The many articles of Anders Soderberg

http://web.comhem.se/vikingbronze/

Yet another site where Anders pops up. This is his website, including a short explanation of his motivation as an experimental archaeologist, a great visual record of his use of cire perdue to cast replicas of items found at Birka, and a few of his articles. He has a lot. Thanks Anders, for recording your findings so clearly.

Article - Scandanavian bronzecasting the the Viking Age and Early Middle Ages

 

This article is almost identical to another website of Anders', though I like the way this one is found on a links section on the main page of his site.  

 

An excellent quote that evokes emotions around why we do what we do:
   'The sintered ware is stable and hardy and after being digged-up and washed, a viking age crucible looks the same today; just the way it looked when cooling-off at the workshop's floor a thousand years ago. Even Bronze-Age crucibles haven't changed very much, despite the passing of three thousand years. This gives a perspective on time. It's a strong reminder, of thousand or three thousand years being no more than a snap with your fingers in the universe. '

                   Anders Soderberg

 

This article has a very useful map showing the location of 9 Viking Age metalwork sites and quite a few images of extant and recreated in ground furnaces, complete with equipment for bronze casting. He also discusses the difficulties of pouring into clay moulds made from Scandanvian glacial and post glacial clays, which he says contain significant quantities of lime, which produce gas on heating.

 

Anders says that if you have 5mm walls on your clay mould, it will take around a quarter of an hour to heat it up to 700 degrees C in an unbellowed furnace. He also says that you have around 20 seconds between removing the mould from the fire and significant cooling that will affect the casting process. This is useful because all sources so far agree that the best results for cire perdue casting take place when the clay mould is not only prefired, whilst the clay is removed, but refired/preheated simlutaneously to the heating of the metal in the crucible. This theory is supported by the existence of dual in ground furnaces.

 

Article -  Reconstructing the Trundholm Sun Chariot

This document outlines the process needed to complete a statue of a chariot with wheels and horse. It is outside the period I am looking into for this project but is fascinating, none the less. It is especially interesting to note that he says the horse sculpture is cast around a clay core. I am keen to find out if this means the clay core remains in the object. Wouldn't that mean it would have to float free during casting? Or could it be held in place with plugs that do not show up on the finished item? Perhaps it just means a clay mould was used in the core of the sculpture, not to remain after casting.

 

Anyway, Anders also discusses the shrinkage rates of bronze and clay on firing. He suggests that it would be usual to expect between 2.8 - 5.6%. More sand in the moulding clay makes a stronger mould but gives a higher % of shrinkage.

 

Anders says he has grown used to working in beeswax, despite modern claims of it being too sticky. He puts time into polishing the wax model before making the mould, as it reduces the amount of time needed to clean up the cast item.

 

There is also a detailed explanation of how to apply the clay mould to get a good transfer of the original details.

 

 

Article - Scandanavian Iron Age and Early Medieval Ceramic Moulds - Lost Wax or not or both?

 

Apparently the only sideways proof of the use of the cire perdue method in VA casting is the presence of a bar of wax amongst other casting tools in the burial of

 

 '...a Viking goldsmiths' grave from Mysen in south east Norway. A man was found buried accompanied by crucibles, moulds and a piece of wax (Skjølsvold 1951). An archaeological problem with use of wax in casting, is that most of the wax used would have burnt away when firing the moulds. It disappears rather than being preserved in the soil, except for possibly in a few lucky cases.'

 

It has been hypothesised that wax and clay can be used in an array of combinations to produce models and moulds, including:

*a metal model (finished item) - pushed into a clay mould - cast from the original clay mould using an open mould

*a metal model - pushed into two open clay moulds that are joined by a fine slip - metal cast into void of clay moulds with natural cracking along the mould join

*a metal model (finished item) - pushed into a clay mould - cast from the original clay mould using an 2 part mould to allow gases to escape during casting

*a metal item - pushed into clay -one sided wax models made from clay mould - wax models used to make more open clay moulds - metal cast into replicated moulds

*a wax model - pushed into a clay mould - wax removed - metal cast into void of clay moulds

*a wax model - pushed into two open clay moulds that are joined by a fine slip - wax removed - metal cast into void of clay moulds with natural cracking along the mould join

 

This does not even begin to address the question of the elk horn and stone moulds found at the Birka site. There are many options.

 

A useful tip is the suggestion that a fine layer of oil on the surface of a metal model (finished piece of jewellery used to imprint upon clay to make a mould) can help it be removed more easily. This is relevant to the wax-copy technique.

 

There seems to some fair points made in the discussion on the advantages of the wax copy method over the direct matrix method - a metal model would be a valuable item of jewellery and it seems that being able to make as many wax copies as possible in a short a time as possible would be a major drawcard. Scenario 1: smith borrows, hires or is lent a piece of jewellery to make copies of on commission. The owner will want it back in their posession as soon as possible. Scenario 2: the smith is working for a very wealthy person who owns many pieces. The smith 'liberates' the item for a half hour to make a mould, making time a valuable commodity. Scenario 3: I am thinking about this on a modern 21st Century view of time use. Our current view of getting things done fast has been accelerated by telecommunications and high speed travel. Perhaps a couple of extra weeks to complete some extra moulds was not a big issue.

 

 

There are quite a few more articles to go, including a new journal to look at.



update: pot bellows from Tell edh-Dhaba'i

There was also a pipe made from clay in the finds, presumably to get air from the bellows to the charcoal burn face. I don't know if it was a matched diameter or how it was attached.

And a quote I like,
     'A transfer of ideas was not in one direction only...'  (p.14). Makes a nice counter point to the concept that ideas do not simply bleed into adjacent cultures, even when contact and similar levels of technology are available.

And now it is time to stop reading this article. I would love to find an article just like this for the 10th C Norse cultures and their geographical and trading partners. Must keep looking.

Article: The Metal Worker's Tools from Tell Edh Dhiba'i

Summary
This article looks at tools found in a workshop that was active around 2500 BC in Sumer, in the same area as the modern suburbs of Baghdad. This article, written by Christopher Davey, was an extract from the Bulletin of the Institute of Archaeology, University of London, 20, 1983. This article has some excellent images, including extant pieces and ancient images of the smithing process. It was found at www.aiarch.org.au on November 17th, 2012.

Metal workshop
The workshop in question belonged to a copper smith who also worked in alloys i.e. bronze. This is evident from the traces of copper, tin, iron and nickel that were found inside a used crucible. Several crucibles, moulds and bellows were found, constructed from a variety of clays.

Crucibles
The crucibles found at the Tell edh-Dhiba'i workshop were shaped like a curved funnel with a large opening at the top and a tear drop shaped opening on the side of the bottom, unlike the 'open crucibles of the Levant, Anatolia and Iran (Tylecote, 1976: 20)'. This shows that, including the open crucible common to the region and similar to the open crucible used at Birka in the 9th and 10th centuries, the curved crucible used in ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, the lidded Migration Era crucible, and the bowl form with a hole in the side found in Keos, Byblos and Sinai (Dunand: 1958; Petrie: 1906),  there were numerous functional designs for crucibles that have been used through out history and around the world.

The author describes the fabrication of the crucibles thus:
     'The fabric of the crucibles was fairly coarse containing silica and having holes left by straw which was consumed during firing. It was estimated that the vessels were fired to around 800 degrees Celcius and the exterior of the unused crucible seems to indicate that towards the end of the firing they were subjected to oxidising conditions

These crucibles were 'subjected to repeated applications of high temperatures' (p. 6), leaving the portion that was closest to the heat 'white and friable.'
    "A total of five crucibles and one fragment of a crucible were found at Tell edh Dhiba'i. Their condition varies from good in the case of the unused crucible 8 to very fragile for those at the end of their operational life.' (p.2)
This suggests that is was normal to use crucibles more than once before they surcame to structural deterioration due to heat exposure, but also that crucibles were not used for so long that it was unusual to have back ups ready to go in the workshop.

Another factor that indicates that crucibles were reasonably disposable was the use of a mould to create their shape. If a crucible lasted for a year, it may be unusual for a workshop to have a specific mould on hand to create new crucibles. The presence of a moulds and indication of mould use in shaping indicate that crucibles were a high-turnover smithing tool.
     'The crucibles are very similar size and shape and in fact crucibles 7 and 4 are almost identical as are crucible 8 and fragment 5. The remaining two crucibles were slightly larger than the others. The uniformity would suggest that the crucibles were made by hand with the aid of a concave mould which formed the basic curve.' (p.2)
This also indicates that crucibles were made on site, and a crucible mould could be considered a plausible part of a metal smith's tool kit.

Moulds
Also amongst the finds were some open moulds used for casting ingots (either bar or ring, as was popular a the time). After taking cultural and time differences into account, a form of a mould for recasting metal for trade may be considered a plausible tool for a metal smith. The site at Tell edh-Dhiba-i is distinct because it belonged to a smith who 'did not use stone moulds common to the Levant and Northern Mesopotamia (Davey 1977).'

Another kind of mould may be of even more relevence to building the concept of a metal smith's shop in Birka.
'Object 19 was identified as a cire perdue mould... The mould was made from two distinctly different types of clay; the inner cylinder surrounding the pin of fine yellow clay and an outer shell of coarser buff-coloured clay. The bottom of the mould has been broken although it  appears not to the extent neccesary to extract the pin. The mould was therefore unused. The unbroken end of the mould is funnel-shaped, indicating that it was placed in or by the furnace in an upright position with the funnel end uppermost.'  (p.10)
The article says that cire perdue has been used since atleast 4000BC (de Jesus, 1980; Hunt 1980; Lucas, p.10). The moulds appear to be rare finds prior to Roman times, though the author states the method was widely used in a variety of cultures including Roman, Indian, Sumerian, Bablyonian and Egyptian.

Cire perdue method
   'A fine slurry was initially applied to a wax model and after it had dried a second coat of fine clay was added. Finally, a third layer of  coarser clay  was added to strengthen and protect the mould' (p.10).
The author states that this method has been used in India since ancient times right through to today.


Sand casting
Among the finds was a clay model of  an axe head, used to impress a shape into sand or clay, with molten metal being cast into the cavity. The model has a hole for a rod to aid removal from the moulding material, set at a 45 degree angle.
      'It is generally believed that sand casting commonly used in foundries today was a technique developed in the 18th century AD (Tylecote 1962: 110). Theophilus, however, described the use of clay as a casting medium in the 11 th century AD (Hendry 1847: 313, Agricola, 1950: 405, 536).
     The Biblical description of the manufacture of the bronze objects for the temple of Soloman states that it was executed by a metalworker from Tyre who cast them 'in the compactness of the soil' (1 Kings 7: 46). This is generally translated as 'in the clay ground' (Revised version) although the Jerusalum Bible actually refers to 'sand casting'. The Bedouin today...have a tradition of using loose earth for casting (Weir, 1976: 67) and there is no reason why metal workers during the Old Babylonian period could not also manufacture a waterless, sand-clay mixture into suitable material for casting.' (p.12)

Furnace
The article suggest that the furnace would have been 'sunk into the ground so as to provide maximum insulation' (p.13) and also suggests that multiple crucibles may have been heated at once (p.14) - the Egyptian Old Kingdom symbol for copper is very similar to two curved crucible sitting back to back (p.7). The reliefs found in the Egyptian tomb of Mereruka, Saqqara from the Fifth Dynasty and in the Mastaba of Wep-em-nefert at Giza show:
      ...'that melting is performed in two crucibles placed back to back and with six men using blowpipes aimed at the charcoal placed in front of each crucible. After the metal was melted, the crucible was taken to the mould, held with the assistance of two stones or lumps of clay and then a blockage in the mouth of the crucible was removed to allow the metal to discharge into the mould.' (p.6)
These furnaces are shown in the ground. The Egyptian furnaces are shown being assisted by mouth belows. Pot belows were found at Tell edh Dibha'i, just 2, hand formed. The author suggests they could be operated by foot. They were made from 'medium fine clay' heated to 500 degrees Celcius, measuring '0.45m in diameter and 0.16m high' (p.2). I need to look into these further, though they have an obvious lip around the top, which would allow a bladder or cover to be secured. A one and a half inch pipe sticks out for two inches at the base of one side, with a small channel, 2/3rds of an inch in diameter running, presumably into the vacant belly of the pot. The whole pot has a very flat base, giving it a sturdy appearence.

The share of casting technology and knowledge
Many parallels are drawn between ancient Egyptian and Mesopotamian (where the dig site was located) metal working techniques. These techniques are not shared with some of their near trading partners {Anatolia, Iran and the coast of Levant}, however, even where one culture traded metals with another, or was in a position of control over the other region for a significant period of time (p. 14). The author postulates that this was because of the differences in fuel availability. This is an example of how neighbouring cultures can continue on parallel but distinct technique paths, without the 'information bleed' that we often assume as recreationists. Just because a neighbouring, trading culture had a technique, does not mean the metalsmiths of a region picked up.

Relevance to metal smiths in 10th Century Birka
I believe that where I cannot find sufficient information to pin down a technique, it would be plausible to draw from these ancient techniques, since many of these tools and methods are still in use to this day, in a wide variety of locations and cultures around the world. I can document the presence of a table top furnace from Baghdad in Scandanavia several centuries before Birka. It may well have been used or admired by several generations of Norsemen until it was laid where it was found in modern times. Since there was trade with the peoples of the Near and Far East, I think it is plausible to draw on techniques that were used amongst these cultures, where I am unable to discover the exact method used to create the pieces in a 10th century Birka metalsmiths workshop.

Sourcing bronze for casting

Over the last couple of days people on the Norsefolk list have been talking about bronze for buckles.

Someone pointed out that since the exclusion of lead from most freely available items, plumbing solder is now almost exusively tin. He says he has taken 98% tin solder and combined it with stripped-back copper wiring in the necessary proportion (85:15?), melted it in a ceramic crucible using two propane torches and produced bronze for casting.

Another person from the list says he finds is much more sure to make a one off wax model and send it to a casting house to have the item made than to try to cast the items himself and lose the wax model.

They are both ideas worth investigating. Since I am focussing in on the model and mould making, I probably won't have time to also learn about the casting side of things during this challenge. A cast item would be nice to have at the end, instead of just a series of wax lumps.

article - Scandanavian Bronze casting (Anders Soderberg)

Scandanvian bronze casting in the Viking Age and Early Middle Ages

'Bronze casting is an elegant play with a couple of cubic-decimeters of borrowed hell.'
               Anders Soderberg

This website has information on all of the main topic involved in VA bronze casting. I have really enjoyed reading this collection.

It covers bronze compositions in the VA, taking into account the need to make adjustments once the zinc levels drop due to refiring of the product. Anders also outlines some of the properties of migration era and VA crucibles, as well as practical suggestions on how to replicate these mixes. The discussion on the use of wax models to imprint clay to make moulds has a some great, trialled theories about the speed of mould production and cleaning up. I even like the references to VA hearths and smiths. But most useful were the pictures. There are photos of methods being used and products alongside their moulds and the tools.

Merchants and Birka law

In 'The Viking' (Tre Tryckare), the laws that shaped the creation and occupation of Birka are discussed. Apparently Birka was an ideal place for the King of the time to set up a trading town. Unlike other trading towns that naturally evolved in places of transport intersection and rich agriculture, Birka was founded intentionally. Why? Because the King wanted to control trade and get richer. To do this he needed to make adjustments to the laws around recompense for murder and manslaughter. The role of a Viking Age king was less prescriptive than a modern day SCA king or even a leader of a modern country. The law was largely oral tradition with habit driving people's adherence. A king could not simply change  law and tell people. How would he tell enough people quickly enough to ensure uniform change and compliance? Thus Birka was selected.

Birka was small with a manageable population of 300. It was also positioned in geographical isolation and organisational haziness. It sat between 3 things (local law courts), on the border of 2 districts (the parts within a province) and very near the edge of the North and South provinces. Laws were tricky to apply and people may have been vague about which applied when. So the king got away with changing a couple of laws.

Bjorkoaratt, the law of Birka, changed things so it was no longer cheap or free to kill a stranger. It gave visiting merchants similar rights of safety to locals, thus making Birka a popular destination.

What did he get out of it? New rule number 2 said that the King and his men got three days of exclusive trade on all new goods. He got rich.

Daylight

The power went out all across town 6 hours ago. It was funny, because the school bells wouldn't ring and I couldn't finish my programming on the computer. It was mildly annoying because I had no food in the house after moving last week (1 apple was found in the car) and the shops were all shut so I couldn't buy anything. I wasted the last hour of daylight driving to the next town to buy candles and the last lighter in all of existence. Then I suddenly felt very stupid - this was way harder than if I was in our 10th C camp because I was unprepared for it.

The biggest concept rattling around in my head this evening, as I sit here in the dark with 2 candles dangerously close to my hair is how important sunlight is. My 10th C smith worked set hours. He was not a shift worker. There was no option for working back late to finish a project. Sun up on a reasonably clear day when there was sufficient material in the workshop = work time. I'm going to try using that principle.

Maybe working only in day time will limit the number of manic hours I spend crouched overa tiny model in electric light, busting my back muscles. Maybe sunlight will show the shadows differently to inside lights that come from several sources at once. Maybe I will learn something else fantastic about working in sunlight. It would definitely be cheaper andsafer than working by flames inside a wattle and daub house with flammable furniture and roofing materials. There are some real up sides to not burning to death.

Halloween!

We had our first Halloween party over the weekend. I carved my first pumpkins on Friday night - new favourite activity. But looking down at the table with 4 steak knives, 1 paring knife, 2 measuring cups, a dessert spoon, a tea spoon, a meat pricker, a VA antler handled knife and several measuring spoons got me thinking about the importance of having the right tool for the job. Clearly we didn't.

I need a couple of knives for my Birka kit, any way, and will need some smaller carving tools for the models. I have a couple of cheap, dual headed sculpting tool sets from a craft shop that I have been using to sculpt clay. They work well and were so cheap it wouldn't be worth replacing them. I also found a great image showing a shell and a piece of clay with the markings it made, found on a dig at Birka. I'll have to get around to uploading some images, because it is such a simple find that made me so excited. Might be able to talk to my friend who ran a forge at Spring War, and see if it is possible for me to learn to make a couple of knives and small tools next time he sets the forge up for a week end.

Short story: Need atleast 2 knives, some tiny needle-in-a-handle carving tools and a kit/box/chest/bag to store my smith's tools.

Investigations into the Black Earth vol 1

This series of publications look like little books, each containing articles on various investigations at Birka. My partner managed to get hold of a set 8 by contacting a Swedish uni and having a workmate's partner pay for them whilst on a holiday, after many attempts at online payments failed. They were absolutely worth the trouble.

I've been scanning and skipping the text to find any references that will help build my understanding and support my theories about mould making for fine metal manufacturing. Only problem, 3 sessions and I'm only half way through the first book. There is so much info that I am finding it hard to skim, and am actually re-reading the entire text. Combined with flicking back to previous pages and making notes, it is certainly building upon my prior knowledge. My concept maps with clouds for major factors and lines to droplets of references have become stormy scenes. In an effort to avoid chaotic presentation and keep my notes clear enough to find points by flicking through my note book, there seem to be new concept cloud maps on every page. One is not enough. What a great set of articles!

Short version of new info from memory:
Metal finds - weights (60 examples in one harbour). Merchant finds on Birka only account for 1.4% of items, but so many weights found here that Birka has significantly bumped up the incidence for the whole of Sweden. Finds in sheet, ingot and wire, as well as manufacturing waste and finished items. Bronze, silver, gold, iron, lead listed so far.

Slag - 3 kinds found on island and 1 points to fine metal work

Rock - 3 types (soapstone all fragmentary, suggestive of broken items, not working of raw stone)

Clay - Stolpe lists a couple of stratographies and the more recent digs in the 1990s show a couple of different types of clay on the island anywhere from 5ft above water level (on the surface) to 9ft underground below charcoally black earth, sand ashy soil, gravelly gravel and various combinations of black/charcoally and light grey ashy layers. Used for spindle whorls, loom weights, finemetal moulds, clay and wattle housing and for driving defensive harbour spikes into.

Crucibles - 60 fragments, all open type, indicating use in the typical Birka period of 9-10thC, not the prior Vendel or Migration lidded kinds.

Moulds - 35 fragments of moulds. 2 oval brooch styles (p51 and p37 type oval brooches) and
Ljones type equal-armed brooches may have been made on Birka. Got to check this out. Arrhenius studied this in 1973.

Pottery - 4 kinds found. Imported from Western Europe, Slavonic and Finnish regions. Local ware also found. Bucket shaped with inturned lip and nail incising. Not super relevant but may set up precedence for use of local clay in some handicrafts.

And some interesting rune sticks/bones with messages. One author suggests the burning on one end is from intentionally placing them in fire, since nothing around them is charred. Since the message on one says the woman is a laughing stock for doing something, maybe they were designed to erase the deed they record. Relevant because there was a silver foil pendant with 4 rows of runic inscriptions also found, linking runic inscriptions to the trade of fine metal working, and the use of bone as a carving medium links to the practice patterns carved into bones found in Dublin and elsewhere that I have yet to discover. Hoping to find enough evidence that I can produce a series of bone carvings as a sort of sample card of available designs for prospective jewellery customers who come to our workshop.

The picture is being slowly filled in.

I'm still curious: Would the craftsman have worked seated on a stool, seating on a raised section of the workshop, standing?

Understanding metalworking books

I've ordered a few books from Lindsay Books to try to get my head around some basic metal working principles.
Brass and Alloy Founding
Metal Working for Amateurs
Making Crucibles
Charcoal Foundry
Assayers Guide

Although I am not planning on working in metal during this 12 month challenge, I think I'll need to know a bit about how metal performs whilst liquid, how to get it there using charcoal and a bit about the metals used.

In other news I've found a company in the US that sells elk antler in a variety of forms (paired, single shed, tines, dog chews, burrs etc). The Customs web page does not say there is a problem. The product clearly fits into the guidelines listed, but this all seems too easy. I'd hate to try to bring something into the country that will get heat treated or fumigated or cost a huge fee in treatments, so keep looking for something local. Nice to know the option exists though.

Finds to source

The styles
Borre - the second half (early 9th to mid 10th)
Jellinge - miss the start, all the rest (late 9th to late 10th)
Mammen - first chunk (second half of 10th, early 11th C)

Broa is too early. Urnes and Ringerike are too late.

The following are finds that fit these time periods and styles, and could be relevant pieces for my craftsman to study. Some may have been buried at the time of his study, though the trial pieces or sample bone carvings could have still been in existence. The designs have a lot in common and I should have a look at them to get familiar with the elements. Might be good to see their locations on a map, with trade and raid routes marked.

b  Borre in Vestfield, Norway
b  Asen brooch
b  Rinkaby, Sweden
b  Nonnebakken, Denmark
b  Gokstad ship burial
b  Hon hoard, Norway
-  areas of Russia settled by Scandanavians show jewellery with borre style designs
-  influence of the style evident in carvings in Britain and Ireland
b  Varby, Sweden
jbm Mammen, Denmark
j  Jelling, Jutland
j influence on grave stone in York and 10th C Anglo saxon art
jb Skaill, on Orkney, Britain
j  Viking style crosses, Isle of Man
jb Traen hoard, Norway, last decade of 10th C
jm Jelling Stone to King Harold Bluetooth
m  Arnes, Norway
m  some manx crosses
m Walrus ivory casket in Brambery Cathedral (Bavarian National Museum, Munich)
m Casket with antler panels, lost in WWII
mr Sigtuna, elk antler sword guard in transitional style combining Mammen and Rigerike

'The Vikings' - J Graham-Campbell & Dafydd Kidd

This book has a load of general info as well as heaps of pics of extant jewellery, moulds and carvings. This one is winning so far. These are my favourite pieces.

p23, 45   Helgo - the predecessor of the township of Birka, from 3rdC AD, a few miles away. Birka had 700-1000 people

p48  Trade routes to Birka closed in the last quarter of the 10th C.

p108  Extant shawl brooch and horse ornaments from Birka

p141-143 Moulds from antler, stone and clay. Some used for casting while others were used as dies to impress images upon gold and silver foil.

p145  There was a small hammer made from elk antler, also found in Birka, for jewellery work

p179  In Trendgaarden, Denmark, someone made a mould with both Thor's hammers and Christian crosses in it. The 9th and 10th centuries were a time for mixed religion in Scandanavia and a smith saw his chance to target both markets. There was textual evidence for cohabitation of heathen and Christian people in Hedeby and Birka. Maybe there will be evidence of the smiths in Birka catering for both religions, like the one in Trendsgaarden.

Casting in Birka

Page 96 of 'The Viking World', James Graham-Campbell, says there is evidence of bronze casting in Birka. Sounds good. Unfortunately that's pretty much all it says but it means I'm on the right track.

I chose Birka because we've been recreating life in 9-10th C Birka for our campsite over the last few years and I wanted to build on that. Nice to hear that there actually was a fine metal workshop there around the right time period.

This book also has an image of a beautiful bronze brazier from 800AD, imported from Baghdad, found in Sweden. It's a bit early, but since it is still in existence now, that exact item would have been in existence in the right part of the world while my craftsman was working. Nice thought. Makes it all a bit real. He could have been to see it in another workshop.

Hordweard - starting concepts

This page will be a record of anything interesting that I find while completing the 2012-2013 Hordweard challenge.

I have chosen to study the skill set of a model and mould maker working in a fine metal smith workshop during the 10th century in the township of Birka. This might mean I do some casting, but it's not really the goal. Making moulds from a range of materials in a range of designs seems a large enough set of processes to attempt in just 12 months.

I've been thinking about the following concepts in starting to approach this challenge:
1. There are 12 months available to complete this challenge
2. The spread of information and techniques
3. What my craftsman would have been doing
4. How my craftsman would learn these new skills

1. 12 months- this is not very long to spend researching and practising a new skill. I would like to think that this will all lead to casting items, but given that we have just one year, I'd rather try to get some of the foundational skills up to a better level than leap too far forward and make poorer set of items.

2. Modern timeframes vs timeframes in the Viking Age - we seem to fall into the trap of thinking that because large volumes of information are available to us very quickly, we should be able to 'learn' quickly. Without the aid of electronic telecommunication, VA people relied on word of mouth, visual information and, to a lesser extent, written texts. These could only be transported as fast as a ship could sail, a person could walk or a trader could get to the next business centre. This would have slowed information compared to our modern view, but it allowed time for assimilation, practice and consideration. When a new technique or design was seen, it took time to bring home and replicate.
      I'm going to try to grab info from a certain time frame (maybe the first half of the 10th century) and a certain place (the trading settlement at Birka in modern Sweden). Then I am going to try to approach the task from the point of view of a smith of that time - not sure exactly how to do that yet, but perhaps it will mean doing a fair whack of research first and then avoiding google while I spend a few months trialling some methods. Talking to other people who have used the methods or who know about related methods feels like it would have been part of the learning process, along with trial and error and repetition.

3.Would there have been more than one person doing the work in a fine metal workshop? Would the same person have done the sculpting, the moulding, the casting, the cleaning and the setting? Were there groups of workers who each only worked on one step of the process? Were there teams, with each person able to complete all steps, but each having their own area of expertise? I'm going to use the latter model (since my starting research doesn't suggest the buildings were much larger than a town home, suggesting a similar sized group, and hasn't yet contradicted that idea). This is why I will focus on just the mould making side of the process.

4. The process of learning a new skill in a finemetal workshop could have taken several forms - apprentices or bonded workers who were taken in specifically to learn a task, an experienced crasftsman who has heard of a new technique and needs to teach themselves, or possibly a family business with younger members growing up into the smith, learning skills by exposure and rote tasks from an early age. In each of these scenarios there must be learning tasks to build the skills. I will be trying to learn about the learning techniques used in the VA and then use the same activities to build my skills.

I'm very much looking forward to this hordweard. Hope it doesn't eat me up.