Boatas or knee high leggings

[tumbleweed]

I fashioned a pair of boatas from middle/heavy weight cow leather.They wear well but for any extended walking distance they would become too heavy.I read in the book of buck skinning about boatas.Were they mostly used in the south west ? It seems that they were used to protect against the low thawny bushes and snake bites.If your wearing breeches with long socks,boatas make good sense.I would appreciate some feed back on this.

[sean]

TW,

Chuck can tell you a lot about botas too, but I don't think many of them were made of heavy leather. Remember that most of the leggings that were made during the period were made of braintanned deer hides and they weren't heavy chaperos to turn mesquite thorns. In general, I think most NM made leather goods were sort of a light-weight pseudo-veg tan that was tanned with curly dock root, then curried and finished with brains. The New Mexicans used the same stuff for clothing and what I've seen looks a lot like modern German tan. Some of Marc Simmons writings document that. However, lots of Indians from the SW all the way to the Metis in the Northern Plains made botas and these were most likely made from braintanned deer, antelope, sheep or bison. I know Chuck has made some out of German tan leather, which is sort of a commercial braintan and I think that's a fine choice.

Sean

[Mitch]

also think "horseback" vs "walking"....not many mountaineers were doing a lot of walking on purpose and it does help to have "calves" on your legs too! I have a pair I made a few years back, mostly for winter hunting...some kind of hair-on goat(hair to the inside) with white wool blanket(think army blanket weight) on the outside, 3 big buttons and a leather strap around the top, just above my calf and below the knee.....they are warm and lightweight and I've not had any issue with them falling down....perhaps you have no calf or don't have the tops tied or buckled tight enough?