Advice on Creating an acurrate Loculus

[Lucius Duccius Rufinus]

Ok so i'm getting to the stage where my kits kinda coming together, I'm thinking about possibly spending a few days and making a Loculus... It might be better to buy one, i dont know.. but im all up for trying to make one.. anyone have any advice / manuals they can point me in the right direction? would like it to look a little something like as i belive its quite an accurate depiction of whats been found on trajan's column



any advice would be awesome
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[jvrjenivs]

Do this one yourself for sure. It's cheaper, and more accurate and how you would like it to be.

Check out [url:1x1sqb2s]http://www.larp.com/legioxx/packs.html[/url]

Here is mine (sorry for the bad pic)

[jvrjenivs]

Another interesting topic:
link from old RAT

[Neuraleanus]

The studded ring for the clusure may be obtained from Raymond's quiet Press:

[url:18pxg1h1]http://www.quietpress.com/Roman_Brooches_and_Belt_Fi.html[/url]

Veg tanned goat skin is the preferred material.

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

Kev, did you have a look at mine on saturday?

It also has a leather ring/strap. to hang over your furca, and rings and tie thongs for the cross braces.

Our Centurio Mestrius made it, and it is quite a good piece.

I'll e-mail you later.

[Magnus]

Why is goat skin better? I used cow and it's fine...

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

Not sure, but could be that it doesn't stretch out of shape. But I could be mistaken here!

[jvrjenivs]

Why is goat skin better? I used cow and it's fine...

As we have most sources for goat skin in military use? I didn't work with goat before, but for such a bag I prefer sheep over cow.

[Ironhand]

Cow works fine, however sheep and goats were more commonly raised animals and cow leather would have been more rare. Sheep or goatskin is a bit more accurate in that way.

[Matthew Amt]

Remember that this is a very hypothetical item! Obviously it existed, and the Column gives us a reasonable idea of its appearance, but with very few finds we just can't be sure of many details. For instance, the studded center ring is a groovy idea, but it could just be a Celtic belt hook! So if you feel cheap and just want to use a plain ring that the flap can tie to with a leather thong, go for it!

The body can be done all in one piece, or pieced together from smaller sections, with the seams covered by various reinforcing strips. I discovered that it's MUCH easier to lay the body out flat, glue all the strips in place (except for the wider one around the perimeter), and stitch all that. (Make sure you don't confuse the front and the back!) It's a lot of stitching... Use a running stitch and don't bother trying to be too neat. Then sew on the wider perimeter strip to the bottom of the bag, leaving the ends that go up the side seams loose. Fold the bag, sew up the sides, then sew the perimeter strip up each side, remembering to include the top rings. That way, you don't have to spend too much time working inside the bag, stabbing the heck out of your fingers, etc.

After a few eveings of stitching, you'll realize why everyone charges a hundred bucks for these silly things!

Have fun,

Matthew

[M. Demetrius]

62,487 stitches, but who's counting?
:lol: 8)

[Lucius Duccius Rufinus]

62,487 stitches, but who's counting?
:lol: 8)

haha really that many stitches? or are you just winding me up? lol

Can anyone recommend any good Leather sellers online? (preferably UK based ones or ones cheap to deliver) and what thickness and measurements of leather they used to create this item? Cheers! sorry for all the questions, im curious

[jvrjenivs]

I used sheepskin 1.5 tot 1.8 mm thick from [url:c5eejof3]http://www.lederhaus.de[/url] (Schafsleder vegetatibil).

An well known UK based supplier is [url:c5eejof3]http://www.leprevo.co.uk/[/url].

[M. Demetrius]

Well, I might be using a slight hyperbole. :wink: I might have lost count, or dropped a stitch. But the sewing of all those little X straps will take longer than anything else. If you bind around the seams with a folded leather, as many Roman bags seem to have, it will be quite a bit of sewing, any way you go.

I punched the holes before stitching (and I cheated and glued the X straps in place before that) so they came out fairly regularly spaced. One way is to take a standard leather punch (for lacing) and cut off every other blade. That doubles the width of the stitch (and halves the amount of leather that is cut) and makes many less stitches. These aren't structural seams so much as they're stylistic. If the bag is soft leather (goat, deer, etc) the strips would tend to reinforce the bag. Mine is made from thin cowhide, and really didn't require the bracing, but I put it there so folks can easily identify it, and I don't have to defend the construction technique so much. I made it from the leather I had at the time, in other words.

[Magnus]

For us moderns, cow may be easier to obtain....I used 1-3 oz leather and my bag turned out well. I'd say you're safe with either cow or goat.

I wonder then, if goat was more common, was the leather on segmentata goat or cow? Or something else they had handy?