Needle Pendant

While we were at the holiday fair this past December a very nice woman

came to the booth and inquired whether or not i could make a needle

pendant for her. I thought she just wanted a representation of a needle, 

but I was mistaken. She showed me a photo of an actual needle pendant. 

I said of course, because you always say of course. Though to be honest 

I didn't think it would be too hard to make. 

I already had some nice 3/16th stainless steel round which i had been

making various items out of so i began with that. The most difficult part

was drifting a hole in the flat, creating the "Needle Eye" without 

ripping it to shreds. The first one was an epic fail. The second one

was less so. 

THE EGG SPOON

The Egg Spoon was an interesting project. I was informed by a friend 

about this Egg Spoon that was all the rage in Berkley California. He sent me 

the link and I was summarily horrified to find out that this Chef in Cali

had been profiled on 60 Minutes and made an egg (a single egg) over

a log fire in her kitchen using an Egg Spoon. I was even more horrified 

to find out you could purchase said Egg Spoon for $250 from a very 

shrewd blacksmith in San Fransisco.

I looked at the pictures of this magical spoon and figured I could make it in 

about an hour. So I went out to the shop, and made it in about forty minutes. 

The one thing I noticed about the design of he original is that he riveted 

his handle to the inside of the bowl. Most traditional spoons of this 

style rivet the handle below the bowl for stability. Even though I knew

it was structurally incorrect,  I made an exact replica of the famous 

Egg Spoon.  

We brought it with us to various events and while many people enjoyed 

the saga of the Egg Spoon no one wanted to buy it. In fact we actually made an 

egg in it at the EK 50 Event using the forge. It was a rousing success. 

Finally at Pennsic someone was looking for a giant Chili spoon and

 though the Egg Spoon was the right size but needed a longer handle. 

Very quickly the Egg Spoon became a chili spoon with the handle

 riveted correctly and all was right with the world.

Banner Stands

I make custom banner stands. The one on top was a commission we got at

the EK50 event to be delivered at Pennsic. The woman had no preference

as to what it would look like. She had mentioned something simple

but that just allowed me to make what I wanted.

The black and gold stand was a gift from me to a dear friend who has been a 

big supporter of my work who was about toe receive her Laurel. Her persona

is Italian Renn, and FLeur De Lys is her arms. I wanted to make her something 

very special. The finished version is actually version #4 as making the

 Fleur de Lys and attaching them to the stand took some working

and reworking. The final version and the necessity for a finished  stand 

in time for her peerage led me to thinking outside of what i had initially 

planned and led me to using the gold wire wrap to attach the arms and the 

Fleur de Lys. Which in turn led to the over all design theme of the 

wrapped wire, Sort of a happy accident.

Flesh Hook

This past Pennsic I had a number  of interesting opportunities to make some 

things i had never made before, nor heard of before.  A woman came in and 

asked if i could make her a flesh hook. I had never heard of a flesh hook 

before and the name definitely conjured images that were not all together 

pleasant.

 Apparently it is an historical tool for grabbing large

hunks of meat out of stew pots. So i did some research on Ye Olde Google

and found some images. The most difficult part of making the flesh hook

was the offset hooks. The first version I made had a design flaw in that the 

rear hook folded over on itself which would create a space where food could 

get stuck and not easily cleaned.  The second version was made with that that

fold and was a success. 

The woman I made it for loved it so much she suggested i keep it in my 

booth for others to see and order.  

Native American Comanche Knife

I was asked by a friend who is heavily involved in Native American Pow Wows 

to make a Native American style knife. I did quite a bit of research with regards 

to blade style and handle finishing, I mostly specialize in Norse style knives so this 

was a little out of my comfort zone. The blade is hand forged from 1084 high carbon

steel and the handle is white doe  antler from South Dakota. It's wrapped with 

sinew that was soaked and stretched.  

Bracket Commission

This Bracket was a commission I was asked to make at Pennsic
for one of the merchants. She asked me to make a decorative
bracket for an extra long sign and the mounts to attach it t the
wall.  Luckily I had brought long enough stock with me that I
was able to accept the commission.

VIKING COOKING TRIVIT

This is a replica of a cooking grate found in  AURSKOG-HØLAND which now resides in the Kulturhistorisk museum.  There are varying theories of what it was used for. One theory, which has been dismissed by many, is that it was used to cook fatty meats. Most historians agree that it was probably used as a cooking trivet. Norse baking was often done by heating low and slow near the fire. They would have taken dough and placed it on the trivet and set it near the fire where it would slowly dry and rise. One example of this is a Hazelnut Treat (*noted below) which is specifically cooked on low on a flat pan or trivet.

I suspect the smith who made this started with a thick billet of wrought iron. Wrought iron would have been the main choice for most metal work in Scandinavia from 700ce – 1000ce. Iron was treated as a commodity much likes coins or other valuables. Villages would often trade iron for goods they needed which they themselves could not fabricate or grow. There is an example of a rod a of iron axe heads found in the wreck of a Viking ship, which was thought to be going somewhere and to be used as trade pieces. 

Throughout Norway during the Viking period the most common type of iron was called Bog Iron. It was found underneath the peat bogs and in river beds. 

The bog iron was found in small pellets then smelted into larger billets to be used for tools, knives and weapons. The Smelting was a long and involved process which entailed building a crucible, a large clay or dirt container. This container would sit over a fire box. 

The pellets of bog iron would be placed inside the crucible, then heated to almost twenty two hundred degrees at which point the iron becomes liquid and fuses into one solid bloom. A bloom is the end result of the smelting process. The heat drives most of the impurities out of the iron and at which point the iron once cooled can be worked in the forge into a usable piece of metal. 

 As the Vikings traveled and made contact with Europe and further peoples, they traded for different types of steel. Steel being a combination of Iron and Carbon, makes for a much harder material that will last longer and hold an edge longer. There is evidence that the bog iron was used for the nails in the Viking ships a thousand years ago. 

The Viking Blacksmith would have worked the metal on a stone anvil. A steel anvil would have been unheard of until the mid- 1700’s in England.

Glass Break Tool

                                                 

Medieval Glass Break

My friend Conor O Ceallaigh came to me at the Cloisters rem faire demo and asked me if I could make him a medieval glass break tool. He had been researching it, and  had a vague description of what it should  look like based on it's usage. I had planned on making a lot of hooks  for the demo , but this seemed like a lot more fun. So I took the information that was in Conor's head and put that to work.

I started with a railroad spike, which I just happened to have brought with me. I started by forming the tip. After narrowing it out to the size and shape Conor described I worked the metal down to about a 3/8’ round for about 4”. Then a forge the center down to about a 3” rectangle, which was supposed to act as a heat sink, (more on that later). I then forged the top down to round taper for handle. 

The process took about two hours of forging time. I took the tool home and cleaned it up in the shop. 

I was quite excited to see how it would work. Making a tool based on description.

When Conor tried to use it, the design proved a failure. He heated up the tip, but by the time he brought it to the glass it was already cold. 

We decided the heat sink must be closer to the tip. So I went back to the drawing board with more information from Conor and made version 2.

Again made from a railroad spike, this time I created a slightly narrower point and started the heat sink right above it.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                   In the 12^thcentury, they ground chalk in a lead pot and added water to it. Then, using brushes made from from theail of a marten, badger, squirrel or cat or the mane of a donkey, traced the outline of the pattern onto the glass.  A piece of glass, slightly larger than the finished size was placed on top of the pattern board and the outline of the piece was traced onto the glass using the chalk and water mixture with one of the brushes that were made.  If the glass was too opaque and the pattern couldn't be seen through it, the outline of the piece was traced onto a piece of clear glass. When the chalk was dry on the piece of clear glass, the piece of opaque glass was placed on top of it and both pieces were held up to the light and the pattern lines transferred to the opaque glass with the chalk and water mixture.[1]

After this, take a lead pot and in it put chalk ground with water.  Make yourself two or three brushes out of hair from the tail of a marten, badger, squirrel or a cat or from the mane of a donkey. Now take a piece of glass of whatever kind you have chosen, but larger on all sides than the place in which it is to be set, and lay it on the ground for that place.  Then you will see the drawing on the board through the intervening glass, and, following it draw the outlines only on the glass with chalk. If the glass is so opaque that you cannot see the drawing on the board through it, take a piece of [clear] white glass and draw on that.  As soon as the chalk is dry, lay the opaque glass over the white glass and hold them up to the light; then draw [on the opaque glass] in accordance with the lines that you see through it.  Delineate all kinds of glass in the same way, whether for the face, the robes, the hands, the feet, the border, or any other place where you want to put colors.

The process of cutting glass was, to say the least, very adventuresome in the 12^thcentury and the glass craftsman had to be very experienced.  The glass craftsman used a tool made out of iron with a wooden handle fitted over the tang of the tool.  The "business" end of the tool was tapered on two opposite sides and came to a chisel point.  Theophilus provides these intriguing instructions for cutting glass.[2]

Next heat on the fireplace an iron cutting tool, which should be thin everywhere except at the end, where it should be thicker.  When the thicker part is red-hot, apply it to the glass that you want to cut, and soon there will appear the beginning of a crack.  If the glass is hard [and does not crack at once], wet it with 

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[1]De Diversis Artibus.  Book II, chapter 17, second paragraph.

[2]De Diversis Artibus, Book II, chapter 18, first paragraph. 

saliva on your finger in the place where you had applied the tool.  It will immediately split and, as soon as it has, draw the tool along the line you want to cut and the split will follow.

Let me just say that you can crack a piece of glass with heat.  I’ve done it plenty of times by accident with my soldering iron.

Figure 6- 12th Century Glass Cutting Tool

It’s not clear when the diamond was first used as a tool for cutting glass.  However, it was in use by the 14^thcentury in Italy and is mentioned with other hard stones in Antonio da Pisa’s treatise, Il Trattato di Antonio da Pisa Sulla Fabrricazione delle Vetrate Artistiche.[1]

Diamond-cutting is a more convenient method, which leaves a straighter edge, and seems to have spread gradually during the course of the 16^thcentury, and must have been especially useful for cutting plain quarry glazing.[2]

Glass Cutting Techniques in the 20^thCentury

There are several different ways to transfer the pattern to a piece of glass in the 20^thcentury.  These include:

1.     Gluing the piece of the pattern to the glass with rubber cement.

2.     Tracing the outline of the pattern piece onto the glass with a marker.

3.     Holding the pattern piece on the glass while you score the glass.

4.     Placing the pattern on a light table, the glass over the pattern and scoring.

Which technique the artist uses depends on the artist's level of expertise and confidence in their glass cutting ability.

We, in the 20^thcentury, have a much easier means of cutting glass.  It's called a glasscutter.  Actually it should really be called a glass scorer since it really doesn't cut the glass it just scores it.  In its simplest form, a glasscutter is held in the hand.  A tiny wheel made of carbide steel is run along the pattern line and it scores the glass.  The glass is then "broken" along the score line either with another tool or with the hands.  This is known as running the score, and the tool that might be used (instead of the hands) is called running pliers. 

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[1]Glass-Painters, chapter 5.

[2]Glass-Painters, chapter 5.  Plain quarry glazing is a diamond- or square-shaped piece of glass.

Medieval Grozing Tool

I was asked by Conor O Ceallaigh, an immensely talented stained glass artist, if i could make him a "Grozing Tool".  I had no idea what a Grozing Tool was, but this was not the first glass tool Conor had asked me to make so I said yes of course. Then I needed him to explain what a growing tool was.

Conor gave me the basic dimensions it needed to be. The critical dimension apparently is the space between the end of the hook and the 90 degree corner. 

I started with a piece of 3/8” round stock (mild steel) and flattened it to the width and thickness I needed for the tool.  I had to over estimate the overall length to include drawing out the hook and the 3/8” gap. Once I had the whole piece flattened and relatively square, I began to draw out the first hook. Luckiy I had left the piece thick enough to be able to draw down and out without the it rolling on itself too much. 

The first hook was a little long so I nipped the end off and it curved perfectly and gave me my 3/8” gap. The opposite side went smoother (as it usually does when you do it a second time) 

Once the tool was finished I cleaned it up with some 40 grit sand paper and a wire brush. 

I then returned it to the forge to harden it with a water quench. 

Viking Double Measuring Spoon

While looking for a new project to work on, I came across a measuring spoon from the York dig. 

What I found most interesting about the spoon after reading the documentation was that they could only guess what it might be used for. The deliberate fabrication of two different size bowls would indicate that there was a definite and predetermined use. As stated in the article, it might have been used for measuring various substances which would make sense given the different size spoons and the apparent smallness of the spoons themselves

I made the spoon out of mild steel (1014) which is close in form and texture to wrought iron. I might in the future attempt the same spoon out of copper.