The other day, I had some time on my hands....you know the saying.... and idle mind is the devil's playground......well this time it was a 'scrounger's playground'.

I have long read about how to take a 'round' piece of leather and using a sharp knife, cutting a thin strip from the leather. It shows in a number of books I have, to turn the leather and continue in a spiraling method so that you get a long, thin strip. It says you can produce a nice lenght of 'cord'.....

Well I took and old pair of boots.....steel toe, part leather and part nylon uppers.....I cut off the leather and took the approximately 3.5 x 3.5 inch piece to see what I could get out of it. I didn't try to be exact in the width of the 'lace' that I was cutting....I just wanted to get an idea....that 3.5 x 3.5 inch piece of leather gave me a 6 foot long pice of 'lace'. When I doubled it over, it held my weight! I wasn't but a few inches off the floor (and only for about 10 seconds), but it didn't break.... Now I 'm not advocating sacraficing your boots in a situation....but if you ended up somehow having a set that you 'can't' use.....know that you can get some pretty useful stuff from them.....

Oh BTW.....remember I had succeeded with my flintknapping??? I used one of the stones to cut the boot apart (about 98% of the boot was cut apart with a 'rock'). I did the last 2 % with a small (< 2inch ) blade.....Can you cut a boot with a rock....oh yes! Would you want to......trust me.....NO!!! The blade is just so nice..............And I used the knife for cutting the lace.

I always wondered if that would work...

I've read about that too. IIRC, you roll the rope between your hands; it's supposed to improve it somehow, can't remember why. But also if you soak it in water it will stretch and then can be used to tie things (shelter poles, spearheads) and when it dries it constricts and makes a very secure join. Maybe that only applies to raw hides and not treated leather? My boots are now in danger of experiments:)!

Seems like the steel toe of the boot would have possibilities.

Interesting read. I've not heard mention of this lace making before but I can see the possibilities. However I must confess when reading the thread I was thinking more of what the steel part could be used for?

How big and what shape is that piece by the way?

The steel toe was of a half dome shape, the bottom part of which was somewhat open.....My first thought was that it might make a good socket for a bow drill. It also served as a makeshift 'hammer' quite well... The lace was over an 1/8th inch in width....if I were more careful, I could have gotten a longer (but slightly thinner) lace out of it.....