How to Make an Anglo-Indian Hood

Tools and materials

Nothing exotic: most of it is a basic leathercraft kit. The one thing worth being fussy about is the leather itself.

Vegetable-tanned leather only; chrome-tanned will not shape or hold a bevel. Never use waterproofed leather near a bird's face.

How a flat pattern becomes a hood

The whole construction in one picture: the wings wrap behind the head, the seams pull the sides into a dome, and the crown darts close the top. No block, no carving.

The build, step by step

1. 1

   Measure the bird

   With calipers, measure eye-to-eye across the widest part of the head, in millimetres. That single number is the hood size, and the Slijper canon drafts the whole pattern from it. If you can, have a second falconer hold the bird; head sizes vary within a species, so a real measurement always beats a chart.

2. 2

   Print and calibrate the pattern

   Generate the pattern in the Hood Pattern Maker and print at 100% (never "fit to page"). Measure the calibration bar on the sheet: hoodmakers report printers shrinking a 52 mm pattern to 48 mm. If yours is off, scale the print until the bar measures true, and write the correction on the sheet for next time.

3. 3

   Make a card template

   Glue the printout to heavy card stock and cut it out with a sharp knife, including the two crown darts and every slit. Label it with the size and the bird's name. A card template survives many hoods and records your fit corrections.

4. 4

   Cut the leather

   Trace the template on the flesh side, then cut with a razor-sharp blade held square to the surface. Always cut from a corner outward, never into a corner, so a slip cannot run into the pattern. Cut the darts, then make every slit with a chisel of exactly the slit's width.

   The pattern, as the generator prints it. The legend below names every part.

   1. 1Crown tab with the topknot slits: the plume mounts here.
   2. 2Crown darts: curved cuts that close when sewn, doming the crown.
   3. 3Wings: they wrap behind the head and become the nape.
   4. 4Side seam edges: each wing edge sews to this curve.
   5. 5Beak opening: it must clear the cere and the corners of the mouth.
   6. 6Chinstrap band, with slits for the traditional neckstring.
   7. 7Brace slits, for the Dutch braces that close the hood.
   8. 8Bottom edge: the neck opening, finished with piping.
5. 5

   Bevel the edges

   Bevel the seam edges and the whole beak opening on the flesh side. Bevelled seams butt together cleanly and close light-tight; a bevelled beak edge sits softly against the face. If you plan to dye, tool or stamp the hood, do it now while the leather is flat, glued to a firm surface so it cannot stretch.

6. 6

   Mark and make the stitch holes

   Mark evenly spaced holes a couple of millimetres from each seam edge with a stitch marker, then make the holes with a fine awl, angling each channel so it exits through the bevelled face rather than straight down. Keep the holes small: the thread should fill them completely so no light leaks through the seam.

7. 7

   Sew the seams

   Thread a large-eye needle on each end of a 60 cm length of waxed dental floss. Butt the two edges together (never overlap them) and cross stitch: needle A through the right hole, needle B through the left, so the thread makes an X over the closed seam. Work each wing edge to its side curve, close the crown darts the same way, and sew the back seam about half a centimetre below the plume to stiffen the crown. Turn and sew the little ears at the nape.

   Top: the two-needle cross stitch over butted edges. Bottom: each awl channel angles out through the bevelled face, so the thread crosses inside the seam.

8. 8

   Close the darts, dome the crown

   As the dart edges pull together the flat crown becomes a dome, which is the whole trick of the pattern: no block is needed. Dampen the sewn seams and roll them smooth over a dowel, with a second rounded dowel inside the point. Slijper is emphatic here: shaping on a block spoils the design, so shape with fingers, dowels and moisture only.

   Left: where the darts sit on the pattern. Middle: the crown tab enlarged, with the dart edges pulling together. Right: the crown from behind, darts sewn shut.

9. 9

   Pipe the bottom edge

   Trim the bottom edge level (a sliver at most), then fold a thin strip of kangaroo or soft calf over it and cement it in place. Piping finishes the neck opening, hides the edge, and stiffens the rim so the hood keeps its shape in the hawking bag.

10. 10

    Fit the topknot

    Draw a contrasting strip of leather (10 to 12 mm wide) through the two crown slits and cut each end lengthwise in two, giving four ends. Pass all four up through a stiff leather ring pressed down onto the crown, then a small brass ring, and tie the knot above it. Cut each end into three and you have a twelve point plume you can find in long grass.

    Strip through the slits, ends up through the leather and brass rings, then the knot and plume.

11. 11

    Thread the braces

    Cut two Dutch braces from stiff but pliant leather (Slijper used a special pigskin; kangaroo works). Thread them through the four nape slits so that pulling the two long ends apart closes the neck aperture, and pulling the two knotted ends opens it. Leave the long ends unknotted so a scratching claw cannot get caught.

    Schematic back view. Adjust slit spacing to your preferred brace style before cutting.

12. 12

    Fit it on the bird

    Wet the beak opening edge so it is soft, hood the bird, and watch closely. If the edge touches the cere or the mouth corners, mark it, take the hood off, and trim a tiny sliver; repeat until nothing touches. If an eye area rubs, dampen it and dome it outward over a rounded dowel. The hood is right when the bird sits quietly, and a difficult bird often becomes easier to handle in a hood that truly fits.

    The five checkpoints, numbered in the legend below.

    1. 1Cere free: the opening edge must not touch the cere.
    2. 2Mouth corners free: the bird must be able to eat and cast.
    3. 3Eyes clear: dome the eye area outward if a lash brushes.
    4. 4Chinstrap snug but not low: a low strap rides up over the cere.
    5. 5Braces close positively and cannot be scratched off.