Viking Shears
It’s apparent from the wealth of artifacts from various digs all over the medieval world that this style of shears was prevalent and plentiful, just like modern times where every house has a pair of scissors. Cutting things is a basic daily event or chore that would require a common tool. These shears are that tool.
Making these shears was not as easy as I had thought it would be before I started.
My thought process started with what type of stock to make it out of. Mild steel seemed the best choice as it mimics wrought iron in most ways and in many ways it is the wrought iron of our time.
The next challenge was what shape stock to use. If I went with a flat stock, I might not be able to give it the structural integrity it needs. I chose to go with 3/8’s round stock and I would flatten and square off as needed.
Drawing out the blades was relatively easy, Calculating how long it needed to be for the size shears I wanted to make was a little more difficult as steel stretches as you work it. I initially started with a nine inch piece of stock (I drew out the shape on the table and used a piece of cord to measure the overall length of the piece, I thought 9” would be long enough, when drawn out to give me the size shears I was looking for.
Wrong!
By the time I had drawn out the first blade and worked the steel back to the center where I planned to flatten it for the heel of the shears, I was already well beyond how long it needed to be. So I heated up about four inched off the non worked side and cut them off with my cut off tool. I then proceeded to draw out the blade on the opposite side and work my way back to center.
One I had made the basic shape (mirroring them as best I could) I marked the center, heated up the flat and bent it around the horn,
And viola, the ends didn’t line up. I didn’t take into account having to close the gap in the loop further once I did the initial bend. So I reopened them, did an initial bend on the anvil, then used my hammer to gently move the sides until they were virtually even and the back spring was where I wanted it.
One thing that was really tough was keeping the sides oriented in the right direction. The basic function of the shears meant that the blades opposite sides would be the ones touching. Keeping that in my mind through out the process was interesting.
Once the basic forging was done, I cleaned it up with 40 grit sand paper and some files. Once it was where I wanted it, and the cutting sides were as smooth as I could make them, I put it back in the forge and heated it up to critical temp and quenched the spring part of the shears to harden them. This would allow the spring to spring and not deform over usage,
I sharpened the blade edges with 220 grit sand paper and a leather honing strap.
The paper cut test went very well.
This was a project that definitely stretched my blacksmithing skills. However, it gave me a real period blacksmith rush. Making a tool like this is something a Viking blacksmith would have made in his shop regularly and that was what kept me going when I wanted to make something else.
Shears
Twenty-one items have been identified as iron shears or parts of shears. Shears were used for a range of tasks including sheep shearing, cloth manu- facture, leatherworking and also for cutting hair and personal toilet.
The larger shears may have been used for sheep shearing. Blades 13746 (108mm long) from a late
Fig.1353 Iron shears 6621 and 11793 from 16–22 Coppergate, 13751 from Bedern. Scale 1:2
2749
Fig.1354 (left to right) Iron scissiors 13741 from Bedern; iron shears 15324 from 22 Piccadilly (Anglo-Scandinavian), 13751from Bedern, 11793, 6622 and 6621 from 16–22 Coppergate. Actual length of 6621 158mm
14th–early 15th century context at Bedern and 6620 (125mm long) from a mid 12th century context at Coppergate must have come from shears over 200mm in length and would be among the larger medieval shears recorded.
Of medium size, as far as medieval shears are concerned, with a length of 158mm, is one complete pair from Coppergate (6621, mid 13th century con- text). A fragmentary half of a pair (11793, 12th–13th century context) from Coppergate was probably of similar size. Slightly smaller is 13751 (late medieval context) from Bedern and an incomplete pair, 6622, from a 15th century context at Coppergate was prob- ably similar in size.
As far as form is concerned, all the blades appear to have straight backs which curve in at the ends to the tip. They therefore correspond to the knife blade back form C (see p.2752). 13743 (late 14th–15th cen- tury context) from Bedern has a cutting edge which is bevelled. There is some variation in the form of the shoulder at the junction of blade and stem. This is usually concave, but there are four examples with an extra ‘cusp’ (e.g. 6622 and 13751). Others have straight sloping shoulders, but unique are the shoul- ders on 6621(mid 13th century context) which are horizontal, but have a little U-shaped cut in them. There are internal nibs below the bow on 11796 from Coppergate (mid 15th century context). The bows that survive are the simple loops one would expect, but that of 6622 is unusual in having a triangular cross-section.
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