Caligae

[Czear12]

I'm looking at some Caligae from MC and I wanted to have an opinion if it's a good pair or not, if not recommendations to find some would be well appreciated.
http://www.medievalcollectibles.com/p-25...ndals.aspx

Thanks, Budd

[ANTONIVS MAGNVS]

Those look like the deepeeka caligae or knock offs of them... not so great. The DSC caligae are probably the best off the shelf you can get, if you can find them. History Revisited only has a few pairs left in one size:

http://www.history-revisited.com/detail/...ce#picture

[Czear12]

Ok thanks

[richsc]

There is a posting in RAT Facebook from a Spanish group who walked 500km in the caligae in these photos. I think the maker is Spanish. They look to me like they held up well. No idea of the price.

[ANTONIVS MAGNVS]

Wow, those hob nails are worn down to nohing!

[Crispianus]

Wow, those hob nails are worn down to nohing!

I don't think they are hobnails, but rather carpet tacks or cut nails that's the reason there all so evenly flat, even in places where there is little pressure from the foot, in any case the oval shape is a dead give away... hobnails would be disproportionally worn :wink:

As a side note its basically a quick way of making caligae , as you dont need to stitch the soles on, the tacks clench in exactly the same way that roman hobnails would, so from a constructional point of view their ideal, on the downside the heads wear off relatively quickly as there's not much meat on them....

[ANTONIVS MAGNVS]

Shame they didn't use the right hob nails then.

[Crispianus]

Well you could say their at least as correct as any other hobnails on the market currently :wink:

[ANTONIVS MAGNVS]

My DSC's have a nice conical stud on them as opposed to the Deepeeka roofing nails. :-)

[richsc]

I gave Deepeeka some sample conical hobnails In two sizes last week. They are on their way to India so perhaps they will start using and selling them.

[richsc]

I forgot to ask if anyone recognizes the pattern used? Robin Brown and Martin Moser have both made caligae used in long marches, I seem to remember.

[Crispianus]

My DSC's have a nice conical stud on them as opposed to the Deepeeka roofing nails.

From a constructional point the conical head is less important then the shank as its that bit that does the work, if you like a roman hobnail serves a duel purpose, long life from the heavy heads reducing wear and strength in construction from the clenched nail shanks...

I dont know what they were walking on but likely modern roads, and experience tells me hobnails and modern surfaces dont work well together, a flatter sole would make it easier by improving grip, the only thing you'd prove by using hobnails would be they'd wear unevenly...

Roman roads were mostly packed sand and gravel*, so hobnails would likely help rather then hinder ;-) *see MC Bishop The Secret history of Roman roads pg27

[Crispianus]

I forgot to ask if anyone recognizes the pattern used? Robin Brown and Martin Moser have both made caligae used in long marches, I seem to remember.

I dont recognise the pattern, I think its a simplified version probably to reduce production time... if your going to walk so far your going to ruin a lot of shoes....

[Martin Moser]

I forgot to ask if anyone recognizes the pattern used?

If anything I'd say it resembles the (probably) early pattern found e.g. at Kalkriese IIRC (cf. Driel-Murray, C. van: Dead Men's Shoes. in Schlüter, Wolfgang. Rom, Germanien und die Ausgrabungen von Kalkriese. 1999. 169-191.) and Mainz (Lindenschmit, Ludwig. Die Alterthümer unserer heidnischen Vorzeit Bd.4. Mainz 1900).

For an alternative, late 1st cent. nailing pattern see my try at one of the Castleford caligae https://www.facebook.com/leatherworkthro...=1&theater and https://www.facebook.com/leatherworkthro...1227100963

And as for www.medievalcollectibles.com/p-25659-roman-caligae-sandals.aspx - wow, that is one of the worst I've seen so far, though completely acceptable for fighting that dragon ;-)

[richsc]

Text that goes with the pictures


Hoy nos han pasado un par de las caligae que confeccionamos para Via Scipionis. Estamos muy orgullosos, porque a diferencia de otras usadas en este proyecto, las nuestras han aguantado los 500 km de marchas forzadas por asfaltos abrasivos a pleno sol. Como se ve en las fotos, sólo se aprecia el desgaste en la zona posterior de la suela, así como el desgaste de los clavos de la suela. Los clavos que habíamos usado eran planos. No es el tipo más usado en época romana pero los elegimos porque sabíamos que gran parte del trayecto discurririá por T

Y el colorcillo que tienen ahora es incluso mejor que el original!

Today we have spent a couple of the caligae that we make to via scipionis. We are very proud, because unlike other used in this project, the our have endured the 500 km of forced marches for abrasive asphalt in full sun. As seen in the photos, you only get the wear on the back of the outsole, as well as the wear of the nails of the sole. The nails that we had used were plans. It's not the type more used in Roman times but the we chose because we knew that a large part of the journey discurririá by asphalt.

And the colorcillo that they have now is even better than the original!