Back in the Forge and some bow work.

 
 

Been a while, sorry about that. I have been spending a lot more time on life and housework and have not had as much time for A&S. Still managed to fire up the forge to help a friend out. Mistress Amie Sparrow has been working on a Anglo Saxon pouch and contents. For this project she needed a forged iron nail and then needed a forged iron ring for the purse itself. The documentation for the nail can be found here:

Roman Nail

And here is a photo dump of the process:

The next item needed for the Anglo Saxon pouch was the ring for the opening. This type of purse was worn on the belt and had an iron ring sewn in the mouth which would keep it closed until you needed to get in. For this I needed to make her 2 rings total, 1 for the purse she was making for herself, scaled to her design and a 2nd one as close to the original as possible. The documentation is not complete for this yet, but will be able to be found here:

Anglo Saxon Purse Ring

And here is the photo dump for this project:

The 2nd ring was forged yesterday (6/14/21) in a grand fit of forging. This was the first time in quite a while that I was able to spend most of a full day in the forge. After a little clean up, I decided to light my forge. Reaching for my shovel to move the coal around, I realized that I had loaned the shovel to the outdoor kitchen. Presto, my first project of the day.

Just a utility tool and I forgot to take any pictures of it. I might try and add one in later. Sorry about that.

The next project was one that I had burning in the back of my head for a while, and it seemed like a perfect time to get to it. I decided to make an outdoor kitchen tool hanging rack. This would be a stand alone rack for the tools and utensils I have been forging for our Pennsic fire table. I am also working on a permanent fire table for Grimmsfield, so this is the first of 2 that I will be making. Because this was my own design and not modeled after something historical, and because I was just in the mood to forge without distractions, I only have pictures of the final project. This is one of my best pieces I have made so far. Every thing I planned, came out the way I wanted it to. Here are some pictures of it up on the range:

The last thing of interest that I have been working on is a modification of an old Bear Bow for my friend Miles. Often, old Bear recurves come with a built in sight for target shooting. These are not allowed at SCa shoots and the bow need to be modified before using in the SCA. Here is a picture of the sight:

In the past I have just cut a brass plate to cove the hole created by removing the sight and this has worked very well. On this bow I decided to push it a little further:

the plate is brass and the backing is vinyl to keep the elements from ruining it.

Well, that’s about all that I have been working on recently. I have 2 weeks open to close coming up., so I am not sure when I will be able to get back to the forge. Plus, I am beginning to see arrows come in that need fixing, bowstrings to make, and now a crossbow to rebuild.

I will write more soon.

Your servant,

Grimm

Back to Normal?

Well, unlike my last 2 post, I hope this one is more of what I hope to have these posts be like. More of a logbook of activity then a formal write up or a catch up post of a thousand things. If you all would like to see anything different, please let me know. I am hoping that by keeping up on this a little more, I can add a bit more description and explanation. of the processes.

Either way, had a good A&S weekend last weekend. I worked on several projects and was able to finish a few as well. This weekend consisted of working on:

  1. finishing the brazier

  2. Making a bending fork

  3. Making a spit for my andirons.

  4. Curtain Pulls

Finishing the Brazier.

I threw a few pictures of the brazier I was making a few weeks ago. I was hoping to make something I could make campfires in at sites that do not allow firepits or ground burning. The romans made use of braziers similar to this and I was going for the spirit of the concept rather that making a pure period piece. the original plan was to have 2 hoops and 8 vertical bars. I hoped this would be enough to hold the wood in while it burned, but still be open enough for the warmth and light of the fire to be effective. I tried using it with some wood from the yard and realized that this design would not work at all. the gaps between the vertical bars was to great and the lack of horizonal support caused to much leakage.

At this point I was torn between just scrapping the whole project and trying to figure out how to make this one work. Eventually, I decided to try and save this piece and add crossbars to the gaps. This kept the logs and branches from falling out and funneled the embers into the bottom of the brazier.

Once this was done, it was time to make another tool. Not for the Viking chest, not for A&S, but just because I needed one around the shop. Time to forge a bending fork, or bending wrench. This is a hand tool used for forming curves or scrolls in metal as you are working it. I had been planning on making one of these for a while, but never seemed to get around to it. This is one of most metal moving I have ever done in one project.

Without anything more pressing to work on, I decided to get back to the andirons I was working on a while ago and make a spit for them. I am hoping to spit roast a foul in my fireplace by the end of the year. The andirons were designed to take a spit and so it was time to make it.

 
 

So the idea behind this spit was to have a square section to keep the spit from turning, a round section for easy turning. a flat section with 3 or 4 slots for spits to hold the bird and keep it from turning, the round and flat again and ending with a handle, and finally a hook om the end of the handle for hanging up when not in use. The order of operations were as follows:

  1. Measure and mark for all transitions.

  2. round and point end.

  3. Draw down and out the flat.

  4. punch the skewer slots.

  5. put twists in for the handle.

  6. Form eye on the end of the handle area

  7. Bend the handle.

  8. Make Skewers.

Ant now to try it on the Andirons:

Curtain Tiebacks

Did not take as many pictures of this project, as it will never have documentation written about it. Looking around the house, my wife decided that she needed curtain hooks for the curtains we have in the bedroom and the living room. And they needed to have horses. Happy god damn horses. (I have been accused of making all of my horseheads angry horses. They don’t look angry to me, but I’m not a horse person)

Well, this seemed right up my alley. The next chance I got (the following weekend) I set about making a prototype. My wife did not like how far from the wall most tiebacks stood out and so wanted a much slimmer profile. I thought that by making a swinging hook, this would allow it to lay flat when not in use. To this end, I built curtain hook 1.0. the first problem i found with this was the molding around the window got in the way of the hook, so the base needed to be turned further out. This worked and resulted in the prototype below:

 
 

The trouble with this design was once the holder was bent far enough for the hook to clear the frame, even folded it still sticks out to far. So the answer was to move it further away from the window so the holder did not need to stick out so far. In doing this, the size of the hook I had made was acceptable without folding. This meant that the tieback did not, in fact, need to fold. This led to prototype Curtain hook 2.0, a single piece hook with a leaf at the top and the other terminal needed a horse head, designed to sit at an angle and fit next to the frame:

 
 

This design was then approved by my wife and production began! For these I needed to make 10 hooks, or 5 sets. In order to get the leaves and horse heads as uniform as possible, I was going to assembly line the process. The first step would be the flat for the screws, then the leaf. This would be set aside and the next one started. This way I would do all the leaves at the same time.

This weekend will hopefully bring more pictures of the projects and maybe some finished hooks.

Thanks for reading, more soon,

Grimm

Reproduction of the Mastermyr Griddle

The Making of a Mastermyr Griddle

By Master Stephan Grimm

 
 



Introduction

I have been working on making objects found in the masternmyr chest. The Mastermyr chest was a archeological find made in the 1930s by a farmer plowing his fields. The land that is was found in was a shallow lake during the time the chest was in use. The reason the chest was in this location is unknow and why it was lost remains a mystery. The chest was full of woodworking, metalworking and other tools and objects. Many of the items appear to have been put into the chest already damaged and possibly could be for repair. This is my attempt to make another of the objects from the chest. This time, instead of one of the tools for metal or woodworking, I decided to make a kitchen tool found in the chest. There was a partial piece of a Scandinavian griddle found among the objects in the chest. This is my attempt to make a workable version of this tool.

 
 


Description

Within the chest, the griddle was found in partial condition. It is not known if this was a piece that was to be repurposed or possibly for repair. The griddle is missing the handle and shows 1 repair already. The repair was done by riveting a sheet to cover damage done at an earlier tine. The griddle measures roughly 8 inches across and has a hole in the center. The shape and sides have been deformed and it is not known if this was pre or post loss. The handle was not found in the chest.

 
 

Historical Use

Although they look much like modern long handled frying pan, Scientist believe these were actually used for the making of assorted breads and pancakes. The single rivet in the center of the pan allows the pan to be rotated to keep the baking even. Several of these griddles have been found throughout medieval Europe.

 
 

Construction

My first step of the construction of the griddle was to prepare the pan. In order to get an approximate 8 inch griddle, I decided to start with a 10 inch circle. This was drawn out on a sheet of mild steel.(picture 1 & 2) This was then cut out with a cold chisel into an approximate round shape (picture 3) then filed to a round shape (picture 4). This was then set aside to work in the handle.

The handle was made from a piece of 3/16th x 1 in mild steel bar 32 inches long. This was center punched at 6 inches for the hole for the rivet. A 5 inch line was also scribed down the center from one side to split for the wings. The anvil was then marked at 1 inch to set where the hook begins.

Now that all the prep work was completed, it was time to fire up the forge. The first stage of forging was to add the hook for hanging the tool. Because the handle was not recovered, I went with a generic loop shape to make it easier to hang. This was hammered into the non-marked end of the bar and worked down to proper size. The point was then rounded and bent to a circular shape for hanging. this was then cooled down to allow working on the opposite side.

 
 

The first step in the other side of the handle was to cut the 5 inch slit that was marked out in the beginning. This was done by heating the end up and cutting the lane with a slitting chisel. Once the bar was cut all the way through, the two arms were bent outward to allow them to be worked on. The ends of each arm were then rounded and curved to shape. The hole was then punched for the rivet. The final step was to heat and round all the edges to make a good feeling tool.

Now that the handle was finished, it was time to work on the pan. To start, a line was scribed one inch from the edge to show where the flaring was going to be worked in. The sheet was then heated and the edge rolled against a curved surface in my swage block. This was repeated until the entire rim was rounded from the bottom. The center of the pan was then worked flat against the warping that working the edge introduced.

Once the pan was a flat as I could make it and the edges as even as possible, a hole was punched in the center. This then had a rivet inserted through it and the handle and worked down. At this point the blacksmithing was done on this project and there was nothing left but the finishing.

 

The final pieces.

 

The final step was to give the cooking surface a good cleaning to remove any residue from the forging process. After it was cleaned, the surface was coated with vegetable oil and this heated to create a non stick surface similar to a cast iron skillet.

 
 

Conclusion

This was a fun project to work on. I still need to improve my ability to keep a surface flat while working the edge. The griddle does not sit quite flat all the way around. I have seen other blacksmiths use a hollowed out space on a stump that is the correct size, and this is what I will try next if I make another one of these. I am not quite the cook I would like to be, but come this spring, I will try and create bread on this. Here is the final product: