Mastermyr Hinges

The Mastermyr Hinge 

As part of the East Kingdom Blacksmith's Guild ranking system certain projects are setup  to test the overall skill of each guild member. As the Guild Master, it fell upon me to make examples of the various division projects so members can have a visual image of what they should be making.

The division IV project is to make two sets of period hinges in a period manner. The Mastermyr hinge is a well known hinge and in itself encompasses a number blacksmithing skills one should have by the time you reach Division IV.  Drifting holes of various sizes, narrowing and drawing out, making mostly identical items more than once, these are all skills Craftsmen should be proficient in.

The Mastermyr hinges were found in oddly enough the Mastermyr find in Snoder, Sproge near Hemse in Sweden in 1936. The hinges, or hinge was found on a wooden tool box in a field on a farm. The box itself dates between 793 - 1096. 

 



The hinges, or hinge, was  found on a wooden tool box, in a field on a farm. The box itself was dated between 793-1096. It was filled to the brim with period tools including hammers, files, locks, axes, knives, punches, a few small anvils and much more. The hinge itself was a simple design to keep the lid fixed and in place with a hasp to lock it in the front. It is clear that while there is only one hinge on the box, it would have had three across the back to keep the lid fixed in place.

The original hinge was most definitely made from wrought iron or bog iron as was most common at the time.  I have made my hinges out of mild steel. I choose not  to work with wrought iron as it tends to split and as wrought iron was used in period because that is what was available, I use mild steel as that is what is available and will result in hinges that will last. 

So I started my hinges with 3/8" square stock for the "Hinge Cup" and 3/4" x 1/4" flat stock fot the "Mounting Plate".  I forged the square stock down until its thickness matched the flat stock I chose and then drew out the the other half to form the cup. 

Next, I drifted a hole at the end of the flat stock. I hot cut it long which made it easier to work with. I heated the steel and knocked off the corners to make it easier to round out later.  I drifted a hole with a round punch then opened it up on the anvil horn. 

                                      

Once the holes in the plate were drifted to equal size,  I hot cut both the bowl and the plate to match. Then I a heated the steel back up and drifted nail holes in all four pieces with a square punch.

 I then heated the bowls and using the anvil horn curled them up on the themselves. I used pliers to flip the ends back on themselves as a decoration. Once they were closed, I heated them up one more time and reopened the bowl wide enough to slip the plate through and then tapped it closed again with a ball peen hammer.  Once that was done I used a file and wire brush to clean up the holes and the scaling. 

All that was left was some sanding and coating with a mixture of bees wax and carnauba oil to keep them from rusting.