This Collar Changed Transport Forever!
Aged Skills
27,169 views
Before tractors replaced the draught horse, farming power depended on craftsmanship. In this long-form Aged Skills documentary, we follow the complete traditional process of making a wooden horse collar and leather collar body in historic Germany.
Filmed in Eicherscheid in the Eifel — once a center of collar making — this 2-hour film documents the full craft from raw beechwood log to finished draught harness collar. The process begins with naturally curved beech trunks, seasoned for up to two years, and shaped by hand using frame saws, raker-tooth saws, adzes, drawknives, planes, and shaving horses. The wooden collar saddle is built piece by piece: bridge, collars, and twisted side boards carefully fitted and joined.
In Mosbach near Waldbröl in the Bergisches Land, an old master saddler demonstrates the cutting, sewing, and stuffing of the leather collar body. Vegetable-tanned leather is cut by hand, stitched using traditional saddle stitch techniques, reinforced with hemp thread, and carefully gathered to prevent splitting under load. The collar is stuffed with long straw and horsehair, compressed with a wooden mallet, and shaped on the collar form.
Finally, the collar frame is assembled with birch collar irons, forged iron fittings, brass decoration, leather straps, binding stitches, and the traditional collar arch. Every step is performed using historical tools and methods once common throughout rural Germany.
This film preserves a nearly vanished rural trade — the craft of the collar maker and saddler — when up to 1,500 collar saddles were produced annually in Eicherscheid alone. As horses disappeared from daily farm work, so too did the specialized knowledge required to build the draught collar.
Timestamps:
00:00 The Eicherscheid Collar Makers
01:46 Sawing Curved Beechwood
12:58 Shaping the Bridge
25:36 Building the Collar Saddle
42:26 Cutting the Collar Irons
50:02 Sewing the Leather Body
01:09:12 Stuffing the Collar
01:20:02 Final Assembly
Original source material:
Das Handwerk der Hamenmacher. Teil 1: Herstellen eines Sattelgestells und Sägen eines Hamenspans
Das Handwerk der Hamenmacher. Teil 2: Zuschneiden, Nähen und Füllen des Hamenleibes
Das Handwerk der Hamenmacher. Teil 3: Fertigstellen eines Hamens
Published by Alltagskulturen im Rheinland
© LVR-Institut für Landeskunde und Regionalgeschichte
CC BY 4.0
17 Comments
I am from Germany and I want to see them with the original german words so I can learn the exact technical words that are used.
Fight me and argue about the physics if you dare....
This Collar Changed Transport Forever!
Aged Skills
27,169 views
Before tractors replaced the draught horse, farming power depended on craftsmanship. In this long-form Aged Skills documentary, we follow the complete traditional process of making a wooden horse collar and leather collar body in historic Germany.
Filmed in Eicherscheid in the Eifel — once a center of collar making — this 2-hour film documents the full craft from raw beechwood log to finished draught harness collar. The process begins with naturally curved beech trunks, seasoned for up to two years, and shaped by hand using frame saws, raker-tooth saws, adzes, drawknives, planes, and shaving horses. The wooden collar saddle is built piece by piece: bridge, collars, and twisted side boards carefully fitted and joined.
In Mosbach near Waldbröl in the Bergisches Land, an old master saddler demonstrates the cutting, sewing, and stuffing of the leather collar body. Vegetable-tanned leather is cut by hand, stitched using traditional saddle stitch techniques, reinforced with hemp thread, and carefully gathered to prevent splitting under load. The collar is stuffed with long straw and horsehair, compressed with a wooden mallet, and shaped on the collar form.
Finally, the collar frame is assembled with birch collar irons, forged iron fittings, brass decoration, leather straps, binding stitches, and the traditional collar arch. Every step is performed using historical tools and methods once common throughout rural Germany.
This film preserves a nearly vanished rural trade — the craft of the collar maker and saddler — when up to 1,500 collar saddles were produced annually in Eicherscheid alone. As horses disappeared from daily farm work, so too did the specialized knowledge required to build the draught collar.
Timestamps:
00:00 The Eicherscheid Collar Makers
01:46 Sawing Curved Beechwood
12:58 Shaping the Bridge
25:36 Building the Collar Saddle
42:26 Cutting the Collar Irons
50:02 Sewing the Leather Body
01:09:12 Stuffing the Collar
01:20:02 Final Assembly
Original source material:
Das Handwerk der Hamenmacher. Teil 1: Herstellen eines Sattelgestells und Sägen eines Hamenspans
Das Handwerk der Hamenmacher. Teil 2: Zuschneiden, Nähen und Füllen des Hamenleibes
Das Handwerk der Hamenmacher. Teil 3: Fertigstellen eines Hamens
Published by Alltagskulturen im Rheinland
© LVR-Institut für Landeskunde und Regionalgeschichte
CC BY 4.0