[Regia-NA] Re: [Regia] looking for a supplier of pitch

[rmhowe]

VIKING@inthedanelaw.fsnet.co.uk wrote:
> 
> Ana,
> 
> I have a source Stateside.  You can order it and have it shipped to my post on base...the cost of shipping is same as US rates, rather than international.
> 
> Bill
> >
> > From: "Annette Deissler" <shoesana@hotmail.com>
> > Date: Tue 20/May/2003 23:17 GMT
> > To: <regia@yahoogroups.com>
> > Subject: [Regia] looking for a supplier of pitch
> >
> > Hello everybody,
> > I am looking for a supplier of pitch in reasonable amounts, of 1 kilo or less.
> > I need it to make up a special waxing-mixture for waxing my shoe-making threads.
> > Any of you boaty or other types having any ideas where to look for it?
> >  Thanks,
> >
> > Ana

Mine came from Mr. D.A. Saguto, the Historical Williamsburg VA, USA
shoemaker. 
[That is a 1745 or so recreation of the colonial capitol of Virginia, 
very much based on archaeology and history on the original foundations.
They also have a separate Saddler's shop that makes trunks, bottels,
jacks, sheathes, belts, harness, buckets, etc.]
The coad was given to me when I asked him how to use boar's bristles
along 
with a nice demonstration from him, at which point I was also given 
linen thread and boar's bristles. They generally make it up in small 
amounts and only the people they encounter looking to learn the 
methods are gifted with it. They don't sell it as far as I know.
The small ball should be all I'll ever need for sewing shoes. ;) 

Source for Boar's Bristles:
        Dexter Leather Company
        535 Albany Street
        Boston, MA    02118-2500
        617-482-3737
        "(information courtesy of Adele Malory)  They focus on the 
> shoe trade and had bristles last time I was there. They are not
> on-line; they do do retail, but (as I like to say) "they don't
> do amateurs."  Let them know you're doing living history
> shoemaking and what you need." "Its about $2 for 18 of 'em."
Note from Medieval-Leather list March 99. You want the big black
ones, not the blonde fine ones. Saguto split his with a shoemaker's
hammer tap, then by hand. 

http://www.teleport.com/~tcl/f3.htm How to use Boar's Bristles.
http://home.teleport.com/~tcl/CaberPress_web.pdf the books he sells.
Also covered in Al Stohlman's Art of Handsewing Leather -
http://www.zackwhite.com/ or http://www.leatherfactory.com/
It's always in print. or http://www.tandyleather.com/

"There is a recipe in "Every Lady Her Own Shoemaker"."
[This is one shoe book I don't have or have not seen.]
"(another version of it, used with needles, appears on p.144 of 
Laszlo Vass's _Handmade Shoes for Men_)." [I may have this I think.
I don't presently know where it is. When I ran out of shelfspace
things began ending up in piles, several deep, five feet high plus.]

A reference [again 1999] to historical linen shoemaker's thread source:
Textile Reproductions 
Box 48 
West Chesterfield, MA 01084 USA
413-296-4437 

Lacis is a lacemaking supplies shop in San Francisco.  
It has a variety of fine linen threads.  Contact information is:
     Lacis
     3163 Adeline Street
     Berkeley, CA 94703
     (510) 843-7178 9am-6pm pst
     Fax: (510) 843-5018
     staff@lacis.com
They also have glover's needles, Zack White carries them too.

If you were to go to the Medieval-leather@yahoogroups.com archive
and search: Coad/Handwax  11 Mar 99 by  "I. Marc Carlson"
<LIB_IMC@centum.utulsa.edu> to medieval-leather@egroups.com
You would find a recipe for Coad or shoemaker's handwax.
It didn't belong to him, and he had permission to pass it to
the list. It also has some sources for pitch in England and
the U.S..  Can also be read and post group messages to on the web 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/medieval-leather/ 
On references this specific I'm not about to break copyright.
It came from someone on the Crispin Coloquy - the list for historical
shoemakers.  

Small amounts of Jacking pitch can be had from MelanieWilson@bigfoot.com
or lcv.co.uk or dragonflight.co.uk She sells them by the pound.

American pitch for jacking can be had from http://www.jastown.com/.
This is not a petroleum pitch based item. It's more like purified
pine rosin, which some people mix 50/50 with beeswax to use for coating
jacks, bottels and costrels, as it makes it less liable to crack.

Regular pine rosin for scraping hog hides is available by the pound
from agricultural suppliers. There probably isn't much difference.
A farmer/carpenter I knew when I worked for the state last got
me a couple pounds for making up jewelry carving waxes. I presume
at Agri-Supply Co. as he lived in that direction.

Magnus