In ancient times, Shor women made dishes from clay. Over time, products made of wood and birch bark became very popular: men made elements of horse harness, smoking pipes, dishes, and other items of everyday use.

In the second half of the 19^th— early 20^thcenturies, the Shors used both wooden and birch bark, as well as metal, clay and, less often, leather or bone utensils.

Wooden utensils were divided into dugout, cooper (riveted from planks covered with hoops) and bent ones. For products of the first type, roots and burls (growths on tree trunks) were used, which were processed with special knives and tools for chiseling called “adylga”; bent ones were made from thin cedar shingles.

Cooperage utensils came into use at the beginning of the 20^thcentury with the arrival of Russians in the regions of Gornaya Shoria. Probably, the first local coopers were Russian craftsmen, although over time, representatives of the indigenous population could also master the profession.

In everyday life, there were wooden containers of different sizes and purposes: larger barrels and tubs, medium-sized troughs and water buckets, smaller ones — butter churns. The kegs were used both for pickling vegetables and for storing flour, grain, and nuts. The barrels in which drinks were stored had bottoms on both sides, and the hole in the top was plugged with a wooden stopper.

The Shors who lived primarily in the steppe consumed dairy products such as kaymak sour cream, unleavened pyzhlak cheese, aarchy cottage cheese and sarmya butter.

Like the Russians, the Shors used cylindrical butter churns to beat butter in the first half of the 20^thcentury. The devices looked like small barrels with two bottoms. A round hole was made in the center of the top one, through which the housewives put and rotated a beater — a round stick with a gear-shaped disk at the lower end.

Heavy cream was separated from the milk and placed in a churn. During churning, pieces of milk fat stuck into larger pieces and were separated. With continuous long-term work with a whorl, the butter became more and more dense and separated from the rest of the liquid.

Shor men wore homemade “uduk” boots made of rawhide both in summer and winter.

Until the 16^thcentury, the concept of “rawhide” was unknown in Rus. Instead, people used animal hides, cleared of hair and dried without additional processing. Rawhide material differs from this type by being more durable, elastic, and strong. At the same time rawhide does not lose its natural properties, unlike after the tanning process. The Shors have long possessed the secret of such tanning.

If necessary, rawhide could be used as food. Leonid Pavlovich Potapov cites the story of the Shor old man Sofron Tepchegeshev that hunters, who had run out of food they had taken from home, “even cooked leather bags for talkan, which were sewn from rawhide.”

The Shors tanned hides since ancient times, and so did other peoples of Siberia. Fresh hides of domestic cows (bulls) or horses were used as raw materials. They soaked the skins in water with aspen ash, shaved the hair off the skins with a sharp knife, rubbed them with charcoal (usually fir) powder, moistened with a decoction of bones until blackened and thoroughly greased on both sides with horse fat.

For a month the hides were dried and ventilated, lubricated again (greased), crushed in a “talyk” log with notches, and held over smoke for two days. Then they rolled and kneaded them again, until completely soft. At the final stage, greasing was repeated — they moistened the hides with bone broth with soot or ash.

Rawhide has never been dyed. The Shors sewed bags for storing grain, flour (talkan) and nuts, and made uduk (oduk) boots, which the men wore in winter and summer.

Rawhide was afraid of “neither heat nor frost, but could not stand dampness, ” so a kind of foot wraps made of soft azagat sedge were put under the shoes, and the boots themselves were made spacious. Soles without heels were also cut out of leather. Wealthier Shors wore uduk boots with leather tops, poor people — with burlap ones, securing them under the knee with ropes or straps. In this case, the upper edge of the boot was bent down, and a garter was put in place. A small piece of leather was sewn onto the back of the boot so that it would be easier to put it on.

Hunting played a vital role in the life of the Shors, and the territories in the taiga were strictly distributed among clans and large families. The “khoryg” hunting took place twice a year: in the autumn and during the winter and early spring. The stages, in turn, included “small” hunting (late November — mid-December) and “long” hunting (until March or April). The hunters left in small teams of four to eight people, led by an elected elder.

Hunting equipment included a “maltyg” (flintlock, matchlock, later piston) gun with a supply of gunpowder and shot, an “aya” crossbow, a “kalyp” tool for casting lead bullets, “shergei” traps and “ennykh” nets. In addition, each member of the team needed bedding and clothing: homespun pants and a “shabyr” lower jacket, a quilted outer jacket with a fur cape collar, boots, leather mittens, and a burlap hat.

In the autumn, the Shors set up temporary pole tents or built log houses in the taiga. The constructions were used to store food: “talkan” flour, crackers, bread, “sogum” dried horse meat, salt, and an “abyrtka” homebrew drink.

All this was delivered to the place, depending on the season, on “shanak” sledges (in the spring and in the autumn) or on “syurtka” horse-skin sleds (in the winter). Due to the lack of transport, the Shors had to tie leather bags with luggage over their shoulders and walk 20–30 kilometers a day.

The hunter’s light and durable wide skis helped to travel long distances quickly. They were made from Scotch broom, bird cherry, and less often from aspen or birch. For everyday needs and hunting in the valley, the locals wore simple skis without any lining. Hunting skis were lined with horse, elk, or deer skins (previously with otter skins). The way the pile was arranged enhanced easy forward gliding and prevented backward movement, which was especially important for climbing a mountain slope.

Shor hunters did not use sticks. They always carried an “archenak” fur cross-shoulder bag, a “natruska” sword belt, a scabbard with a “pychyakh” knife, and a “kayok” (“kurchek”) paddle.

When skiing, the Shors used this paddle as a steering wheel and hand brake; it was also used to dig out snow when setting up a tent or traps. When the Shors were traveling, they used it as a spoon and a cup: they filled it with water, added “talkan” and consumed the resulting dish.

It was customary to divide the gains equally among all members of the hunting team at the end of the hunting season.

Hunting was the leading occupation of the Shors until the October Revolution of 1917, and in the mountain taiga regions it has retained its importance to this day.

At the age of 12–14, boys began to learn hunting. Just like adults, they traveled tens and hundreds of kilometers on skis, participated in raids, and lived in taiga hunting booths. By the age of 18, the experience they had gained allowed them to be considered mature hunters.

In ancient times, the Shors mainly hunted large animals (Altai wapiti, deer, elk, bear, roe deer), which provided a lot of meat. Later, with the development of trade relations, the harvesting of valuable fur-bearing animals became important: sable, weasel, foxes, squirrels, otters, and ermine.

The autumn hunting season continued from mid-October to mid-November, followed by the winter one, and finally the longest winter-spring season came, when the groups of hunters would wander from 50 up to 200 kilometers away from home. The preparation for the tedious and difficult process of hunting was thorough: the Shors repaired and sometimes even sewed new clothes and boots, assembled and checked guns, traps, axes, pots and cups, and prepared food.

The Shor hunters put all this on wooden “shanak” sleds, which they pulled behind them, walking on straight, wide skis. “Shana” skis were made from bird cherry or birch wood; the runners were covered with “kamus” so that deep snow would not slow down the movement.

Kamus is the skin from the legs of animals from the deer family (reindeer, elk, roe deer, Altai wapiti, musk deer), horses or pinnipeds. This skin has particularly strong and tough hair.

Hunters who have been using this material for a long time are familiar with the advantages of each “variety”. Horse kamus is considered the best, elk kamus is valued for its strength, and reindeer kamus is soft, does not squeak while moving and, thus, does not attract unnecessary attention to a person.

The kamus fur serves as a kind of guide tracks: if they move to the sides, the skis will also begin to move away from the straight track. Therefore, the skins were selected in such a way that the pile ran parallel to the edges of the ski board.

Until the early 20^thcentury, the Shors practiced weaving, pottery, net weaving, wood and leather processing. They made skis and saddles, dugout boats, dishes, and furniture. All this was made, as a rule, not for sale, but only for household needs.

The Shors usually used nettle and hemp threads. They wove on a loom and the resulting “kendyr tybeg” fabric was used to make clothes and boot shafts (the poorer Shors had to make do with “kendyr” items). Men and women wore practically the same clothes and shoes.

Women’s leather galoshes were called “charyk”. They were similar in cut and shape to men’s “uduk” boots but did not have boot shafts. Such shoes were cut from rawhide that had been treated with smoke. The shaft could consist of a single piece or three separate parts: the sole, the front part and the heel. The parts were fastened together with Altai wapiti tendons or “kendyr” (nettle or hemp) threads.

For the sole, the thickest and strongest parts of the skin were selected: for a cow — from the backbone, for a horse — from the rump. The front parts were cut from thinner and softer material, the heel part was strengthened with a birch bark insert sewn with large stitches. Birch bark made galoshes keep their shape, be more comfortable and last longer.

Galoshes were always made spacious, so that they would fit loosely. This was necessary because Shor women did not have socks, so they wrapped their feet in a thick layer of “azagat” (“ozangat”) grass, like sedge. This grass was collected at the beginning of summer, tied into bunches, dried on a tree, and then used as foot wraps.

Researchers trace this model of footwear to the traditional common Turkic one, finding its analogues among the Turks, Kumyks, Azerbaijanis, Karachais and Balkars. Shor women wore charyk until the first quarter of the 20^thcentury.

At the beginning of the 20^thcentury, traditional Shor clothing continued to be sewn only in remote southern uluses. Most locals began wearing Russian dresses, trousers and shirts made from purchased cloth and calico, caps, coats, shawls, and boots.