Medieval shoes, but made from fish

I know locally,  people make incredibly strong leather from salmon,  but I had no idea we could just buy different types of fish leather.  

While I am thinking of making prehistorical style shoes out of plant fibers (in a braiding or twining technique) ... I could use fish skin. Why not? Finds of actual clothing are rare anyway. And there's no written history or pictures (that's why it is called pre-history)

Thank you for sharing something new to me.

I had heard of things made from snake skin though not from fish skin.

I looked on eBay just for the fun of it and yes, eBay has sellers who are selling skins from fish.

I saw salmon, tilapia, stingrays, and carp skins being sold for crafts.

Not positive but isn't there a song about this. Buffalo girls

I sent you video link to my brother who works in leather - cow leather specifically.
He builds the Silver Saddles like the horsemen use in the Rose Parade.
He's pretty inquisitive so maybe he'll look into Fish Leather.
I can just imagine a pair of very, very expensive cowboy boots made of fish leather!   :-)

Jesse Glessner wrote:
I can just imagine a pair of very, very expensive cowboy boots made of fish leather!   :-)

I remember sharkskin cowboy boots being a thing. My Dad had a pair in the late 80s.
They were the "accent" leather part and were a very interesting standout from the cow leather.

Eel skin wallets are still a thing in high end stores, from what I know. I'm not sure how popular the fancy leathers are these days, but they were something even I tracked during high school.
It's not *that* odd.

I have a few pieces of salmon leather and one piece of stingray leather that I haven't figured out what I want to do with yet. I just thought it was a fascinating idea when I saw them.

The producer was at least claiming that they were able to make use of what was normally part of a massive waste stream and also some aspects of the tanning process were less intense as well, so they saw it as a more ecofriendly alternative.

I haven't dug into it enough to verify any of the claims, but that's some of the stuff they were saying about it.

You know what would be cool?

Fish skin work gloves.

We're all gonna be rich!!!

When I last replied to this post I was trying to remember what the other really oddball type of leather was that I'd picked up at the same time as the salmon and stingray, but I couldn't think of it.

It just hit me this afternoon...

Turkey legs...

Just like with the salmon, once again, they tan them in quite a few different colors.  The resulting piece is small and very thin, but seems quite strong.  

The pic attached is one I just grabbed off an eBay listing that ships from one of the Chinese producers (rather than linking to one I don't have any experience with or something).

John Warren wrote:When I last replied to this post I was trying to remember what the other really oddball type of leather was that I'd picked up at the same time as the salmon and stingray, but I couldn't think of it.

It just hit me this afternoon...

Turkey legs...

Just like with the salmon, once again, they tan them in quite a few different colors.  The resulting piece is small and very thin, but seems quite strong.  

The pic attached is one I just grabbed off an eBay listing that ships from one of the Chinese producers (rather than linking to one I don't have any experience with or something).

I'm so glad you posted this. It reassured me that I'm not the only one who will sometimes buy weird stuff just for the sake of it being weird stuff. I don't have any turkey leg leather hidden anywhere, but I do have a collection of different samples of spun fiber from a myriad of sources that I have yet to do much with - not much call for nettle thread in ordinary sewing. Or banana "silk".

Kristine Keeney wrote:
I'm so glad you posted this. It reassured me that I'm not the only one who will sometimes buy weird stuff just for the sake of it being weird stuff. I don't have any turkey leg leather hidden anywhere, but I do have a collection of different samples of spun fiber from a myriad of sources that I have yet to do much with - not much call for nettle thread in ordinary sewing. Or banana "silk".

Bahaha!

Oh yeah... AND the fact that it was pretty cheap when I stumbled across it too.  There is no telling what kind of weird eclectic hoard I would have if I had more financial resources throughout various phases of my life.

I have a tendency to do that with my knowledgebase and skillsets as well.  Do I have any practical need to know how to grow silkworms and harvest their silk? No. Did that stop me from watching hours of youtube videos about sericulture several weeks ago? No.  And is the full knowledge of how absurd that all is preventing me from actually considering devoting a certain amount of land and energy to giving it a try? (At least on SOME level?)  Lol - I think you know the answer... but before I started considering that, I stumbled across one of those people who is literally "growing furniture" by putting forms on tree branches as they grow.  So right now I'm thinking I'm going to use a section of land to experiment with some ideas and techniques around that general concept and probably won't go TOOO crazy overboard with the mulberry trees.

Anyway, all that is to say that I don't think there is anything weird about your banana silk at all! Though I would love to know if there are any particular use cases where you actually do plan/expect to use things like the samples you mentioned?  (Because I'm curious, not because I'm judging AT ALL.)

Salmon leather is about 10 times more durable than calf leather and I reckon that Arapaima can top this property...