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From this point on, any minor discrepancies, in speed of water flow will cause the water speed up and slow down into eddies. These eddies are sufficient to cause the heavier sand particles to fall out of suspension and begin to accumulate at that point, whilst on the other side of the eddy the water speeds up which allows more sand to be placed in suspension. This accumulation and dissipation of sand grains has a knock-on effect down the road that causes bigger eddies, which in turn causes more sand to accumulate ad dissipate at that point etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. Thus, over time, the fabric of the sand and water changes and ripples appear and then grow. So, it is with your Ferro Rod and your Striker! This phenomenon compounds itself over time and will only get worse unless rectified, and then it all begins again.

The Remedy : The only thing you can do is remove the ripples once they become noticeable, which is easily done in principle, by simply sanding or filing or grinding them away them away until you get a flat surface again.

DISCLAIMER: Please understand that both methods, mentioned above will cause sparks that can easily burn your skin and set light to combustible materials within the range of any sparks created. SO, WE ADVISE EXTREME CAUTION and that if you attempt either of these methods, you do so at your own risk!

Since the long-curved edge is intended for TF&S the 90-degree edges will have been very slightly rounded off a little to protect the Flint when striking the flint and steel together. All the others 90-degree edges, however, have been specially ground so that the edges are 90-degree sharp, which is to say, they are 90-degree sharp so they can easily and efficiently scrape Ferro rods, but cannot accidentally cut people.

We at Beaver Bushcraft like the idea of continuing traditional skills, particularly the tradition of making leather bottles. Leather bottles – as opposed to animal bladders and intestines - have been in use since the Neolithic period and probably earlier if the truth be known, when they discovered that leather/skins could be shaped by wetting the leather and letting it hardened by boiling it or leaving out in the heat of the sun.

It could be said, that leather very much was the material of choice, for the personal transportation of small quantities of liquids, from the earliest days of Human history right up to Tudor times and beyond, for its availability, durability and lightness of weight. Certainly, by way of contrast, leather bottles, would have been much easier to make and to carry than the heavier more fragile, and without being fully glazed, porous in nature earthenware pots of the time. Throughout history, leather bottles have been adapted, shaped and designed to suit their purpose. For example the leather bottles found on the wreckage of Tudor ship the Mary Rose, where made wider and flatter on the bottom to stop them rolling around whilst at sea. The photo above right shows a copy we made of one of the Bottles found on the Mary Rose. We deliberately made it look very old and rustic.

During Elizabethan times, it was only the rich that could have afforded genuine glass wine glasses due to the high cost of glass and the skills needed to make them. Wine glasses would constantly have been filled by a servant holding a leather bottle who was known at the time as the ‘Botellar’, a term and position in life today that is more familiarly known as a ‘Butler’. In the village of Hallaton, Northamptonshire, the sport of bottle kicking was very popular. The bottle was originally made of leather making one wonders, if this was the origin of the leather football !!! 

Early Eastern ‘primitive’ leather bottles were really just a ‘bag’ made from tanned or untanned skins of entire animals, such as kid, goat, cow, camel or buffalo. And i n most cases made from the animal entire body, after the legs and head were cut off and sewn or tied closed!!!  When filled, these leather bag bottles grotesquely retained the shape of the animal. The Photo above shows a modern version of a bottle made from the skin of an animal. Certainly the use of whole hide bottle bags is still widely used by nomadic Mongolian tribes, who often use them for storing fermented milk, butter and cheese’s as well as water.

Other bottle bags used by our ancestors for storing wine or oil would have been tanned by plants rich in tannins such Oak bark and leaves etc & then seasoned in smoke, a process that apparently gave a rather peculiar tang to the flavour to the wine. I’m glad to say the process of storing these liquids has become more sophisticated since then, especially since the invention and widespread availability of glass! 

We love the way leather bottles as well as leather drinking vessels have helped shaped the social drinking habits through the ages and we at Beaver Bushcraft just love the idea of continuing this great tradition and keeping this ancient skill alive. Many people still make leather bottles to do this day and we like to think our hand crafted leather bottles will the heirlooms of the future & bringing back a little bit of history to life.