Waterproofing - Printable Version

Waterproofing - Printable Version

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Waterproofing - Mithras - 12-11-2004

Can you effectively waterproof woollen cloaks? imple as that really. I might be participating in a high altitude march that has a good chance of being rained on. I have a couple of paenulas and a sagum and wondered hw I could waterproof one of them for this trip. Pig fat? Would it totally write off the cloak for further use? Or would the later stench be 'authentic?'. 
 
From Sassanid's post on the sarcina thread I understand that pig fat and/or beeswax will probably help to waterproof my boots (if we opt to go for period footwear). Paul Elliott 
 
Heroes of Delphi - Classical Greece gone D20 
Zenobia - Fantasy RPG in the Eastern Roman Empire 
Warlords of Alexander - Kingdoms in conflict for the ruins of Alexander's Empire 
 
www.geocities.com/mithrapolis/games.html

Lanolin - Carlton Bach - 12-11-2004

There's no way you can waterproof cloth completely - it's got holes. However, you can do a pretty good job one of several ways. 
 
First off, I suspect wool cloth used for outdoor purposes was simply not completely de-greased. Sheep keep themselves dry by having their fleece saturated with lanolin (wool grease), and if you keep some of it in the wool it will render the resulting cloth almost waterproof, windproof, and awfully smelly. You can also buy refined lanolin (sold, perversely, in cosmetic supply stores) and work it into the cloth. The smell is not so bad, but if you overdo it you get spots on your tunic and all your food tastes of sheep. I don't know how much of it is enough - when I did it for a hood I got spots on my tunic and my food tasted of sheep. 
 
Secondly, good, thorough fulling helps. Before making anything out of woolen, I wash the cloth at 60Ãƒâ€šÃ‚Â°C and tumble-dry it. It shrinks and becomes much tighter. Not quite entirely watertight, but it helps a lot. 
 
A few depictions of hoods I've seen from Roman contexts show a rough texture that could be either a deliberately raised nape or loose woven-in loops cut open to get something like velvet structure, though much coarser (think 1970s flokati carpets). This helps channeling some water away in heavy rain. It could also just be fur, though. 
 
You can wax or oil cloth, too, but I've never seen it done with wool and I'd be hesitant. 
 
My paenula is made from thoroughly fulled, but de-greased blanket cloth and I find it holds out for hours in all but the worst downpours. 
 
Volker

Re: Lanolin - Lucius Aurelius Metellus - 12-12-2004

Hi Mithras, 
Wool in itself is somewhat waterproof due to the natural oils in the sheeps fur. I would definitely not add any such ingredients to your cloak if I were you, it would probably ruin it... Lucius Aurelius Metellus, draconarius, Secunda Brittanica

Re: Lanolin - aitor iriarte - 12-12-2004

The question is that I've read somewhere that Romans didn't full their textiles... 
Can anybody confirm or deny this? 
 
Aitor

fullones - Carlton Bach - 12-12-2004

I doubt that the Romans didn't come up with this sinmple solution for military clothing. Every book on Roman textiles I've read states that woolen cloth was fulled, and there are pictures from Pompeii that show 'fullones' treading on big buckets full of, presumably, water and cloth. The Reepsholt tunic (often assumed to be Gallo-Roman) looked fulled to me, though not to the degree that some modern cloth came out when I machine-fulled it - you can still see the weave quite clearly. Also, there is a throwaway verse - I think Martialis - about a cloak that is so thick you 'had to cut it with a saw' - sounds fulled to me. 
All of those are civilian, though. There could be a valid reason for not fulling military clothing, I just can't think of one.

Re: Waterproofing - Quintius Clavus - 12-12-2004

Both my caligae and my woolen clothing survived wonderfully through 2 1/2 days of rain, clay mud and flooding in August, 2004. The water just beaded on my wool tunic(s) - I always have more than one, and on my paenula. Wool, even when it gets damp, stays warm on the inside. I always prewash/and dry/ my wool before I cut it to make tunics, etc. 
Wearing my caligae, I waded through clay mud and water puddles, as well as through flooded dirt roads when after those 2 1/2 days of rain the local streams went over their banks. The rain only quit an hour before I packed the car to go home. 
Once I got home, I dried my caligae (put them out in the sun, while I also dried out my tent), then scraped the dried mud off/out of them. I periodically treat them with a little neatsfoot oil to keep the leather supple and prevent it from drying out too much, but thats all. You cannot tell, now, that they ever went through such dismal conditions. By the way, hobnails are awesome in mud-they grip and improve traction. 
 
Marcus Quintius Clavus/Quinton

Re: Waterproofing - Flavius Promotus - 12-13-2004

Neatsfoot oil can be acquired from better drugstores (at least here at Bratwurst-country). You could also try to put beeswax in a small pot and melt it together with neatsfoot oil (about 50 : 50). You get some kind of 'boot butter' which can be stored more easily than the oil itself.

Re: Waterproofing - Los456 - 12-13-2004

Be careful not to do anything to the wool that will degrade it's abilty to keep you warm when wet. You are in the infantry and being wet has been a natural state of affairs since for the infantry since teh beginning of time... 
 
Los