Just for clarity: I know they had winter boots! There’s an Irish find in the video that was almost certainly a winter/work boot. I just don’t have any yet and wanted to experiment!
When you make your winter boots, give more room in the toebox area than you would for summer wear so you can layer wool socks/stockings, or even use a felted wool boot liner. Part of what keeps your feet warm in winter is insulation, and that means extra layers of socks, but you don't want that compressed by a tight toebox, or you'll have circulation problems and your toes will stay cold.
You prolly dont care but does anyone know a way to get back into an Instagram account..? I was dumb forgot my login password. I would love any help you can offer me.
@Colton Rodrigo I really appreciate your reply. I found the site thru google and Im trying it out atm. Seems to take a while so I will reply here later when my account password hopefully is recovered.
I went *solely* 😂 barefoot for a good 4-5 years of my childhood (~6-11) and I definitely learned a lot about the way your body naturally wants to move while walking. When you have little to no protection for the bottoms of your feet, you quickly learn that it hurts a hell of a lot more to step on something sharp and pointy with your heal than your toes. Even now, when I go barefoot to walk up and down my long gravel driveway when I’m feeling particularly lazy😅, I automatically revert to toe-to-heel. Also, by taking smaller strides and keeping your weight on the balls of your feet, you are much more in control of where your foot goes and with how much weight to which areas. If you’re stepping down-not out-and your toes are readily available to grip and redirect, you experience less pain. You also make less noise when you don’t use your heel as much so 👍🏻 to walking barefoot in the woods when you don’t want to draw attention.
About walking toe-heel instead of heel-toe: I work at a Renaissance faire in the summer, and one day I had to borrow shoes because one of mine suddenly had the outsole flapping wide open. The only shoes anyone could lend me in my size were dance boots which basically offer the same amount of support and protection from stones that your medieval shoes do: minimal. I too found myself walking toe-heel to minimize the impact of unpleasant walking surfaces. I've seen a bit of discourse on the subject, largely from other Ren faire folks (so questionable historicity), but there's talk that toe-heel was the norm until harder sole materials got popular. It sparks my curiosity to rethink something so basic and instinctive as walking!
To that point, the book "How to Behave Badly in Elizabethan England" by Ruth Goodman talked about different walking styles (mostly among the upper classes because her research was based on etiquette books). I remember her saying something about how the foot was "supposed" to move while walking fashionably, which I tried and found odd for my modern walking style. All this is to say, I agree with your point about the interest in rethinking how walking might have been different in the past!
@@GraciePattenSewing I love Ruth Goodman's work! She's so stoked to talk about things that could be boringly mundane, but she makes them so fun to learn about.
Here in Sweden, where we have snow up to the knees 🤣 we usually use extra long leg wraps in the winter. They need to go all the way down in the shoes in the winter. As the shoes are low and the heat from the foot melts loose snow, it is important to make a distance from the body heat and the snow so the snow does not melt and turns into water which makes the clothes wet and cold. ☺️
My daughter (9) was watching this with me. She was excited to hear you are in Edinburgh. She loved that Scotland’s national animal is the unicorn and she wants to know if you have ever seen one. She also thinks your shoes are super cool. Sounds like we will be attempting to make our own!
Thank you! Good luck with your shoes, they're fun to make! I've only seen one, and it ran away into the forest before I could get a picture. Unicorns are very shy, you see, so they're rare to spot,, but if they get to know you're safe they're quite friendly!
Beeswax! Shouldn't rot the stitching, at least not in the reasonable lifespan of the shoe. Also, warm your shoes (not on a grill, although I'm sure plenty of actual medieval shoes suffered that kind of damage) so the wax/fat will soak in better. Delighted to hear you wear Blundies! I used to live around the corner from the factory, although sadly they're not made in Tasmania anymore.
Wool is one of the few fibers that doesn't lose its ability to retain heat when wet. Many Medievalists speculate that folks would stuff their shoes with wool before putting them on over their wool socks. This would decrease sole wear by padding it from impact ABOVE, since they didn't have the means of reinforcing it from below. Sheep's wool lanolin would protect the foot and "annoint" the seams from within. And enough raw wool billowing out the ankle area would repel snow-invasion.
Maybe you should try out Ötzi's shoes: thick leathersole, bast-cage, fur on top and filled with hay. Actually, when my Mom was a child (just after the last war) they had "Klompen" (wood-shoes) as every-day shoes in the countryside, and in winter, hay was filled into the shoes to keep the feet warm. Hi from Germany :-)
I used to work at a war museum. They had some army boots, I think Russian, which had massive straw soles and I think you would wear them over regular boots. Can’t remember the details, but straw in shoes is certainly still living memory stuff. I’m sure some people still do it today.
Klompen literally sounds like what german wooden shoes SHOULD ALWAYS be called, a proper onomatopoeia. You can imagine them just from that fantastic name
Used Mukluks as a child. MOOSEHIDE I think. It had to be -10 or they would get wet. Also used wool felt inserts so body heat wouldn't melt snow and the leather bags. Working in the north around 0 degrees was always a problem. Used Dubbin...animal fat to try and keep the wet out. Never great. Still don't know what's best around freezing. Getting up and putting wet boots on during winter camp is crap. Either they are frozen and difficult getting them on or wet and cold.
Some people (🙋🏻♀️) naturally toe-walk. I was trained out of it as a child and mostly walk normally now. If I’m in public, I heel-toe walk exclusively. At home, it depends on how anxious I am or how distracted. My natural state is still to toe-walk and some reptilian part of my brain pulls it out when I’m focused heavily on something else. Like, you know, life things. Lol
Ooh, as someone who has Reynaud's, my toes turned white just watching you walk in the snow in those shoes... however I am glad that these shoes prove to be up to the task, and that for the normal hooman, they give no great difficulty! Regarding your comment on the way your gait changed, I had always - as someone who spends A LOT of time barefoot - that my gait always changed when I put shoes on, and then I saw this video (Historical Body Mechanics) and so much of what he says about the way people used to walk (and therefore how they were portrayed in art, for example) is based on the leather soled shoe: ruclips.net/video/EszwYNvvCjQ/видео.html
Great video link, lots of accurate information. I wish more people knew how to walk "naturally." It was life changing when I started barefoot running nearly 10 years ago.
I remember watching something a while ago about how we walk (I wish I could remember the documentary name) but they basically said that humans used to walk toe heal for most of history until the last 800 years or so (I think that’s the right kind of date) and it basically changed when the shoes changed. And we naturally learn to walk toe heal until we are big enough to be put into proper shoes and we start waking heal toe. They went on to show how people in all the cultures around the world who still live mainly barefoot walk and it’s toe heal too.
I loved getting to see snow on the ground! My main memories of snow are ski trips to Park City, Utah. Here in Florida, I’m having to run the air conditioner right now! Your socks probably get at least half the credit for the comfortable walk in the snow. We always hung ours by the fire and by the next morning they were ready to go again! Great video, as always!
Don't use petroleum jelly or mink oil compound. Both have damaging effects on leather and untanned hides. Your neatsfoot oil is perfect. Use pure and not the compound, since the compound has drying agents which can damage the hides. Lard is great. Oddly enough, the things I packed with lard back in the early '90s are still going strong, and no bug has touched them. We have a lot of insects here that love veg tanned leather and rawhide and apparently they get offended at the taste and smell of lard. They don't like chrome tanned leathers though.
Oh, the bit on medieval gaits was interesting! I'm a "Toe-walker" myself, except in some very specific shoes (particularly wooden clogs, I always walk heel first in my clogs), and have found that walking on your toes/the ball of the foot first like that in shorter strides is fantastic for your posture; it makes you stand a bit straighter up (it's like the only time I have good posture, when I go on walks and hikes). And I certainly do that the most when barefoot or in thin shoes (sandals, turn shoes, 1840s leather-soled outdoor slippers, and their very flimsy fabric soled cousins that I made of cabbage fabric once).
For waterproofing, I use something I call 'Linwax' which as you probably guess is a mixture of beeswax and linseed oil. The recipe is 2:1 linseed oil with turpentine for the oil part, then mix 1:1 with melted beeswax to make a paste. Note, use real turpentine, not turpentine substitute. The linseed oil is a drying oil, it polymerises over time. It turns into a solid polymer as the word suggests and plasticises the leather. It is a superb waterproofer for all sorts of materials - I think this recipe was used to make oilcloth - but it's excellent on leather. It takes about a month to 6 weeks for the linwax to fully cure, but it's well worth the wait. It's really good at sealing stitched seams in leather - providing of course the stitching is adequate to begin with. I use it on leather work gloves and you can submerge your hand into a bucket of water for quite some time with no wetting out of the leather or water penetration through the seams. It's like wearing marigolds - I kid you not. Eventually, the leather will wet out with aggressive use, but it is by far the best waterproofer I have found. It does stiffen the leather somewhat, but the gloves are still flexible and perfectly comfortable. Application is to apply the paste very, very heavily all over the leather with particular attention to the seams, then use a hair dryer to melt the paste into the leather. Make sure it's heavily soaked. Then just leave to dry naturally for 6 weeks in a shed or garage ...the turps smell is very strong initially, but it disappears fairly quickly. Try it on your shoes, you'll be impressed, I guarantee it.
@@varde42 You're welcome. Just be aware that all the ingredients are flammable, particularly when in the hot liquid form. It's like making Napalm. Use a hot plate not a naked flame and make in a safe place. It's fine when it's cooled into a paste, but making it can be a bit sketchy. Be careful.
@@TheWelshViking Ah, yes, from Icelandic coconut palms. ^ ^ I would probably also use a mix of lanolin and beeswax melted together. Or some other fat or oil melted with beeswax. I wonder about lineseed oil... You know what, Jimmy, you could cut little swatches of leather, stitch some linen thread through and oil/fat them with several historically plausible oils, fats and waxes and then test their water proofness and also let them lie around for several months to see whether they deteriorate.
the shoes were fine, the socks were the problem. In eastern europe even until recently some older people wore simple pig skin shoes, but they had really thick wool wrapper like socks around the whole lower leg. Sometimes in winter they wore them for days without taking them off.
I had a mental flash to some stereotypical grumpy old man berating the children: "Kids these days. So spoiled. I used to have to walk two miles uphill, both ways, in the snow, in Viking shoes!" 😄
Yea wool is really good at keeping you warm even if it's wet x) And that grey sweater of yours looks really long and comfy! I've noticed the gate change up here in the north in the winters when it's icy and snowy (not onlyin historical shoes); it is alot more safe to almost tippytoe instead of slamming your heels into the ground while walking here in the winters xD
Yeah, I live in northern Sweden, and have friends who grew up where there was never snow. They have trouble adapting to the kind of way you have to walk in winter, while I didn’t even realise I automatically walk differently on snow and ice. Took me a while to figure out what it was I already knew.
This is one of those cases where medieval technology is still around in scandinavian traditional crafts - check out the sami gállohat for a pair of grass-stuffed reindeer skin boots that will keep your feet snug in -40 celsius. The Norwegian equivalent uses inch-thick felted socks; one variant is worn outside the footwear, with oilskin hose over that if it's not cold enough out.
The inuit would traditional walk on ice in smooth leather mukluks. The key is to shuffle. Mukluks are double layer and stuffed with insulation. Probably the type of leather makes some difference too.
I use melted wax (broken down tea lights) to waterproof my DIY shoes and boots. I liberally rub down the seams and then hit it on low heat with a heat gun till the wax drains down into the stitch holes and permeates the leather. Then just wipe/scrape (lightly)off off the excess.
An experiment not just on how the footwear worked in the snow, but a testament to the amazing properties of wool. I wear wool socks here pretty much daily from the end of October to the beginning of April. Glad your feets didn't freeze and sorry that that frozen mud was so rough. Thanks for another fun video. Take care.
South African here so no snow (thank goodness) but months of winter rain. I made myself a pair of turnshoe inspired ankle boots a year ago ago (first shoes i’ve ever made!) which are my every day shoes - most comfy well fitting shoes I’ve ever worn and have worn them extensively for hiking and beach . I’ve waterproofed mine with a mixture of beeswax and paraffin oil which has worked so well.
When I lived up north I sent a lot of time out and about in mukluks. They were just as good or better than boots. I would make the taller “boot like” for romping in the snow
Snow and minus degrees isnt really the problem. Water and slightly plus degrees is. If I stop and the snow melts under my feet or I walk through wet snow a lot, that is where it gets difficult. some isolation of the soles through wool or hay is also great for keeping the cold feet in control.
I was chuckling through out: Hard relate on your results! If you stand still long enough outside after haven gotten the wool socks/hose damp you will end up with ice crystals on the inside. It's a very curious sensory experience! XD
As you wrote in your own comment, winter boots would be better for deeper snow. Right now we don't have much snow in Sweden, and still, it is at least up to my ankles, so your shoes would have been completely snow filled. BUT, you said you actually got snow in your shoes and still didn't felt that super cold because the wool isolated your feet pretty good. I would just looove for you to come up here next winter and test really deep snow and different shoes with me. I know that during medieval time and later times farmers used big boots and versions of cloggs filled with dry straw to isolate for really cold winters and work outside. That would just be so much fun! Especially since then we can test the theory if wool clothes also isolate you actually better than modern outerwear. Which I have a very strong idea about that they do if they are made right.
This is a really fun video lol!! Its cool to see how your shoes faired in the snow and muck. I'm realizing why the leg wraps were a necessity now seeing all that snow go down your socks. Your beard looks really good at this length btw : )
You're just confirming that I need foot bags.... Althout I guess the felt ones I made that i'm wearing will do for now ^_^ 1/3" thick felt is really pretty toasty.
when I was a kid (early 50's) the best hiking boots were called Waterhens. They had Grissle Sole, (now only seen on Desert boots) and a suade upper. To waterproof them the recomended meathod was to coat them genorously with hot melted Lard or straight pig fat. It soaked into the suade and sealed the stitching. It just needed to be repeated on a regular basis. See how this works on your Viking Broags
I seem to remember a wooden clog type shoe with leather uppers, looked like a Wellington. This is from memory of the national museum in Dublin more than 20 years ago on a school tour
Cold, wet feet. Working on the farm for decades I had to learn to keep my feet dry and warm or I was worthless and needed hours in front of the wood-stove to recover. But, I do enjoy hiking in winter wearing proper foot wear. Upper mid-west USA.
I'm slowly finding your videos now, but i have to say you have alot of interesting stuff. I'm a viking reenactor from norway, grown up here so i have alot of things to say about primitive shoes and snow. First off, if its cold you are fine with primitive shoes, just remember to have wool on your feet. Also remember, the colder it is, the dryer the snow is, and the problem comes if its wet snow. Anyway, i have alot of thoughts and experience around this topic in particular
Thanks for this video. There aren't a ton out there on the subject. I am considering buying or making a pair one size larger so that I can wear some thicker socks and such with them. Also hope to make a pair of snowshoes based on the find from Secrets of the Ice. We actually had another reeanctor in the group I am involved in that bought a recreation of a pair made from Reindeer hide.
I had someone who made historically accurate boots explain the waterproofing process to me: Basically, if you use a vegetable by-product to do it (linseed oil, canola oil, etc), it will rot the leather very quickly. Whereas if you use animal products (you can use tallow or fat, but his #1 reccomendation was beeswax!) it will actually bind to the leather and give it more permanence! He also reccomended heating/warming the leather first so that the pores expand, then applying the beeswax. This distributes it more easily, gets it deeper in the leather, and you can wipe the excess off:)
I've worn homemade shoes for most of the last 10 years. Snow is not an issue if you have good socks. Snow stays solid and outside the sock. Slush, especially modern salty slush is an issue. Wool holds a lot of water and you get rather squishy and uncomfortable. The leather coverings are very necessary to protect your wool socks. Drying out well between uses is essential, hang your stockings and shoes by the fire if you're period, get a boot dryer if you're not.
I went to school in Minnesota and used to go for walks in -3°F in a T-shirt boots Jeans and gloves. So long as my feet and hands were warm I could walk for hours at crazy temperatures. Now that I’ve been inside for a year in the American south, I can’t even handle 32° F.
Just one thing completely out of context. In the graves it usual to have something of iron over your grave urn, it could be something elaborate like a thor ring, but usually just a old knife blade, and they where old indeed, worn to a stub, the blade could be like 1-2 cm. With normal "tånge". They did use their stuff to the very end.
Great video! Wool stockings are the best! Ridiculous footbags, indeed 😉 I miss wearing my turnshoes, but since the group I do living history with shifted from 1280 to early 20th century, I haven't had the opportunity.
Ha ha haaaaa! Overcooked your shoes!! Classic. At the Jorvik events, do you use Winningas too as well as socks. All that extra wool is to be recommended - same with footed hose. Hence why boots for super cold conditions were made from Felt like Valenki. Moving and driving the circulation is so important. They are not meant for sentry duty. One thing I will say is that original finds are indeed seemingly made with very thin leather but it is 1000 years old and quite crushed - so losing a mm or two is to be expected. The Cows might have been smaller than their modern brethren, but their hide was a similar thickness to start with. All of us change our gait when walking in thin or with no shoes at all. Its utterly natural like running on sand. I think you ought to investigate different types of ancient insole and their various qualities.
We have evidence of shoes of all kinds, but little to none from the period that they were really "oversized". However, straw stuffing was very common in the Netherlands in later centuries :)
My arches are dying at the idea of walking 5 miles with no support lol. I wonder if there were any shoes made with arch supports or if that's something I'll just have to hide in my hose when events are a thing again. I did buy sole leather and about half a cow to try my hand at making shoes and book bags, so I'll have to experiment. I'm not sure I'll manage a turned shoe with how thick the sole leather is tbh. Regarding the heel-toe, toe-heel walking methods: I realized the other day that I generally walk heel-toe, but on days when my wonky ankle is acting up, that foot in particular will walk toe-heel if I'm not paying attention. So I end up walking heel-toe with one foot and toe-heel with the other... and I wonder why I'm sore all the time lol
I used to have suuuper high arches and I totally understand! However after walking around all summer with no arch support they fell and are much more normal now. My knee issues disappeared and I can walk and stand all day with no foot pain!
The thing that surprised me the most was that it seemed to be less slippery than I expected. But I suppose a smooth sole is not as big of a problem when the shoe is not that stiff, so you can feel the surface under you better (?).
All in all it looks like you had a very nice walk-about there. That's a lovely view over the city and the crisp refreshing air would be inviting here in Denver. It's been in the 50s and 60s F here, lol. I'm glad your shoes held up, it wouldn't do at all if you'd had to walk home in your stockings. :)
Great video!! I have a question: do you think that the dampness would have caused blisters in the long run? Because that would hinder your ability to keep walking even if your feet were warm.
Perhaps these open fronted shoes such as the ones you used in your experiment were their inside slippers or about-town shoes - where the snow was already tramped down? Rather than for going off into the fields or hunting? Because if deep snow went over the top of your open area and into the shoe, than it would have happened to our ancestors also? In my household (Australian Queensland where it's hot a lot) we've always had outside jandals - thongs - flip-flops - type shoes hanging around our front and back doors - so we can toe into them without having to bend over and 'put' them on - and you can sort of shake off the shoe before you go inside? Maybe they had easy to get into shoes like that also?
petroleum jelly on your boots is an old outdoors person trick, it will softern the leather and keep it water proof, tho can dry them out after a few years
I'm not a great judge of shoes. I lost feeling in both of my baby toes for a year because of beautiful formal heels. That said, I like your foot bags. Also, I had no idea Scotland was so pretty! People go on and on about the ghosts, but not a word about how gorgeous.
I am from Sweden, Vendelsö, Stockholm area, at this time, february, it is about 3-4 decimeters of snow, it is normal. What snow you show is what we have about 4-5 months a year. I did study archaelogy for a few years. My period was Vendel to early viking age. It is found a lot of iron snow "spikes" in the graves, these are very common, and also there have been found skates of bone. How does this work? I am curious. Must be like bambi on ice. These pieces seams utterly impractical. I have been sceptical, There are no surviving examples of skis from this time, but late (about ad 1500) shows of a one broad ski with a shorter one whith leather bindings and a sort of stave rod. I am grateful that you do the work that you do. It need to be done! Try things out!
When I was a teenager I made myself a pair of moccasins and noticed right away that walking needs to be done watching where you put your feet. And that running on gravel is not the brightest idea 😅. I saw a video a couple of years ago in which someone explained that change in walking style and how it changes your whole posture - to a better one! I might try and find it and link it here.
Getting snow or water in the tops of shoes is why I'm wearing goretex lined shoes rather than my usual trainers. How did you feel your shoes handled ice? I find my main problem with icy ground isn't the cold but the tendency of my shoes to slip all over the place. Did the simple leather finish work better than modern rubber soles?
You mentioned that you were walking differently. I find the same when I'm barefoot (for example poolside) and have seen varying accounts of the "medieval gait" varying from people walking in what I'd describe as a 'normal' way to going almost entirely tip-toe as though they were about to break into some sort of a dance. Do you have any thoughts on this?
So what *did* one do when one had fallen arches? I was gifted a cool book of historical icelandic knits that included several examples of shoe inserts, but obviously those are from a much later period and more meant for warmth than cushioning. Also it surprises me how much Wales looks like eastern Montana!
Traditional moccasins of Canada's First Nations, made of deerskin, are a somewhat more refined version of your Viking shoes. Good for all sorts of weather and terrain. However, speaking as a Canadian, what you showed is not what we would call snow.
Ah yes, I remember regretting my shoe choice the other week, when I realised that my really nice, warm winter shoes were both slightly too low and much too wide across the top to be the ultimate "traipsing in snow in a dress and tights" shoes. I have since learned my lesson and have decided to stick to boots that sit closer to the leg for traipsing in heavy snow, unless I'm wearing my skiing trousers.
Just for clarity: I know they had winter boots! There’s an Irish find in the video that was almost certainly a winter/work boot. I just don’t have any yet and wanted to experiment!
When you make your winter boots, give more room in the toebox area than you would for summer wear so you can layer wool socks/stockings, or even use a felted wool boot liner. Part of what keeps your feet warm in winter is insulation, and that means extra layers of socks, but you don't want that compressed by a tight toebox, or you'll have circulation problems and your toes will stay cold.
When making your turnshoes did you use a side stitch for attaching the sole to the upper?
You prolly dont care but does anyone know a way to get back into an Instagram account..?
I was dumb forgot my login password. I would love any help you can offer me.
@Jorge Rene Instablaster ;)
@Colton Rodrigo I really appreciate your reply. I found the site thru google and Im trying it out atm.
Seems to take a while so I will reply here later when my account password hopefully is recovered.
NGL i spent far too much time looking at the smiley-face your wall decorations made in the mirror XD
Yep same here
I went *solely* 😂 barefoot for a good 4-5 years of my childhood (~6-11) and I definitely learned a lot about the way your body naturally wants to move while walking. When you have little to no protection for the bottoms of your feet, you quickly learn that it hurts a hell of a lot more to step on something sharp and pointy with your heal than your toes. Even now, when I go barefoot to walk up and down my long gravel driveway when I’m feeling particularly lazy😅, I automatically revert to toe-to-heel. Also, by taking smaller strides and keeping your weight on the balls of your feet, you are much more in control of where your foot goes and with how much weight to which areas. If you’re stepping down-not out-and your toes are readily available to grip and redirect, you experience less pain. You also make less noise when you don’t use your heel as much so 👍🏻 to walking barefoot in the woods when you don’t want to draw attention.
The fabulous thing about wool (one of the many fabulous things about wool) is that it can still keep you warm even if it gets wet.
About walking toe-heel instead of heel-toe: I work at a Renaissance faire in the summer, and one day I had to borrow shoes because one of mine suddenly had the outsole flapping wide open. The only shoes anyone could lend me in my size were dance boots which basically offer the same amount of support and protection from stones that your medieval shoes do: minimal. I too found myself walking toe-heel to minimize the impact of unpleasant walking surfaces. I've seen a bit of discourse on the subject, largely from other Ren faire folks (so questionable historicity), but there's talk that toe-heel was the norm until harder sole materials got popular. It sparks my curiosity to rethink something so basic and instinctive as walking!
To that point, the book "How to Behave Badly in Elizabethan England" by Ruth Goodman talked about different walking styles (mostly among the upper classes because her research was based on etiquette books). I remember her saying something about how the foot was "supposed" to move while walking fashionably, which I tried and found odd for my modern walking style. All this is to say, I agree with your point about the interest in rethinking how walking might have been different in the past!
That you can actually train. If your foot muscles are used to barefoot walking and light soles, they become more accustomed to rocky surfaces.
@@GraciePattenSewing I love Ruth Goodman's work! She's so stoked to talk about things that could be boringly mundane, but she makes them so fun to learn about.
@@ig14tesjahrhundert79 I've been getting into "barefoot" minimalist shoes with the aim of retraining my foot muscles!
Among physios there is quite a bit debate on that. As someone who gas walked barefoot quite a bit, I can't imagine otherwise.
beeswax mixed with oil is very good for waterproofing leather if one doesn't want to use animal fat
Here in Sweden, where we have snow up to the knees 🤣 we usually use extra long leg wraps in the winter. They need to go all the way down in the shoes in the winter. As the shoes are low and the heat from the foot melts loose snow, it is important to make a distance from the body heat and the snow so the snow does not melt and turns into water which makes the clothes wet and cold. ☺️
My daughter (9) was watching this with me. She was excited to hear you are in Edinburgh. She loved that Scotland’s national animal is the unicorn and she wants to know if you have ever seen one.
She also thinks your shoes are super cool. Sounds like we will be attempting to make our own!
Thank you! Good luck with your shoes, they're fun to make!
I've only seen one, and it ran away into the forest before I could get a picture. Unicorns are very shy, you see, so they're rare to spot,, but if they get to know you're safe they're quite friendly!
Beeswax! Shouldn't rot the stitching, at least not in the reasonable lifespan of the shoe. Also, warm your shoes (not on a grill, although I'm sure plenty of actual medieval shoes suffered that kind of damage) so the wax/fat will soak in better.
Delighted to hear you wear Blundies! I used to live around the corner from the factory, although sadly they're not made in Tasmania anymore.
Yea, I was thinking bees wax as well.
Another Tasmanian. You ever attend our festival in Sheffield?
@@codycole2684 Funny you should mention it, I was just discussing volunteering at Steamfest this year!
@@rachelboersma-plug9482 hoping things will be opened up enough with the head count limits that they run it and we can fight for that too
Medieval shoes: they're fine!
Wool is one of the few fibers that doesn't lose its ability to retain heat when wet. Many Medievalists speculate that folks would stuff their shoes with wool before putting them on over their wool socks. This would decrease sole wear by padding it from impact ABOVE, since they didn't have the means of reinforcing it from below. Sheep's wool lanolin would protect the foot and "annoint" the seams from within. And enough raw wool billowing out the ankle area would repel snow-invasion.
I love things like this that give you some small idea of how historical clothes/shoes would have held up in various conditions!
Maybe you should try out Ötzi's shoes: thick leathersole, bast-cage, fur on top and filled with hay. Actually, when my Mom was a child (just after the last war) they had "Klompen" (wood-shoes) as every-day shoes in the countryside, and in winter, hay was filled into the shoes to keep the feet warm. Hi from Germany :-)
Same in Belgium, post-war.
I used to work at a war museum. They had some army boots, I think Russian, which had massive straw soles and I think you would wear them over regular boots. Can’t remember the details, but straw in shoes is certainly still living memory stuff. I’m sure some people still do it today.
Klompen literally sounds like what german wooden shoes SHOULD ALWAYS be called, a proper onomatopoeia. You can imagine them just from that fantastic name
Also interesting in the context: nutukas (traditional saami shoes). A very simple and very effective winter shoe of the foot-bag type.
Used Mukluks as a child. MOOSEHIDE I think. It had to be -10 or they would get wet. Also used wool felt inserts so body heat wouldn't melt snow and the leather bags. Working in the north around 0 degrees was always a problem. Used Dubbin...animal fat to try and keep the wet out. Never great. Still don't know what's best around freezing. Getting up and putting wet boots on during winter camp is crap. Either they are frozen and difficult getting them on or wet and cold.
@@deangronsdahl3479 ... when were wooden clogs invented?
Some people (🙋🏻♀️) naturally toe-walk. I was trained out of it as a child and mostly walk normally now. If I’m in public, I heel-toe walk exclusively. At home, it depends on how anxious I am or how distracted. My natural state is still to toe-walk and some reptilian part of my brain pulls it out when I’m focused heavily on something else. Like, you know, life things. Lol
I tend to toe-walk reflexively when I'm anxious, like I'm trying not to make too much sound or something.
@@stonescorpio same here! it’s so instinctive!
This information is consistent with what I've learned about moccasins.
Ooh, as someone who has Reynaud's, my toes turned white just watching you walk in the snow in those shoes... however I am glad that these shoes prove to be up to the task, and that for the normal hooman, they give no great difficulty! Regarding your comment on the way your gait changed, I had always - as someone who spends A LOT of time barefoot - that my gait always changed when I put shoes on, and then I saw this video (Historical Body Mechanics) and so much of what he says about the way people used to walk (and therefore how they were portrayed in art, for example) is based on the leather soled shoe: ruclips.net/video/EszwYNvvCjQ/видео.html
Sympathetic Reynaud's club ✊
Great video link, lots of accurate information. I wish more people knew how to walk "naturally." It was life changing when I started barefoot running nearly 10 years ago.
I have Reynaud's too . I feet ached just thinking about the cold !
I remember watching something a while ago about how we walk (I wish I could remember the documentary name) but they basically said that humans used to walk toe heal for most of history until the last 800 years or so (I think that’s the right kind of date) and it basically changed when the shoes changed. And we naturally learn to walk toe heal until we are big enough to be put into proper shoes and we start waking heal toe. They went on to show how people in all the cultures around the world who still live mainly barefoot walk and it’s toe heal too.
And to think I've been laughed at for my balletic toe-heel habit! IT'S PERFECTLY VALID
I loved getting to see snow on the ground! My main memories of snow are ski trips to Park City, Utah. Here in Florida, I’m having to run the air conditioner right now! Your socks probably get at least half the credit for the comfortable walk in the snow. We always hung ours by the fire and by the next morning they were ready to go again! Great video, as always!
Loved the foot hands. And the rest of the video too! Thank you!
Don't use petroleum jelly or mink oil compound. Both have damaging effects on leather and untanned hides. Your neatsfoot oil is perfect. Use pure and not the compound, since the compound has drying agents which can damage the hides.
Lard is great. Oddly enough, the things I packed with lard back in the early '90s are still going strong, and no bug has touched them. We have a lot of insects here that love veg tanned leather and rawhide and apparently they get offended at the taste and smell of lard. They don't like chrome tanned leathers though.
Oh, the bit on medieval gaits was interesting! I'm a "Toe-walker" myself, except in some very specific shoes (particularly wooden clogs, I always walk heel first in my clogs), and have found that walking on your toes/the ball of the foot first like that in shorter strides is fantastic for your posture; it makes you stand a bit straighter up (it's like the only time I have good posture, when I go on walks and hikes). And I certainly do that the most when barefoot or in thin shoes (sandals, turn shoes, 1840s leather-soled outdoor slippers, and their very flimsy fabric soled cousins that I made of cabbage fabric once).
For waterproofing, I use something I call 'Linwax' which as you probably guess is a mixture of beeswax and linseed oil. The recipe is 2:1 linseed oil with turpentine for the oil part, then mix 1:1 with melted beeswax to make a paste. Note, use real turpentine, not turpentine substitute. The linseed oil is a drying oil, it polymerises over time. It turns into a solid polymer as the word suggests and plasticises the leather. It is a superb waterproofer for all sorts of materials - I think this recipe was used to make oilcloth - but it's excellent on leather. It takes about a month to 6 weeks for the linwax to fully cure, but it's well worth the wait. It's really good at sealing stitched seams in leather - providing of course the stitching is adequate to begin with. I use it on leather work gloves and you can submerge your hand into a bucket of water for quite some time with no wetting out of the leather or water penetration through the seams. It's like wearing marigolds - I kid you not. Eventually, the leather will wet out with aggressive use, but it is by far the best waterproofer I have found. It does stiffen the leather somewhat, but the gloves are still flexible and perfectly comfortable. Application is to apply the paste very, very heavily all over the leather with particular attention to the seams, then use a hair dryer to melt the paste into the leather. Make sure it's heavily soaked. Then just leave to dry naturally for 6 weeks in a shed or garage ...the turps smell is very strong initially, but it disappears fairly quickly. Try it on your shoes, you'll be impressed, I guarantee it.
Thank You for sharing this recipe. I even like the smell of turpentine :) should work well :)
@@varde42 You're welcome. Just be aware that all the ingredients are flammable, particularly when in the hot liquid form. It's like making Napalm. Use a hot plate not a naked flame and make in a safe place. It's fine when it's cooled into a paste, but making it can be a bit sketchy. Be careful.
@@Martyntd5 A useful warning, thanks :)
coconut oil! beeswax! no petroleum jelly!
Thank you! Excellent advice! Man, coconut oil is just magical...
Lanolin would probably work too since it's the oil naturally found in sheep's wool.
@@TheWelshViking Ah, yes, from Icelandic coconut palms. ^ ^
I would probably also use a mix of lanolin and beeswax melted together. Or some other fat or oil melted with beeswax.
I wonder about lineseed oil...
You know what, Jimmy, you could cut little swatches of leather, stitch some linen thread through and oil/fat them with several historically plausible oils, fats and waxes and then test their water proofness and also let them lie around for several months to see whether they deteriorate.
... this was why boots were invented.
And _that's_ the Rest of the Story.
the shoes were fine, the socks were the problem. In eastern europe even until recently some older people wore simple pig skin shoes, but they had really thick wool wrapper like socks around the whole lower leg. Sometimes in winter they wore them for days without taking them off.
Oh god i regretted my life choices just putting the bins out!
I had a mental flash to some stereotypical grumpy old man berating the children: "Kids these days. So spoiled. I used to have to walk two miles uphill, both ways, in the snow, in Viking shoes!" 😄
Yea wool is really good at keeping you warm even if it's wet x)
And that grey sweater of yours looks really long and comfy!
I've noticed the gate change up here in the north in the winters when it's icy and snowy (not onlyin historical shoes); it is alot more safe to almost tippytoe instead of slamming your heels into the ground while walking here in the winters xD
Yeah, I live in northern Sweden, and have friends who grew up where there was never snow. They have trouble adapting to the kind of way you have to walk in winter, while I didn’t even realise I automatically walk differently on snow and ice. Took me a while to figure out what it was I already knew.
@@kimzachris5340 ey I live in Sweden too :D
Tho more... middle-southern part? ish? xD
This is one of those cases where medieval technology is still around in scandinavian traditional crafts - check out the sami gállohat for a pair of grass-stuffed reindeer skin boots that will keep your feet snug in -40 celsius. The Norwegian equivalent uses inch-thick felted socks; one variant is worn outside the footwear, with oilskin hose over that if it's not cold enough out.
Happy Burns Night!!
Could you make a video about the Picts?.
Aww I do miss Edinburgh in the snow! I was home in December 2021 and we got a bit, gorgeous 🥰
Hooray! When the OG design works great 😁
The inuit would traditional walk on ice in smooth leather mukluks. The key is to shuffle. Mukluks are double layer and stuffed with insulation. Probably the type of leather makes some difference too.
Lovely video as always! I also appreciate you always naming some vegan and/or modern alternatives for the historical animal fats, etc. very much!
Ohmygod, S H O E S
These shoes rule!
Best video, ever.
I use melted wax (broken down tea lights) to waterproof my DIY shoes and boots. I liberally rub down the seams and then hit it on low heat with a heat gun till the wax drains down into the stitch holes and permeates the leather. Then just wipe/scrape (lightly)off off the excess.
An experiment not just on how the footwear worked in the snow, but a testament to the amazing properties of wool. I wear wool socks here pretty much daily from the end of October to the beginning of April. Glad your feets didn't freeze and sorry that that frozen mud was so rough. Thanks for another fun video. Take care.
I'll say it now - there had BETTER be some sort of fun costuming meetup in Edinburgh after ~~all of this has calmed down~~
South African here so no snow (thank goodness) but months of winter rain. I made myself a pair of turnshoe inspired ankle boots a year ago ago (first shoes i’ve ever made!) which are my every day shoes - most comfy well fitting shoes I’ve ever worn and have worn them extensively for hiking and beach . I’ve waterproofed mine with a mixture of beeswax and paraffin oil which has worked so well.
When I lived up north I sent a lot of time out and about in mukluks. They were just as good or better than boots. I would make the taller “boot like” for romping in the snow
That opening could be laced up to make them tighter, but still easy to get on. They are cool though.
So funny...I was thinking "how would my plantar fasciitis cope?" You addressed that! My podiatrist wife would be proud. I will send her this video.
Snow and minus degrees isnt really the problem. Water and slightly plus degrees is. If I stop and the snow melts under my feet or I walk through wet snow a lot, that is where it gets difficult. some isolation of the soles through wool or hay is also great for keeping the cold feet in control.
I was chuckling through out: Hard relate on your results! If you stand still long enough outside after haven gotten the wool socks/hose damp you will end up with ice crystals on the inside. It's a very curious sensory experience! XD
As you wrote in your own comment, winter boots would be better for deeper snow. Right now we don't have much snow in Sweden, and still, it is at least up to my ankles, so your shoes would have been completely snow filled. BUT, you said you actually got snow in your shoes and still didn't felt that super cold because the wool isolated your feet pretty good. I would just looove for you to come up here next winter and test really deep snow and different shoes with me. I know that during medieval time and later times farmers used big boots and versions of cloggs filled with dry straw to isolate for really cold winters and work outside. That would just be so much fun! Especially since then we can test the theory if wool clothes also isolate you actually better than modern outerwear. Which I have a very strong idea about that they do if they are made right.
This is a really fun video lol!! Its cool to see how your shoes faired in the snow and muck. I'm realizing why the leg wraps were a necessity now seeing all that snow go down your socks. Your beard looks really good at this length btw : )
You have one of the best channels.
Jimmy if you get trench foot you are getting your bahookie skelped granny hasn't had to treat that for many a year 😂
It is nice to see exactly what would happen if you had to wear the adverage shoe of the day
You're just confirming that I need foot bags.... Althout I guess the felt ones I made that i'm wearing will do for now ^_^
1/3" thick felt is really pretty toasty.
I was wondering if they used wool felt for hose in medieval Europe. Down the rabbit hole I go. lol
Love your videos! Your sense of humor is quite enjoyable. 😊
when I was a kid (early 50's) the best hiking boots were called Waterhens. They had Grissle Sole, (now only seen on Desert boots) and a suade upper. To waterproof them the recomended meathod was to coat them genorously with hot melted Lard or straight pig fat. It soaked into the suade and sealed the stitching. It just needed to be repeated on a regular basis. See how this works on your Viking Broags
I seem to remember a wooden clog type shoe with leather uppers, looked like a Wellington. This is from memory of the national museum in Dublin more than 20 years ago on a school tour
As Lindybeige calls them authentic boots. Love these videos.
Shoes... Ah you mean footbags!
And 'romping?!' Good lord man don't you know there are women and children watching?
Hey, this video is tagged "not made for kids"! Get 'em outta here before the wine appears! ;)
@@TheWelshViking my bad, I read that as not made from kids.
Gads, where I am romping means lopping like a happy puppy. Have I offended unintentionally?
@@Bildgesmythe I'm not sure people are that au fait with 50s parlance so you're probably good :)
@@someoneinoffensive You're all fine! All of ye!
Petroleum jelly should work but i would reccommend a deep clean before waterproofing again.
Cold, wet feet. Working on the farm for decades I had to learn to keep my feet dry and warm or I was worthless and needed hours in front of the wood-stove to recover. But, I do enjoy hiking in winter wearing proper foot wear. Upper mid-west USA.
I'm slowly finding your videos now, but i have to say you have alot of interesting stuff. I'm a viking reenactor from norway, grown up here so i have alot of things to say about primitive shoes and snow. First off, if its cold you are fine with primitive shoes, just remember to have wool on your feet. Also remember, the colder it is, the dryer the snow is, and the problem comes if its wet snow. Anyway, i have alot of thoughts and experience around this topic in particular
Haha it's fun to see that I'm not the only one who took the opportunity to test out my historical footwear when we had that snow last month!
Thanks for this video. There aren't a ton out there on the subject. I am considering buying or making a pair one size larger so that I can wear some thicker socks and such with them. Also hope to make a pair of snowshoes based on the find from Secrets of the Ice. We actually had another reeanctor in the group I am involved in that bought a recreation of a pair made from Reindeer hide.
Great channel man seen a few of your videos now, an expert on the history of Wales (my humble home) and the vikings! Brilliant
I had someone who made historically accurate boots explain the waterproofing process to me:
Basically, if you use a vegetable by-product to do it (linseed oil, canola oil, etc), it will rot the leather very quickly.
Whereas if you use animal products (you can use tallow or fat, but his #1 reccomendation was beeswax!) it will actually bind to the leather and give it more permanence!
He also reccomended heating/warming the leather first so that the pores expand, then applying the beeswax. This distributes it more easily, gets it deeper in the leather, and you can wipe the excess off:)
I've worn homemade shoes for most of the last 10 years. Snow is not an issue if you have good socks. Snow stays solid and outside the sock.
Slush, especially modern salty slush is an issue. Wool holds a lot of water and you get rather squishy and uncomfortable.
The leather coverings are very necessary to protect your wool socks. Drying out well between uses is essential, hang your stockings and shoes by the fire if you're period, get a boot dryer if you're not.
Great video 👍📹😉
Danke!
I went to school in Minnesota and used to go for walks in -3°F in a T-shirt boots Jeans and gloves. So long as my feet and hands were warm I could walk for hours at crazy temperatures.
Now that I’ve been inside for a year in the American south, I can’t even handle 32° F.
Just one thing completely out of context. In the graves it usual to have something of iron over your grave urn, it could be something elaborate like a thor ring, but usually just a old knife blade, and they where old indeed, worn to a stub, the blade could be like 1-2 cm. With normal "tånge". They did use their stuff to the very end.
Great video! Wool stockings are the best! Ridiculous footbags, indeed 😉 I miss wearing my turnshoes, but since the group I do living history with shifted from 1280 to early 20th century, I haven't had the opportunity.
Ha ha haaaaa! Overcooked your shoes!! Classic.
At the Jorvik events, do you use Winningas too as well as socks. All that extra wool is to be recommended - same with footed hose. Hence why boots for super cold conditions were made from Felt like Valenki. Moving and driving the circulation is so important. They are not meant for sentry duty.
One thing I will say is that original finds are indeed seemingly made with very thin leather but it is 1000 years old and quite crushed - so losing a mm or two is to be expected. The Cows might have been smaller than their modern brethren, but their hide was a similar thickness to start with. All of us change our gait when walking in thin or with no shoes at all. Its utterly natural like running on sand.
I think you ought to investigate different types of ancient insole and their various qualities.
Fascinating video, thanks!
Such a cool concept to see a video on!! Thank you for making this!
Awesome!!
I did wonder if you had your leg wraps on... very cool experimental archeology
Great video. I believe (not sure) that they used over ankle shoes that was oversized so they could stuff hay in them
We have evidence of shoes of all kinds, but little to none from the period that they were really "oversized". However, straw stuffing was very common in the Netherlands in later centuries :)
@@TheWelshViking as it was in Belgium. Stories from grand-parents and parents just after the war.
My arches are dying at the idea of walking 5 miles with no support lol. I wonder if there were any shoes made with arch supports or if that's something I'll just have to hide in my hose when events are a thing again. I did buy sole leather and about half a cow to try my hand at making shoes and book bags, so I'll have to experiment. I'm not sure I'll manage a turned shoe with how thick the sole leather is tbh.
Regarding the heel-toe, toe-heel walking methods: I realized the other day that I generally walk heel-toe, but on days when my wonky ankle is acting up, that foot in particular will walk toe-heel if I'm not paying attention. So I end up walking heel-toe with one foot and toe-heel with the other... and I wonder why I'm sore all the time lol
I used to have suuuper high arches and I totally understand! However after walking around all summer with no arch support they fell and are much more normal now. My knee issues disappeared and I can walk and stand all day with no foot pain!
@@IonIsFalling7217 When my arches fall, my knees, hips, and back go out of alignment and I am prone to shin splints. I'm a human tower of cards 😭
I think the part about not cushioned soles, like we have now, really makes my feet balk. Need my cushions
The thing that surprised me the most was that it seemed to be less slippery than I expected.
But I suppose a smooth sole is not as big of a problem when the shoe is not that stiff, so you can feel the surface under you better (?).
Good to see you becoming a vlogger
Foot hands!😅 Enjoyed the video and getting see some of the beautiful country side.
Perfectly HONK, perfectly comfortable
All in all it looks like you had a very nice walk-about there. That's a lovely view over the city and the crisp refreshing air would be inviting here in Denver. It's been in the 50s and 60s F here, lol. I'm glad your shoes held up, it wouldn't do at all if you'd had to walk home in your stockings. :)
Great video!! I have a question: do you think that the dampness would have caused blisters in the long run? Because that would hinder your ability to keep walking even if your feet were warm.
Oh heck yeah. I’mm very glad I got to take them off and dry out nice and sharpish
Perhaps these open fronted shoes such as the ones you used in your experiment were their inside slippers or about-town shoes - where the snow was already tramped down? Rather than for going off into the fields or hunting? Because if deep snow went over the top of your open area and into the shoe, than it would have happened to our ancestors also? In my household (Australian Queensland where it's hot a lot) we've always had outside jandals - thongs - flip-flops - type shoes hanging around our front and back doors - so we can toe into them without having to bend over and 'put' them on - and you can sort of shake off the shoe before you go inside? Maybe they had easy to get into shoes like that also?
petroleum jelly on your boots is an old outdoors person trick, it will softern the leather and keep it water proof, tho can dry them out after a few years
I'm not a great judge of shoes. I lost feeling in both of my baby toes for a year because of beautiful formal heels. That said, I like your foot bags. Also, I had no idea Scotland was so pretty! People go on and on about the ghosts, but not a word about how gorgeous.
I am from Sweden, Vendelsö, Stockholm area, at this time, february, it is about 3-4 decimeters of snow, it is normal. What snow you show is what we have about 4-5 months a year. I did study archaelogy for a few years. My period was Vendel to early viking age. It is found a lot of iron snow "spikes" in the graves, these are very common, and also there have been found skates of bone. How does this work? I am curious. Must be like bambi on ice. These pieces seams utterly impractical. I have been sceptical, There are no surviving examples of skis from this time, but late (about ad 1500) shows of a one broad ski with a shorter one whith leather bindings and a sort of stave rod. I am grateful that you do the work that you do. It need to be done! Try things out!
When I was a teenager I made myself a pair of moccasins and noticed right away that walking needs to be done watching where you put your feet. And that running on gravel is not the brightest idea 😅. I saw a video a couple of years ago in which someone explained that change in walking style and how it changes your whole posture - to a better one! I might try and find it and link it here.
Here it is: ruclips.net/video/EszwYNvvCjQ/видео.html
I would think you could make some boots but keep the toe and heel area empty so you could slide your shoes into like a foot or two high cylinder
Just found this channel,subbed ,liking, and binge -watching!
The one where Jimmy is 'Fine'.
Getting snow or water in the tops of shoes is why I'm wearing goretex lined shoes rather than my usual trainers. How did you feel your shoes handled ice? I find my main problem with icy ground isn't the cold but the tendency of my shoes to slip all over the place. Did the simple leather finish work better than modern rubber soles?
You mentioned that you were walking differently. I find the same when I'm barefoot (for example poolside) and have seen varying accounts of the "medieval gait" varying from people walking in what I'd describe as a 'normal' way to going almost entirely tip-toe as though they were about to break into some sort of a dance. Do you have any thoughts on this?
And lol the subtitles on that last bit... “painful feet sees” it could have been so much worse... lol
So what *did* one do when one had fallen arches? I was gifted a cool book of historical icelandic knits that included several examples of shoe inserts, but obviously those are from a much later period and more meant for warmth than cushioning.
Also it surprises me how much Wales looks like eastern Montana!
Traditional moccasins of Canada's First Nations, made of deerskin, are a somewhat more refined version of your Viking shoes. Good for all sorts of weather and terrain. However, speaking as a Canadian, what you showed is not what we would call snow.
Ah yes, I remember regretting my shoe choice the other week, when I realised that my really nice, warm winter shoes were both slightly too low and much too wide across the top to be the ultimate "traipsing in snow in a dress and tights" shoes. I have since learned my lesson and have decided to stick to boots that sit closer to the leg for traipsing in heavy snow, unless I'm wearing my skiing trousers.
It's really weird to think I was not the only person walking about Edinburgh in the snow this year in medieval shoes. WILD!
Part of what makes feet old is shoes or boots that are tight
Cold
Try beewax for waterproofness around the yarn.