Galoots
On our recent trip to Denmark, we made the rounds of a number of
castles, churches, and cafes. Not much OT content at the cafes,
and really not much in the way of actual tools except at Roskilde,
but there was an awful lot of very old furniture to see. And all of
that would have been made with old tools, so I think this is close
enough to on-topic to proceed.
Speaking of Roskilde, there was a church and the Viking Museum.
The museum has a display with several old wrecks pulled from the
bottom of the harbour. These were scuttled about a thousand years
ago to stop an invasion fleet, apparently. I didn't look that closely
at the documentation on that part of it, I was too interested in a) the
wrecks and b) the boatyard where they were starting work on
another reproduction.
Much of the furniture we saw at the castles, museums, and
churches were constructed with pegged joints. Of particular
interest was the pile of treenails found in the scuttled boats.
These were tapered and wedged, so they could not pull out
from either direction. I will certainly make use of this technique
in the future.
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The guy working in the boat yard was squaring up an oak timber
to be used as a section of the keel of a new longboat. We
discussed axes and hewing techniques a bit, and he let me
handle the axe. Quite sharp, properly sharp I should say, and
rather small and light. But he was making fairly quick work of
the oak with it. And as he said, he could swing a lighter axe
all day without his arms complaining, but not so with a heavier
tool.
There was quite a collection of tools in the boat shop, and one
large boat under repair. They were replacing some planks and
ribs. I have pix of some of that work too, if anyone wants to see
more, just ask. I got way too many pictures from this trip! The
tools were apparently reproductions of Viking age finds, the
Mastermyr chest, for example.
Profile scrapers, used to put decorative scratch moldings on
timbers and planks. Based on what I saw in the videos of
longboat reproduction work, I would guess that the profiles
were not merely decorative, but provided registration lines
for locating the iron rivets/roves. They always seemed to
drive the rivets through at the same distance from the edge
of the planks, and the profile was like a gauge line for this.
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There were lots of axes and adzes of various sizes and shapes,
as well as a number of planes. Then there were the boring tools.
Some were like T-handled spoon bits, like huge gimlets but with
cutting edges like spoon bits. Others were like breast drills of a
sort. The tenon on the top of the stock fit into a breast plate,
and the T-handle allowed the user to bore through thick hardwood
timbers.
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Back in Copenhagen at the National Museum, they had a lot of
stone tools on display. Apparently even well into the Bronze Age
there were flint excavations and large scale stone tool making
going on. I thought the stone gouges were very cool, and looked
like they would work just fine, especially in soft or green wood.
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One morning we were wandering around Copenhagen, and
came across a flea market in one of the squares. Lots of great
old stuff, but not many tools. Kathy spotted a couple of neat
things that she recognized from when she was a kid, things
just like her grandmother had. Different names and dates
inscribed on the silverware, but the same stuff. And most
of the tools I did see were stone axes! No price tag, which
I took to mean too much for me, but certainly old tools!
That's enough for tonight. Stay tuned for some old furniture...
--
Darrell LaRue
Oakville ON
Wood Hoarder, Blade Sharpener, and Occasional Tool User
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