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Boiled leather
 
 
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Boiled leather, sometimes called cuir bouilli, was a historical construction material for armour
Armour

Armour or armor is protective covering used to prevent damage from being inflicted to an individual or a vehicle through use of direct contact weapons or projectiles, usually during combat....
. It consists of thick leather
Leather

Leather is a material created through the tanning of rawhides and skins of animals, primarily cattlehide. The tanning process converts the putrescible skin into a durable, long-lasting and versatile natural material for various uses....
, boiled in water
Water

Water is a common chemical substance that is essential for the survival of all known forms of life. In typical usage, water refers only to its liquid form or States of matter, but the substance also has a solid state, ice, and a gaseous state, water vapor or steam....
 (some sources hold that oil
Cooking oil

Cooking oil is purified fat of plant origin, which is liquid at room temperature.Some of the many different kinds of edible Vegetable fats and oilss include: olive oil, palm oil, soybean oil, canola oil, pumpkin seed oil, corn oil, sunflower oil, safflower oil, peanut oil, grape seed oil, sesame oil, argan oil and rice bran oil....
 and wax
Wax

Wax has traditionally referred to a substance that is secreted by bees and used by them in constructing their honeycombs.It is an imprecisely defined term generally understood to be a substance with properties similar to beeswax, namely...
 were used as well, others posit the use of ammonia
Ammonia

Ammonia is a chemical compound with the chemical formula nitrogenhydrogen. It is normally encountered as a gas with a characteristic pungent odor....
 from fermented animal urine
Urine

Urine is a liquid waste product of the body secreted by the kidneys by a process of filtration from blood called urination and excreted through the urethra....
). The boiling causes the leather to be harder and more brittle. The boiled leather can be fashioned into lames/scales
Scale armour

Scale armour , Lorica squamata, lorica plumata consists of many small scales attached to a backing material of either leather or cloth....
 to make lamellar
Lamellar armour

Lamellar armour is a kind of personal armour consisting of small plates which are laced together in parallel rows. Lamellar armour evolved from scale armour, from which it differs by not needing a backing for the scales....
 or scale armor.






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Boiled leather, sometimes called cuir bouilli, was a historical construction material for armour
Armour

Armour or armor is protective covering used to prevent damage from being inflicted to an individual or a vehicle through use of direct contact weapons or projectiles, usually during combat....
. It consists of thick leather
Leather

Leather is a material created through the tanning of rawhides and skins of animals, primarily cattlehide. The tanning process converts the putrescible skin into a durable, long-lasting and versatile natural material for various uses....
, boiled in water
Water

Water is a common chemical substance that is essential for the survival of all known forms of life. In typical usage, water refers only to its liquid form or States of matter, but the substance also has a solid state, ice, and a gaseous state, water vapor or steam....
 (some sources hold that oil
Cooking oil

Cooking oil is purified fat of plant origin, which is liquid at room temperature.Some of the many different kinds of edible Vegetable fats and oilss include: olive oil, palm oil, soybean oil, canola oil, pumpkin seed oil, corn oil, sunflower oil, safflower oil, peanut oil, grape seed oil, sesame oil, argan oil and rice bran oil....
 and wax
Wax

Wax has traditionally referred to a substance that is secreted by bees and used by them in constructing their honeycombs.It is an imprecisely defined term generally understood to be a substance with properties similar to beeswax, namely...
 were used as well, others posit the use of ammonia
Ammonia

Ammonia is a chemical compound with the chemical formula nitrogenhydrogen. It is normally encountered as a gas with a characteristic pungent odor....
 from fermented animal urine
Urine

Urine is a liquid waste product of the body secreted by the kidneys by a process of filtration from blood called urination and excreted through the urethra....
). The boiling causes the leather to be harder and more brittle. The boiled leather can be fashioned into lames/scales
Scale armour

Scale armour , Lorica squamata, lorica plumata consists of many small scales attached to a backing material of either leather or cloth....
 to make lamellar
Lamellar armour

Lamellar armour is a kind of personal armour consisting of small plates which are laced together in parallel rows. Lamellar armour evolved from scale armour, from which it differs by not needing a backing for the scales....
 or scale armor. Or, because the leather remains flexible for a short time after boiling, it can be molded into larger 'plates'.

Cuir bouilli has also been employed to bind books
Bookbinding

Bookbinding is the process of physically assembling a book from a number of folded or unfolded sheets of paper or other material. It also usually involves attaching covers to the resulting text-block....
.

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