This is a repost of an entry I wrote six years ago that has now vanished into the depths of the internet. I’m reposting it because I’m still very happy with how this shield — which I used for many years — turned out. — I first tried my hand Plastidipping a shield two years […]
Over the holiday weekend, I decided to test my new soup can propane forge. I chose to make a simple everyday-carry knife for my sixth-century Anglo-Saxon persona. For the blade, I decided to recycle an old triangular file that I found at a flee market for 50¢. Most early Anglo-Saxon knives were made from wrought […]
Today, I fit a shaft to the spearhead I made in November. I blogged about hafting a spearhead 6 months ago and found it to be very difficult. I tried a different method this time, and the results were better. Last time, I carved the shaft to fit the socket, and getting a solid fit was […]
Remember the spearhead I forged last weekend at Winter War? Well, a few hours with a file and several large blisters later, and it’s finished! It’s cleaned up, sharpened, hardened (sloppily, but that’s typical for the originals too), and the finish is from the oil quench. I might leave it this way. Just needs a […]
‘Would you like to try?’ ‘YES!’ They handed me a rod of 1/2″ diameter round stock and a hammer. The spearhead took about three hours to make and still needs to be cleaned up. It has plenty of rough edges, but surprisingly actually looks like what I was trying to make. This is my first […]
Early Anglo-Saxon knives all had horn handles (almost exclusively: I can point to only a handful that had wooden handles). I’ve long wondered what it would be like to make a knife with a horn handle, and in a fit of sanity-restoring procrastination this afternoon, I gave it a go. The blade is an old […]
On the Norwegian island of Andøy buried in the bog near the harbor in Skjold (Skjoldehamn), some unlucky sod kicked the bucket and left this lovely gem, a very distinctive hooded mantle made of squares of wool. You can check out more here at Medieval Baltic. This is pretty much the pattern I used. , Note, the […]
My latest tunic endeavor! This beauty was a fun project, started with my obtaining some lovely trim and then selecting/finding cloth to match. the trim is handmade inkle weaving and utilizes a method called warp manipulation, this results in the pattern being raised and having a “negative” on its other side. A note on […]
This year, I’m going light to Ragnarok, which means I’m only making 25 swords. Only. I had left a box of swords to build the week before Ragnarok. It will be easy, I told myself. It turns out, however, that past me was lazy, and did less than half the work on each sword. Finishing […]
I commissioned a reproduction spearhead from an English smith (Jason of Wieland Forge) last winter, and I was finally able to fit a shaft to it this weekend. It was much more difficult than I expected! The shaft is ash. Carving it to fit the split socket was not easy, and I definitely need […]