Middle Earth Ranger Forum

That's wonderful I look forward to seeing them! What style are you planning on?

Ringulf wrote:That's wonderful I look forward to seeing them! What style are you planning on?

I haven't quite decided yet, they will probably be laced, easier than trying to source buckles in the UK. The leather I plan to use is quite thick and undyed so it will be tooled, probably with a simaler paturn to my belt around the edge and a central design of some kind. Here's what I have so far; Am open to idea's

May I recommend ravens for a dwarf from Erebor?

For some extra bling, you could get some thin mild steel sheet, tin snips, some rivets, and work up something like the ornament on this wonderful "pouch of Thorin"
https://www.etsy.com/listing/289432089/ ... ome_feat_1

OOOOOOOH, good thought! I heartily second Elleth's excellent suggestion!

And speaking of sourcing buckles in the UK...

https://www.bucklebox.co.uk/plain-forma ... -111-c.asp

I have actually been working on my Thorin Raven pouch for a while and was rather disheartened by seeing this one when it popped up, but I think there will be a significant difference in our interpretations. Mine was to be part of the set I am making with the Goatskin haversack and the cup holder. All the pieces from the Hobbit Chronicle page including the silverware case and map/key case were objectives but the Raven was to be the first. Ah well, drag your heels and the world will overtake you! I like the bracer Idea, if you ever want them I have the patterns for the Thorin, Fili, and Kili Bracers, however, I would rather see something original from you, to match the rest of your Kit!

perhaps a pair of ravens on one bracer and an image of the lonely mountain on the other? while dwarves are indeed gruff and taciturn for the most part, they also have a degree of sentimentality. and that might be something one would do, so that no matter how far from home they did indeed roam, they had a piece of it with them always.

Elleth wrote:May I recommend ravens for a dwarf from Erebor?

For some extra bling, you could get some thin mild steel sheet, tin snips, some rivets, and work up something like the ornament on this wonderful "pouch of Thorin"

I'm not fond of animal based paturns but love this idea of using metal, I would have to work out how to stop it rusting though

Manveruon wrote:OOOOOOOH, good thought! I heartily second Elleth's excellent suggestion!

And speaking of sourcing buckles in the UK...

https://www.bucklebox.co.uk/plain-forma ... -111-c.asp

Brilliant site, I will keep in mind :

Ringulf wrote: I like the bracer Idea, if you ever want them I have the patterns for the Thorin, Fili, and Kili Bracers, however, I would rather see something original from you, to match the rest of your Kit!

Thankyou very much for the offer of paturns but I don't usually go for replicas from movies, I have tryed to sometimes and usually end up changing so much that the finished item is almost unrecognisable

Elwindil wrote:perhaps a pair of ravens on one bracer and an image of the lonely mountain on the other? while dwarves are indeed gruff and taciturn for the most part, they also have a degree of sentimentality. and that might be something one would do, so that no matter how far from home they did indeed roam, they had a piece of it with them always.

I like the idea of using the lonely mountain, thankyou all for such good ideas
I am starting to form a plan now and have somewhere to start

I agree - a stylized, dwarvish-aesthetic image of the Lonely Mountain eould be awesome, especially on the pouch.

That does sound interesting!

Hrmm.. perhaps you could brown the metal?
Or alternately, use copper or brass sheet and patina it down to a nice dull brown.

Elleth wrote:That does sound interesting!

Hrmm.. perhaps you could brown the metal?
Or alternately, use copper or brass sheet and patina it down to a nice dull brown.

I already have a small piece of 18 gauge high grade stainless steel sheet, I like the idea of copper or brass but unfortunately am unlikely to find that in the metal skip at work I should be able to make stainless look old and it won't rust, dwarves were clever and, in my mind, must have had a way of makeing steel that didn't rust

You betcha! Mithril was not the only metal we were able to manipulate! There are alloys aplenty though many are somewhat experimental, so are not as well known. (wink)

Ringulf wrote: There are alloys aplenty though many are somewhat experimental, so are not as well known. (wink)

Hmmmmm... maybe I should think of a name for it? One that has a bit more ring to it than 'high grade chemical resistant stainless'

How about 'gray ionite' ?

There were some interesting types mentioned in some of the supplemental materials in the MERP games since this is all conjectural anyways, it was fun to fool around with, not much Re-enactment value as far as the strict sense of pure sourcing for information. but it is nice to seed the imagination with when dealing with a culture such as the Dwarves which are not truly parallel to any one Medieval or Dark age culture. Though we see some Dark age Norse, some Germanic/Bavarian technology and a smattering of semetic structure, The Dwarves are an amalgam to be sure and a difficult line to traverse without going too historical or too fantastical lest the critics grumble.

FWIW, the "-ite" suffix linguistically suggests a relatively late scientific lexicon. If you want to come up with a name for stainless that sounds "in period" I'd suggest looking through some late 19th c. chemist and / or machinist texts. At the time they were still often procuring materials under pre-industrial names, which gives them a weird quality.

That's too early to help with stainless of course, but it'll give you a feel to shoot for.

Personally, I'd just call it steel without getting more specific.