no evidence on how historical ones fastened; I did it that way
because it required fewer fastenings than fastening it up the front. The
next one I make will fasten up the front; that will require one more
buckle, but make it easier to get it over my head. The figure does not show
the join between the back and front part of the shoulder straps (also made
of lamellae), since with the shoulder straps assembled the piece no longer
lies flat. When the klibanion is completely finished, points a,b on the
back shoulder piece lace to points A, B on the front ones and lamellae
c-ftouch lamellae C-F. The front of the klibanion has an extra row of
partial lamellae at the bottom, cut to fit the curve of the body-this is a
feature you can see on the period pictures.
I have not shown how the armor fastens together. The simplest way is to
take a foot or so of leather thong, tie a knot in one end, run it into one
of the empty edge holes of lamella C, through the matching hole in lamella
c, back out through the other hole in c and finally back to front through
the matching hole in C, then tie a knot in the other end. If you pull it
tight and tie it the thong holds the two lamellae together as if they were
laced. Repeat for D, E, and F. Untying the thongs (but not pulling them out
of the lamellae they are laced through) lets you separate the two edges
(c-f and C-F) by enough to put the garment on. For a more convenient
fastening, use buckles. The straps that the buckles are on lace to the
lamellae at one side of the gap, the straps that go into the buckles lace
to the lamellae at the other side. You may want to add enough extra
lamellae so that the two sides can overlap a little.
[Image] Figure 7
My current klibanion has a yoke of unhardened leather that fits over my
shoulders, with a hole for my head and a slit in front. The lamellae on the
shoulder lace down to the yoke. My shoulders and upper arms are protected
by pteruges ("feathers"-long rectangular pieces) of unhardened leather. The
yoke and pteruges are also shown on Figure 7.
Alternatively, one could make a lamellar flap to protect the shoulder, a
feature of both Japanese and Persian lamellar armor. A larger flap,
possibly 3 rows of 11 lamellae each, could be hung from the back of the
waist to protect the buttocks. Another alternative would be more pteruges,
hanging down from the bottom edge of the klibanion to protect the upper
thighs-I believe that is the way the real Byzantine klibanions were often
constructed. Yet another possibility, and one I may try for my next
project, is a longer coat of lamellar, coming down to mid thigh and split
front and back to permit better leg movement.
After the klibanion is assembled, there is one final step. Put it back in
the oven at about 200deg. . Then put on your gambeson-or whatever else you
plan to wear under the armor. When the armor gets limp, which should only
take five minutes or so, take it out and put it on, being careful not to
burn yourself. Wrap several strips of cloth around your body over the
armor, forcing the lamellae flat against you; make sure there is at least
one strip over each row of lamellae. Let the armor cool and harden, then
take it off. You now have a klibanion custom fitted to your body. If the
whole piece won't fit in your oven, do this step a little earlier, when you
have almost but not quite finished lacing the lamellae together, so that
the armor is still in two or three separate pieces.
Once you have shaped the armor to your body, you do not want to reshape it
to something else. I have been told that a closed car in the sun can get
hot enough to soften waxed leather; although I have never had it happen, it
is probably worth taking care not to leave your courbouilli anywhere very
hot. Of course, if you forget, you can always put it back in the oven and
reshape it. I have also been told that courbouilli armor can soften
somewhat if you fight in it in very hot weather. My current view on the
subject is that if it is too hot out for my armor it is also too hot for
me.
What will it take to make your klibanion? The one illustrated contains
about 180 lamellae with a total area of about nine square feet, so you will
need about four and a half pounds of eight ounce leather-more if you use
something thicker. You will also need about two pounds of beeswax and
ninety feet of lacing.
If you can get suitable scrap leather for $3 a pound, your total cost for
leather, wax, and lacing should come to under $25, otherwise to under
$50-somewhat more if you choose to use something heavier than eight ounce
leather. Once you have figured out what you are doing, it should take about
a minute per lamella to cut them out, about another minute to harden and
drill them, and less than a minute per lamella to lace them, so you should
be able to make your second klibanion in about eight to ten hours of
work-the first will take longer. The lacing, incidentally, provides those
of us who do not knit something to do with our hands while conversing with
friends or watching small children.
The finished piece protects my torso from the waist up and weighs about six
pounds. I am 5'3" tall with a 36" waist; if you are substantially bigger or
smaller, scale the figures accordingly. Nine square feet of lamellae comes
to about four and a half square feet of armor, so I am covered, on average,
by two layers of 8 ounce hardened leather. I believe that that, over a
reasonable gambeson, should satisfy the armor requirements of any kingdom,
but check with your local marshall to make sure.
Whether or not it is legal, is it adequate protection? That depends on what
sort of fighting you do. For the average sword and shield fighter doing
mostly single combat, I think the answer is yes. The klibanion is light and
easy to move in, and it protects you reasonably well against the occasional
shot that gets through to your body-although you will want to add
additional protection for your torso below your waist and for your
shoulders.
On the other hand, if you often take hard body blows-for instance, if you
fight bastard sword or two sword, or get involved in a lot of very messy
melees-you probably want substantially more protection for your body. One
way to get it would be to use thicker leather, perhaps 12 or 13 ounce or
more, at least for the most important parts of the armor, which probably
means the sides. Another is to use steel lamellae for some parts of the
armor. That takes more time and more tools, but it gives you armor
combining most of the protection of steel with most of the lightness of
leather. I have tried both of these. My current klibanion has steel
lamellae alternating with hardened leather on one side and thick hardened
leather lamellae on the other-both seem to work fine. Another alternative
that I have not tried is to move the holes in the lamellae farther in from
the edge, in order to increase the amount of overlap.
This is a very simple klibanion. The ones shown in Byzantine pictures
provided more coverage of the upper body and shoulders, and often had
additional pieces of leather (pteruges) hanging down from the waist to
protect the tops of the legs.
Size and shape of surviving lamellae vary over a wide range; you may want
to experiment. My first klibanion used rectangular lamellae 3"x5". It was
less work to make than the one I have shown and provided about the same
protection, although slightly less flexibility. None of the pictures I have
seen show lamellae that big, which is the main reason I used smaller ones
for my second try. One of my squires has made a klibanion using lamellae
similar to mine, but about an inch wider. It was less work to make, since
it required fewer lamellae, and it probably provides slightly better
protection; my next one will use a similar pattern.
You should also feel free to use your own inspiration, guided, where
practical, by pictures of period lamellar armor, in varying the design. One
of the nice things about lamellar is that when you decide you need a little
less under the arm and a little more over the shoulder, all you have to do
is move a few lamellae. Try doing that with a steel breastplate.
A Gauntlet
Figure 8 shows a hardened leather gauntlet, both the cut out pieces and the
whole thing shaped and assembled. It is made of four pieces of hardened
leather (I recommend at least 14 oz) plus a hinge of unhardened leather (7
oz). The hinge U is laced to the finger piece S along ff (which laces to
FF), to the hand piece R along gg (which laces to GG) and to the knuckle
piece T along ee (which laces to EE). The base of the thumb piece overlaps
the hand piece R, and is fastened by a piece of leather thong, going
through one hole at the base of Q and two holes in R. The edges cc and dd,
which touch when the gauntlet is assembled, are bevelled at the bottom (the
inside of the gauntlet), to help the gauntlet bend better.
The hard part, of course, is shaping the wet leather. The simplest way is
to use a steel mitten gauntlet of about the right shape as your form. If
that is not available, look for common household objects with the right
shapes. The finger piece S, for example, must curve down (to protect the
sides and tips of the fingers) everywhere except along cc, where it touches
the hand piece R. You can get this shape by molding it into the bottom of a
shallow bowl, with cc running roughly through the center of the bottom-that
way the other three sides curve up, but cc does not. When you think you
have it about right, take it out and do the final shaping by hand.
[Image] Figure 8
The hand piece R should end up with a sort of hourglass shape, with the
cuff flaring out from the wrist. To get this put the narrow end of a fairly
large funnel into the mouth of a jar, and tie them together. Then tie the
wet leather over the resulting hourglass shaped form.
Complete instructions for something as complicated as a gauntlet would
require a much longer discussion, a much better artist, and much more
precise drawings. This should, however, give you enough information to get
started on your own process of trial and error. If you do it right, you
should end up with a gauntlet that entirely bridges the hand and thumb, so
that the force of a blow to the hand is transmitted to your sword, not your
hand.
Other Possibilities
There are lots of other things you can make out of hardened leather. My
upper legs, for instance, are protected by armored underpants-loose
drawstring pants with pockets holding long pieces of hardened leather. My
gorget is hardened leather, and one of our new people has been making
himself hardened leather copies of a simple steel elbow cop, using two
thicknesses of eight ounce leather. Another member of our group made a
hardened leather basket hilt; Figure 9 shows his design. I would recommend
using at least 14 oz leather. One could easily enough make a Visby coat of
plates or a backplate and breastplate combination, although I have not yet
done either. And, of course, there is always the hardened leather hockey
cup-for which I recommend very thick leather.
Rawhide
So far I have been discussing courbouilli -hardened leather. Another
material worth trying is rawhide. Unfortunately, it is more difficult to
get-the maximum thickness sold by the only commercial sources I have
located so far is about 4 or 5 ounces, too light for armor.
[Image] Figure 9
One solution is to make your own; I have not tried that, although I know
someone who has. Fortunately, one of the members of our group knows someone
who makes drum heads, and was able to get a lot of scrap rawhide from him
for me to experiment with. My conclusions so far are fairly tentative,
since I have made a few things but not yet fought with them.
The rawhide I have been working with is about 1/8" thick when dry; I
believe this is the full thickness of the hide, so unless you have a source
for rawhide from a rhinoceros, it is probably about as thick as you can
get. It is both very hard and very tough--substantially stronger than 8
ounce hardened leather. It can be cut with a saw, or soaked for a few hours
to soften it and then cut with a knife. While wet it can be stretched--the
best way seems to be to punch holes in the edges of the piece, and then use
laces to pull it tightly over the form. I made a dhal, a small buckler, by
stretching the rawhide over a bowl.
One advantage--or perhaps disadvantage--of rawhide is that it can be dyed.
My Irish squire has been planning a patchwork klibanion, which should be
interesting. One problem with rawhide is that when it gets wet it gets
soft. I have visions of putting a klibanion into an armor bag along with a
very sweaty gambeson, and a week later pulling out a large rawhide pretzel.
My solution to this problem is to wax the rawhide, just as I would wax
leather. Waxed rawhide is no harder than unwaxed rawhide--but it seems to
be waterproof.
Tools and Materials
The only expensive tool you will need for making hardened leather armor is
one you already have-an oven. A utility knife costs about $3 and does an
adequate job of cutting leather. For cutting lamellae, a large metal ruler
is useful, and even more useful if it is a right angle ruler. You will want
a piece of scrap plywood or linoleum to cut the leather on--utility knives
mark up cutting boards pretty badly. Aside from strips of rags, an empty
wine bottle to use as a form for your bazuband, a 2" diameter lid from a
baby food jar to put on the lamella and cut along in order to cut the
rounded end, and a few similar odds and ends, that is it.
To find local sources for leather, look in the Business to Business Yellow
Pages under leather, tanners, and shoe making supplies. The Leather Factory
is a chain with stores in many states; I have found their prices somewhat
better than Tandy's. Currently, a 20-22 sq. ft. hide of commercial grade
saddle skirting, 13-15 ounce thickness, is about $80 (plus postage) on
sale, $110 otherwise. Beeswax is sometimes available from health food
stores, or from places that sell leather. It can be purchased by mail from
Glorybee Bee Supply store (1-800-GLORYBE). Their price, as of November
1991, was $1.95/pound plus postage in quantities of ten pounds or more, and
$2.95 a pound plus postage for smaller quantities.
A Historical Note
In describing hardened leather armor at the beginning of this article, I
said that, in addition to all of its other virtues, it is also period. I
should qualify that by saying that although hardened leather was used as
armor in period, I do not know the details of how it was hardened. I should
also add that although the bazuband is a period piece of armor--it appears
in pictures from the eighth century and is common in late period Persian
art (see Robinson and Elgood)--the surviving ones that I know of are made
of metal. They could have been made of hardened leather and I think it
likely that some were, but I cannot prove it.
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