Hej to everyone,

I use these types of water-bottles which I bought here:
http://www.lh-shop.cz/index.php?option=com_vi...mp;lang=en

They are leather bags/jugs beewaxed inside - all very fragile to pressure damage during transportation and camp use...and it seems that moths like the inside wax when it is not in use :-(

Pottery shows similar problems with fragility plus greater weight, at least it attracts no moths :-)

So do you have any suggestion / options (I prefer personal experience) for something to keep water in while maintaining greater resistance and low weight for active use in camping and tramping in woods?


- I mean for viking, celtic, ancient, eneolithic or paleolithic time - so please no mediavel or modern plastic suggestions :-)

Tack!

Well i use similar (at least by the look) waterskins as you. I have made all by myself tho.

Imo they are not so easy to damage. If you keep them in your bag or with a loop around the shoulder while you walk, and hang them from, say a treebranch when in camp it is quite okay. Mine have been in the backpack with many items, unless you step on them, or throw your mail and helmet on them, they should be okay. In case of moths, not only the bottles, but also all authentic clothing and fleece are in danger, KILL THEM BEFORE THEY LAY EGGS :lol: :lol:

I also know that in the later tradititon, people who went on their days work on the field had their water or milk with them in wooden "minibarrels". Basically the same thing as a large barrel for mead or beer, but a very small version, that fit 2-3 liters or so...

R

Thank you,

to put it straight:

- I am aware of typical leather possibilities - and its weaknesses (=waxed leather bags)

- Clay (if you mean clay = pottery) does not solve my problem - fragility, weight :-)

- Metal means weight, which I try to avoid

- Wood - Do you have some pics of those containers? What is it impregnated with? How much does it weight?

Has someone tried to use something like bladders (of sheep, cow, fish....) ? - which offers minimum weight and when empty one can wrap it to small bundle?

Or maybe to impregnate leather / skin in a different way so that it stays soft and not get hard as with beewax...

What exactly is the problem with the leather bottles covered with wax, im interested in what has happened to Yours, so that you consider them to be fragile.

Leather bottles/costrels can be impregnated with pitch, which could possibly be less brittle, and less attractive to insects.
Basque shepherds have traditionally made a leather container featuring a sheeps bladder or stomach as the inside part.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bota_bag

A cuir-boulli wax-impregnated water bottle coated on the inside with brewer's pitch is nigh-on indestructable. It is very hard and holds up to most moderate abuse. What I am talking about is basically like this:
http://blog.makezine.com/2011/06/03/how-to-cl...er-bottle/

Clang Armory sells them:
http://clang.adkinssoftware.com/canteen%20pics/canteen%2001.html

In medieval western Europe it seems that drinking from leather water bottles was mainly an English practice among upper levels of society. On the Continent it was considered barbaric and only done by peasants. The French joked that the English drank from their boots.

Quote:

- Metal means weight, which I try to avoid

Pound for pound metal is stronger than any other available material. A metal water bottle should be lighter than any other alternative of similar strength.

I'm currently growing some gourds to give me raw material for experimenting with water containers.

I found lining gourds with beeswax seals them well and stops the liquid from tasting of old gourd. they now just taste of beeswax and old gourd......

One source for Brewer's Pitch is Jas. Townsend:
http://jas-townsend.com/product_info.php?products_id=373

To make one yourself, you bascially fill the sewn wet leather with fine sand. You fill it up, then pack it down, then fill it some more and pack it some more to stretch and shape the leather. Then you let it dry, pour out the sand, rinse it out, yhen coat the outside with beeswax and treat it inside with the Brewer's Pitch which is melted, poured in, swirled around while still hot, with the excess drained out.

Even though it is brittle, if you use a thick leather to begin with, it will take quite a hit to break it. I would not want to be hit in the head with my flask, the bone will break before the leather does.

I'd buy something like this in a heartbeat! This large canteen (I think diameter is more than 20 cm) was found in river Ljubljanica, Slovenia, and is dated in 15th century. I think it's iron, covered in pewter.