Monday, November 27, 2006

Leather types

In general, leather is sold in three forms:

Full-Grain leather, made from the finest raw material, is clean natural hides which have not been sanded to remove imperfections. Only the hair has been removed. The grain remains in its normal state which will allow the best fiber power, resulting in greater strength. The natural grain also has natural breath ability, ensuing in greater comfort. The normal Full-Grain surface will wear recovered than other fur. Rather than wearing out, it will develop a natural "Patina" and grow more beautiful over time. The finest furniture, and footwear, are prepared from Full Grain leather.
Corrected-Grain leather, also known as Top-Grain leather, is wooly on one side and smooth on the other. The smooth side is the side where the hair and normal grain used to be. The hides, which are made from mediocre quality raw materials, have all of the natural grain sanded off, and a simulated grain applied. Top grain leather generally must be heavily painted to cover up the sanding and stamping process.

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Stonehenge 2

Evidence of the second phase is no longer visible. It appears from the number of postholes dating to this period that some form of timber structure was built within the enclosure during the early 3rd millennium BC. Further standing timbers were placed at the northeast entrance and a parallel alignment of posts ran inwards from the southern entrance. The postholes are smaller than the Aubrey Holes, being only around 0.4m in diameter and are much less regularly spaced. The bank was purposely reduced in height and the ditch continued to silt up. At least twenty-five of the Aubrey Holes are known to have contained later, intrusive, cremation burials dating to the two centuries after the monument's inception. It seems that whatever the holes' initial function, it changed to become a funerary one during Phase 2. Thirty further cremations were placed in the enclosure's ditch and at other points within the monument, mostly in the eastern half. Stonehenge is therefore interpreted as functioning as an enclosed cremation cemetery at this time, the earliest known cremation cemetery in the British Isles. Fragments of unburnt human bone have also been found in the ditch fill. Late Neolithic grooved ware pottery has been found in connection with the features from this phase providing dating evidence.