Research and recreation of medieval furniture
If you haven't already noticed, I am a "I'd-rather-learn-to-make-it-than-pay-someone-else" kind of person. So after learning blacksmithing in order to make hinges and nails for my woodworking, it was an easy decision to learn how to work in silver. Notice that I said the decision was easy. The learning was anything but. Fortunately, I had a... Continue Reading →
Background On my evening walks, I pass a certain oak tree. This oak is remarkable for the number of oak galls which fall from it every year. I began picking up the galls with the thought of learning to make iron gall ink for the benefit of my friends and others who do calligraphy. Over... Continue Reading →
Some furniture forms are so practical that they exist from antiquity through to today. Set a three-legged stool before an Egyptian of the third millenia BCE, a citizen of the first century Han Dynasty, and any person of today and they will immediately recognize the form and function. But other mobilier fit niches in time... Continue Reading →
I'm in the midst of a long project which began with a tree felled in my backyard, which I then split into more manageable lumber. Since then, I've been further processing the lumber into planks, and the planks into boards and beams approximating the dimensions of the pieces I'll need for the strycsitten I am... Continue Reading →
I recently had the singular pleasure of writing for two friends at the same time. Mistress Elisabeth Piper and Dame Elanor of Eccleshall were both to be awarded the Order of the Carp for their excellence in persona development. In writing charter words for them, I wanted to base my work off of poems both... Continue Reading →
Photograph of Angharat verch Reynulf by Anne Asplund This charter is done in the cywydd style of Welsh poetry popular in the 14th century. Cywydd poems were poems of praise of worthy persons. A bard who composed and performed cywydd was known as a cywyddwyr. Cywydd poems were composed of rhyming couplets, where each line... Continue Reading →
I am certain that I'm not alone in the challenge of cleaning up a space when faced with the discovery of unfinished projects. Yesterday I was cleaning the shop and found the pieces for several repair jobs had been set down (and forgotten) on my workbench. Do we find new "homes" for these items (and... Continue Reading →
Bits-and-braces, similar to drills and augers, work by means of either a "twist" (a single-inclined planed wrapped as a helix around a shaft), or a sharpened "spoon" set at the end of a shaft. The "bit" is the cutting part of the tool, and bits are also part of drills and augers. Spoon bits are... Continue Reading →
Dedication In A.S. LIV I was honored to be asked by Their Majesties to steward Collegium. Any event, of course, is a team effort. Kingdom events add more complexity. Collegium had the added labor of creating and managing a large on-line database and repository of scholarly works. This last part was well beyond my skill... Continue Reading →
I use two types of handsaws during cabinetry: cross-cut and rip saws. The difference between saws for cross-cutting (sawing perpendicular to the grain) and ripping (sawing parallel to the grain) lie in the tooth shape. The teeth of cross-cut saws are shaped like the points of knives, whereas those of rip saws are shaped like... Continue Reading →
