Re: Fustian and Linen for bowstrings (long)

[dave_key-at-uk.ibm.com]

Jorg,

Fustian

Thanks for the refs ... I'll try and dig mine out as well on the subject.
If it was twill in Germnay then it was likely to have been so in England as
a lot appears, at least by the end of the c15th, to have been imported from
southern Germnay esp. Ulm which in turn was an industry imported from Italy
(hopefully my geography hasn't embarassed me too much here) via Flanders
into England. Although there are a few tantalising refs. to it in East
Anglia.

Curiuosly enough looking atsome of the Milan accounts for Fustian they are
woven to 1 braccia width, I usually associate this with silk rather than
cotton cloths asit is very narrow (approx. 18" ... 50cm) , but I was only
glancing last night so I'll re-look at this.

I was surprised as the pieces of what I believe to be fustian on some of
the surviving Brigandines is , from memory a plain/tabby weave, and this
would be more typical of linen cloths in general. Which reminds me to
remind tyhe Royal Armouries that they promised me they'd do some analysis
of the fibres on those Brigandines! Oh well next letter time...


Linen

I was worried by the Shomaker bit rahter than the Irish .or Linen..

Irish Linen is explicitly mentioned in c15th English Statutes alongside
English Linen .... from memory it is the only place where Irish exports are
mentioned suggesting it was a fairly important industry ??

I did get some linen threads from one of the manufacturers a few years back
... and if you want fine, high quality linen this is the stuff! They don't
really sell it retail but I'm sure we could persuade them. The real
question is what finish, weight, twist etc.! You name it they do it. I got
the ref. for them from one of the cloth weavers (they make table cloths for
the Royals etc.!!) but they were curious about the concept of Fustian and
might even have been willing to give it a go ... price now that's a
different matter!!!

So if we can agree what we want and how much (and our price limit) I think
I could get it ...

Cheers
Dave



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