What I found in my pants

I'm actively working on a pair of pants after a breeches pattern in Mathew Gnagy's Modern Maker 2.  I got to a point where if I'm going to add trim, I need to do it before moving on, and decided it was time to actually do a little research.  We've had a copy of Jacob de Gheyn II's Exercise of Arms in large format print (the 1971 McGraw Hill facsimile reprint of a 1607 edition) since our first trip to England in 1998 (it was a damn lucky find), and while I'd like to admit that I've used it for research in the past, I would be lying.

Then I had a beautiful thought: I wonder if anyone has done an analysis of clothing in the manual, rather than its usual military function.  A quick web search later, and I was left with having to do it myself 😒.  117 plates (thanks wiktenauer, so I didn't have to tote the book around - although the scans seem to be from the Rijksmuseum) and one spreadsheet later and here we are.

For those unfamiliar with the Exercise of Arms, it is a Dutch military manual printed originally in 1607 (although there's evidence that the work was completed earlier) that contains 117 detailed and stunningly beautiful engravings of drill positions for the weapons of caliver, musket, and pike.  There are some likely duplicates, like plates 2 & 34 of the caliver, but I chose to count them all independently in the data.  Since my current rathole was trying to decide on decoration for pants, I only looked at that garment (some other poor soul can do doublets, hose, and other accoutrements later - oh who am I kidding, I'm that poor soul).  For classifying the pants, the only surviving 16th century tailor's pattern manuals I'm aware of that contain pants are Spanish, and are outlined in Modern Maker 2, so I've used that information for classifying except for the pants that are clearly none of those (i.e., trunkhose).

Fig 1 - Caliver Plate 36 scalloped detail

So what did I learn?  Only pikemen wear trunkhose.  No, I'm kidding (only kinda).  Of the 117 pairs of pants, the vast majority of them (85%) line up best with the standard breeches pattern from the Freyle manual (p. 144, MM2) - this is convenient, as that's the pattern I'm working up.  There are 7 examples of trunkhose (all pikemen), which have no exemplar in the period tailor's manual we own.  The rest are scattered amongst the other styles of breeches, but depending on one's eye, they could all be variants on the Freyle.

Fig 2 - Musket Plate 4 braid detail

For decoration, it's clear that some type of trim and button arrangement on the outside seam was very popular, with 57% of them having between 1 & 4 vertical stripes of trim and 79% having 3 or more buttons, sometimes all the way up the outside of the leg.  There are also a significant number of breeches with a scalloped edge (19), with buttons of course (see Fig 1), and of horizontal braids (18) with tassels (and you guessed it... buttons) (see Fig 2).  Only 5 garments have no decoration at all, and 24 have some form of decoration on the main body of the breeches such as horizontal, diagonal, or vertical stripes, sometimes in addition to the trim on the seam.

I'll bet you're wondering what I chose to do, aren't you?  Well, I'm going to go with this pattern you see in musket plate 15 (see Fig 3).  It shows up a couple times, but should be a fairly easy pattern for me, a novice, to spiff up a pair of breeches.  As to the data as a whole, this is a very narrow set of data to draw any conclusions from.  It's from a very narrow time period, which is nice, but it's really a single person's view of fashion and really only in the scope of working class military.  The variations you see in Exercise of Arms could also easily be small regional variations.  That being said, if you are a Dutch persona from the late 16th century, all of the decorations patterns would be viable for you.  Unless you're a pikemen, then just wear trunkhose 😉.

Fig 3 - Musket Plate 15 detail

Chemical Bluing Rapier Gear

My gear is notorious for getting rusty (let's face it, I sweat), and because I happen to live in the ample humidity of the southeastern US, it’s never going to not rust.  I had to learn how to take care of my rapier gear or find ways to mitigate the affects as best I could.  When I purchased a nice steel gorget years ago, the maker performed a chemical bluing process on it which looks gorgeous, and it turns out helps with the rust.  When it did start to rust a few years later, I had no idea how to take care of it and re-do the beautiful work he did.  Luckily, folks who came to the local practice (Rosalind & Gaston) did know the process.  They taught me this method that I will share with you today.

Wikipedia has a lovely article on steel bluing.  I use a process they term cold bluing, because it requires no heat, but is also called chemical bluing.  Read that if you're interested in how this works.  I am not a chemist.  It should be noted that this process only works on steel, so those of you with aluminum are on your own.

Materials

Materials you will need for this process:

• Abrasives (i.e. sandpaper, sanding sponges, etc.)
• Clean rags
• Painters or masking tape
• Protective gloves - the rubber/nitrile kind, not the woodwork shop kind
• Degreaser
• Chemical bluing agent (sometimes called gun blue)
• Cotton balls
• Black shoe polish
• Protective sealant (I favor gun oil, and it comes in wipes)

Some of the materials needed

Rust Removal

I’m going to assume you have a rusty piece of gear to start with.  Use your favorite abrasives to remove as much rust as you can.  This is the most time consuming part.  My gorget has been bad enough that I needed to start all the way with a wire wheel a couple of times before progressing to sandpaper.  Move through progressively finer abrasives until you get to the finish you want (a dream) or you’ve reached your point of patience (depends on the amount of time I have on my hands);  220 grit is a good finish, 320 is better.  Some people use a lubricant while you’re doing this; it will be your bane later if you do, so leave it out this time.  Once you’ve got as much rust off as you can, wipe down your object with a clean rag to get off all the dust you’ve created.

Mask

If there are any parts of your object you don’t want blued, now is the time to cover it with something.  My gorget has a lovely stripe around the outside edge, so I usually try to very carefully cover it in painters tape so I don’t have to worry about the chemical bluing accidentally hitting it, and having to clean it up later.  This last time I cheated and didn’t do it, so to each their own.

Degrease

Now it’s time for the gloves.  You are about to start using chemicals, some of which are caustic to humans, so these are important.  I have a pair of longer kitchen-type rubber gloves that come out only for this process (but they’re black, so it’s cool).  Nitrile/latex gloves might also work fine.  Spray your object with degreaser, and wipe down with another clean rag.  You’re looking to get all the oil from your hands off of the object so the bluing will work well, as well as any remaining dirt or grime.  Wait for the object to dry - it shouldn’t take too long, especially if you place it in the sun.  Leave your gloves on (dry them off if you got degreaser on them).

Blue

Now on to the fun part.  You might want to lay down some newspaper or cardboard to protect whatever ground you’re over.  Grab a cotton ball, get some bluing agent on it, and go to town on your object.  Be liberal, but try to get consistent coverage, and don’t rush.  The results will be almost immediate turning the metal a lovely bluish black, but it will probably look splotchy.  You will likely need to go through many cotton balls as they’re not much use after the first go round.  After a short while, a sort of yellowish scum will form on the object where you’ve put the chemical; this is a normal byproduct of the chemical reaction, and we’ll deal with it later.  Any spots that look particularly splotchy should get a second coat (and you might want to just do a second coat all over anyway).

Finish

Once you are done bluing, find yourself yet another clean rag and start buffing the yellow scum off - it should rub off with a little elbow grease.  You will have an object that is darker, probably a bit splotchy, and kinda dull looking.  Apply black shoe polish liberally, and buff it to a shine (you’ve shined a shoe before, right?).  The shoe polish helps even out the bluing and applies a nice wax coating to that section.  Remove any masking you have done, and your object will be complete.  For the masked portions, apply your favorite protective substance be it a wax or oil - my penchant is for gun oil, as it’s designed to seal out water and comes in handy wipes :).

Gorget & 2 guards that have been chemical blued