October 28, 2020
I have been making some sort of historical clothing since I was twelve years old; when I made my first pair of "moccasin boots" from a pattern sold by Tandy Leather Co. It all seems so inadvertent, looking back at that time, in the year 1974. My parents would not allow me to spend $36.00 (w/o shipping) on a pair of fringed, knee-high, moccasin boots which were offered in a catalog. I thought at the time they were the quintessential foot-ware of any outdoorsman aiming to experience the frontier life-of-old. No matter how much I pleaded with them they flatly refused to approve the purchase. I was crushed and misunderstood. However, there was to be a turn of events.
One Saturday about two weeks later, I arose at the obscenely late hour of 9:00 am and when I entered the kitchen I encountered my parents talking about leather, sewing and related matters. My mother then asked me about my willingness to try making a pair of boots by hand. She and my father had seen my recent projects, which consisted of a variety of hand sewn leather bags and pouches, using odds-and-end pieces of leather. So with that my father and I fired up his big, green, Chrysler Newport and headed to a Tandy Leather located twenty minutes away, in Springfield, Virginia. There he purchased half-a-cow hide, dyed plumb black. It cost about $30.00; a whole $6.00 less than those catalog boots.
While at the store, I perused the patterns and found the "Apache Boot" pattern for about $4.00. Then we headed back home. In the ensuing months I cut out, sewed and finished the
boots replete with fringed tops. The story, however, does not end there.
I used those moccasin boots for any and all my outdoor excursions like, fishing, hiking, canoeing, bow-hunting, small game hunting and so on. The first thing I realized is that the boots would not stay tied up under my knee, the way that similar boots were depicted by Hollywood studios. I also noticed that when the intrepid frontiersman waded through the streams, in some sort of tangible pursuit that was relevant to the plot, the characters would not, in the next scene have any problems with waterlogged, knee-high boots. In fact, only seconds after exiting the water as the camera angle changed to view the characters round a patch of trees, their boots were DRY!
My first question was, How did they do that? As for the pants that were tucked into the boots, how did they stay dry as well? The obvious answer(s) was and still is, "the magic of television." As far as holding the boots up to my knees, I found it necessary to use a long leather strip and tie around the boot below the calf. I had never seen that done on the silver screen, but I could not prevent the boots from sagging horribly and slipping around my heel. So using a tie around the boot became my first accommodation in the use of quasi-historical garb.
The other problem with the boots is that the style was primarily used in dessert regions, not in a forest setting. After crossing a stream or wading with a canoe in tow, the boots soaked in several pounds of water. They were always waterlogged, and took forever to dry out. Some years later I removed the fringe at the top of the boot and following that I added a cuff, similar to an English hunt-boot used for riding horses. Though they still fit, I have not worn the boots for over two decades.
As for my insight into a more usable type of "woodland" foot ware I began to make a type of moccasin used in the eastern regions of the north American continent. Soon, I came to understand why the woodland Indians and frontiersmen actually used ankle-high moccasins instead. Even if they are wet, they do not weigh several pounds a piece. They can even be wrung-out! Also, several pairs may be packed for a hike or trip with the added weight being negligible. An average deer hide - 10 sq feet - can yield two to three pairs. An elk hide - 20 sq feet - can yield up to five pairs with scraps for other projects.
As the old saying goes, experience is the best teacher, and I had experienced a lot of disappointment before I had a moment of enlightenment. That is but one of the many lessons gleaned from my willingness to pay attention to historical evidence. That willingness is also a sign of taking a more mature approach, namely admitting that I (what ever my age is) do not know everything. (as I write those words I am chuckling at my youthful self).
I would later come to see and use the historically referenced shoe-pac. It is a combination of moccasin and shoe, and generally made using a long wearing heavy leather. It is a most useful type of foot ware in the woods, especially on rough terrain like rocky ground. The pair I have provided here, has been worn in everything from several inches of snow, to temperatures in the 90's. The best thing about this construction is that a second sole may be sewn onto the bottom using the same seam without removing the first sole.
I hope your lesson basket is full of gleaned information that will be as useful for you as it is for me.
JWH
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