Costrel
By
Edwin Attabridge
Having
a supply of water with you while you wander the dusty lanes of merchants’ row
or process to the field is as important in the current middle ages as it was to
the soldiers, travelers, and laborers of the historical middle ages. My endurance and happiness at outdoor and
even indoor events has been increased markedly by having a water container with
me all the time.
For
several years I carried a modern flip-top plastic sports-type bottle in a
fabric bag with shoulder strap sewed for me by Lady Margaret. It was inexpensive, quick and simple to sew,
and is easy to wash. While no 13th
century foot soldier would have 
carried
such a thing it looks much better than a
If
what I describe in the rest of this article is beyond your skills, aspirations,
or resources I hope you will at least consider something like Margaret's
"bottle in a bag" solution.
You'll be doing the authenticity conscious a favor by not detracting
from a period atmosphere with a visible modern container, and you'll be doing
yourself and the chirurgeons a favor by making it easy to stay hydrated in the
heat.
In
researching what medieval travelers carried and how, I found numerous pictures
of flasks or mini-barrels with shoulder straps. Some could have been clay,
metal, or wood but many were fairly clearly leather. Excavations in
Knowing
what a proper medieval water container should look like, I went hunting for one
in several re-enactment supply catalogs, such as Panther Primitives (of
pavilion fame). Most of these companies
cater primarily to Fur Trade, Revolutionary War, and Civil War era re-enactors.
Although styles of decoration change the designs of simple items were often
identical for centuries. Many of the
things issued to soldiers in
the Revolutionary and
Civil wars were functionally identical to those carried by soldiers in the
Middle Ages. If you know what you are
looking for you can find many credibly medieval things in later period
re-enactment catalogs.
So,
for about half a year I have carried a leather costrel for which I paid
$87. It's convenient, waterproof, and
looks almost
identical to the ones in
medieval pictures and the one they dug up in
Knowing
where to get medieval-style items is good, but knowing how to make them yourself
is much more useful. Having found some
instructions on the World Wide Web, and having a well-made modern leather
container and pictures of medieval ones to study, I set out to make a leather
costrel from scratch. It wasn't that
difficult, time-consuming, or as expensive as $87.
I
started with a package of crewel embroidery needles ($1.25), a pair of pliers
from my chain-mail toolkit, a big spool of three-ply waxed cord (only a couple
of dollars in the quantities actually needed), about 1.5 square feet (one
16"x8" body, two 5x5" ends) of 8-10 oz vegetable tanned leather
($6 per square foot from Tandy), and a big candle (can, whatever) and little
piece of dowel to use as a form. Crewel
needles are not ideal, because the eye is a lot larger than the body of the
needle, making it hard to pull it through the leather. I used a crewel needle because the cord I had
was fairly thick, and I needed the large needle eye.
The
first step was to measure up a pattern and cut out the body of the costrel--simply
a big rectangle. I then soaked it
overnight in cold water to saturate it, and briefly in warm water to make it
softer. When the leather was soft I
wrapped it around the candle (with the dowel on top for the spout), and then
started making stitching holes to sew it around the form. Ideally you should use an awl which makes
large holes but pushes the leather aside rather than removing it. I used a Dremel tool with a #58 wire drill
bit. The #58 bit turned out to be a tad
small for my needle and thread, and in general the awl would probably have been
a better solution.
Once
I had holes drilled in the leather I sewed it together along the body and the
spout while still on the mold and still damp.
In retrospect I think I should have clamped and pressed the leather with
some flat boards which would have given a nice tight fit, and then removed the
clamping and sewed it when dry, perhaps even without the mold in place--the
leather should hold the shape once dried.
As it was, trying to sew two not-quite-meeting leather surfaces together
and to drill straight holes across a gap made for some pretty irregular
stitching and a sloppy join. The stitch
I used was the classic "two needle" used for most leatherwork. Each needle goes through each hole, but from
opposite directions. You can do this
with one needle by going one way in a "sine wave" and then back the
other way, but it works better to use two needles and do one hole at a time
because you can then pull each stitch very tight. A small piece of leather works well as a
thimble to push the needle into the hole, especially in the case of the second
needle through which has to go around the existing cord, which is a tight
fit. Pliers allow you to pull the needle
through from the other side.
Theoretically you should use a dull needle with a round cross section,
because a sharp point or triangular edge can cut the cord as you pass the
second needle through the hole.
When
the leather was sewn around the candle and the dowel, I let it dry and then
pushed the candle and dowel out (this isn't easy—the leather shrinks as it
dries). I drilled and sewed the upper
lines of stitching at this point.
The
next step was to add the ends. The ends
are simply round bits of leather that are maybe a half-inch bigger in diameter
than the body of the costrel. I cut one,
soaked it in cold then warm water, and stuffed it into an end of the
costrel. It's tough to do, and the ends
just fold over a little like turning up the edges of a pie crust. Once the end
had dried in place, I made a couple of holes through the end and the body and
tied the end in place, because it didn't want to stay. I then made a row of holes through the end
and body very near the end of the costrel and sewed the end and body
together. A second set of holes and
stitches about 1/4" farther from the edge gives a good join. The second end went on just like the first,
but in actuality I put that end on after the first stage of waterproofing.
Medieval
leather containers were waterproofed by swishing melted pitch in them, or
dunking them in liquid bees-wax. The
material coats the inside, fills the holes, and keeps water from getting
through the leather. It's not the most
appealing coating, though. I used
brewer's pitch, a natural pinesap stuff, which I got a pound of for $6 from
James Townsend and Son. I only needed
half a pound--probably less once I learned how to use it. The costrel I bought from Panther appears to
have some black plastic-like goo for its coating, quite possibly a black
plastic. While they are rarer than they
used to be due to changes in the mundane brewing industry you can apparently
get modern products that work to water-seal leather containers and are more
sanitary and effective than the natural ones used in period. I'm not convinced that brewer's pitch will be
happy holding cola or liquor, and of course if it gets really hot it will start
to liquefy again.
I
melted the brewer's pitch over a camp stove in a soup can. In its natural state it is almost solid, like
a soft plastic. When heated up it is
much like heated-up honey, cooling rather quickly to a consistency of
room-temperature honey. I plugged the
one obvious hole in the finished end of my costrel with tape on the outside,
poured in the liquid pitch (the can is hot, remember--use pliers to grab and
pour), and swished it around. The pitch
rather quickly stopped dripping and oozing out of the holes in the end, and
once I had a good thick coat on the inside of the end I swished the rest of it
around the bottom and sides. A note--brewer's
pitch is stickier than honey, and hard to clean off your hands or whatever else
it winds up on!
After
the pitch had solidified, I formed and sewed on the other end of the costrel
just like the first one. I melted more
brewers pitch and poured it in the spout to waterproof the second end, and also
turned it upside down to waterproof the top.
It was a little harder doing this than the first end because with both
ends on I couldn't see where the pitch was going inside the costrel. Careful about the spout, though. I found it hard to get the pitch onto the
spout neatly, and it might have been a bad idea anyway. The black plastic goo in the Panther-bought
costrel created a thin, even, solid surface that accepts the stopper well. The brewer's pitch created a thick, uneven,
sticky surface that was hard to get a stopper into and much harder to get a
stopper OUT of. Either I needed to heat
the pitch warmer so it was runnier, and apply it more intelligently to the
spout, or I should simply not have waterproofed the spout.
At
this point the costrel was basically done.
I trimmed the top to shape, punched two slot-shaped holes in the top
part to accommodate a thick fabric strap (didn't have any leather the right
size in stock), and ground, filed, and sanded a tapering piece of dowel to act
as the stopper. A little bit of trimming
and grinding made the ends look better.
It
works. It doesn't leak (and if it starts to I can always pour in more pitch and
slosh it to the appropriate spot) and it looks pretty good for a first
try. Total cost was about $25 (which
also gives you leftover needles, brewers pitch, thread, etc.), plus things like
an awl and a pair of pliers which aren't that expensive and don't get used
up. I took me a couple of evenings to do
maybe 6-8 hours total of working time total.
The finished product is 7 1/2" long, 4" in diameter, and holds
about a quart. Period ones were
decorated with heraldic coats of arms which wouldn't be that hard to tool,
although I suspect it would be best to do them while the leather is still on
the form.
Bibliography and Other Information
Panther
Primitives Catalog No. 12.
James Townsend and Son 1999 Catalog,
The
Medieval Household, Geoff Egan,
English Drinking
Vessels, Modar Neznanich, http://www2.kumc.edu/itc/staff/rknight/Jacks.htm and
Leather.htm
Old
Testament Miniatures (Maciejowski Bible in facsimile) by Phaidon Press.