Chiff and Fipple Forums

So, maybe I think to much... and a bit too anal retentive... but I am in need of replacing my current piping strap, and this ponderance came to my head. I wanted to get something traditional, and started looking at leather on line at places like Tandy, etc... but then I got to thinking: The predominate leather in Ireland "in the day" would have likely been sheep skin, not the cow leather I have been using and shopping for.

Anyone have input on what the traditional leather actually is for piper's aprons? Sheep, goat, cow...?

Thanks!

Mick O'Brien appears to use a folded piece of chamois. You can buy these in auto parts stores (they're used for drying water off of paint).

I suspect you're over-thinking this - use whatever piece of soft leather is convenient. There is not much history or tradition to a popping strap, beyond the obvious need to close the end of the chanter. I've seen a lot more sheep than cows in Ireland, but there are both.

Granted, the pipes are an expensive instrument, but 19th and early 20th C Ireland was a relatively poor place. They'd have used whatever leather was at hand - cow, calf, sheep, goat or pigskin are all valid options.

Spoons-player skin is always popular Might be a little thick for some....

dave boling

daveboling wrote:Might be a little thick for some....

Bravo!

s1m0n wrote:They'd have used whatever leather was at hand - cow, calf, sheep, goat or pigskin are all valid options.

Add to the list deer hide and greyhound skin.

oleorezinator wrote:

s1m0n wrote:They'd have used whatever leather was at hand - cow, calf, sheep, goat or pigskin are all valid options.

Add to the list deer hide and greyhound skin.

Aye, that would be the slow greyhounds.
Bob

They all get slow eventually. And with greyhounds, 'eventually' means 18 months, or less.

I adopted a retired racing greyhound, and she is off hiding now, thanks to this thread! 146 races... http://www.greyhound-data.com/d?d=lazy+ ... birthland=

So no greyhound leather for me!

I tried to get a local spoon player to let me have his thigh skin... all I got was an imprint of a spoon on my forehead, and a headache!

So long story short, stop thinking about it, and buy some leather of whatever kind.

So, what is traditional... polished, or suede? Horeen? What color... green? Red?

Kidding! Kidding!

Thanks for the input, guys!

Aldwyn wrote:The predominate leather in Ireland "in the day" would have likely been sheep skin, not the cow leather I have been using and shopping for.

I suspect that the most common hyde is likely to have been pigskin. Sheep skin (or more likely lambskin) would have been processed so as to keep the wool on the hyde for insolation and comfort. Lambskin gloves are very comfortable. Pigskin, on the other hand, wouldn't have been considered a luxury product.

Some of the players I admire most use chamois. But I don't get it: chamois folds and creases like crazy. Maybe its so soft that you can seal the chanter right through a fold (?).

Don't know about the seal. Chamois tends to be porous.

Apart from the seal, leather helps reflect the sound, which I doubt chamois does.

Don't use seal. Just don't.

I seem to recall a fellow who used the top side of an old, beat-up work glove, fingers and all. You know, one of these jobbies, split in half:



He was a working man's working man, so it was perfect not so much because of the association, but that he'd used what he naturally had on hand. I thought that had to be about the coolest and fiercest popping strap ever on the whole darned planet.

Nanohedron wrote:You know, one of these jobbies, split in half

No, you don't want jobbies! (Said the Scot...)