Desiccated leather

I'm currently working on a suit of 16th century Japanese Armor
constructed primarily of Urushi over buffalo hide.  In the course of
examination, I've discovered that the maker used some sort of
leather(?) lacing to reinforce the Do (clamshell breastplate)  as
well as other parts of the armor.

I've very little experience working with leather and initially thought
the lacing was actually a series of metal staples.  Only when I
scraped the surface of one of the stitches, did I discover that they
were not metal, but rather, some sort of organic fibrous material.
What seemed odd was that the laces appear to be constructed of
laminated Japanese tissue, rather than leather, this because the
scraping exposed very bright white fibrous layers seemingly
identical to handmade paper.  I'm certain that the laces aren't
modern and must be 16th century based upon their outer layers of
deterioration and the fact that an original clay layer covers them,
applied before the application of the urushi.

Has anyone seen old leather laces that look this way in
cross-section--laminated paper-like fiber sheets?  Has anyone ever
heard of the Japanese using paper laminate to create flat laces to
reinforce leather or to provide a method for maximizing mechanical
adhesion for lacquer to leather?

Susan White
White Conservation Services


                                  ***
                  Conservation DistList Instance 23:37
                  Distributed: Monday, March 29, 2010
                       Message Id: cdl-23-37-025
                                  ***