Rustic Chair

I am a wood hoarder.
I admit it.
It came in handy with this project as you will see. Read on.

When I built the hytte as a norse meadhall theme, the plan was also to make a high seat, or big chair, with dragon heads carved and all manner of artwork.
Then life took over and I realized I just needed a chair. So I went the opposite, simple and rustic but utilitarian.
It is made of wood that I have collected over the years; the birch logs given to me from Yingivald, an extra IKEA shelf for the seat, some branches pruned from my Yew and cedar trees, and some cool wooden canes I picked up at a bargain store for almost nothing (I planned to make them into a fence of sorts).
I fastened the pieces together, cutting notches in the legs for the seat, and generally trimming where necessary, assembling with screws and nails for strength but finishing off with lashings so it looks like it is all lashed together.

It all took a few hours but you can see the result as it sits in my hytte as a 'Jarl's chair';

With the sheepskins it is quite comfy - I had to replace the backrest arch branch as it had a twist that was uncomfortable but now that is fixed. I might even take it camping.

I still want to make a nice, carved Jarl's chair, but later.

Raven Shield

This post is long overdue. When making the Purely Decorative Shield (see earlier) I had some of the material leftover for another shield.

This time, I made the shield to be used. I wanted to put a cloth or leather facing on it - decided on some canvas I had kicking around so once the shield planks were glued together, the round shape and the inner round hole cut out, the handle added, I was ready to add the cloth.

First, I mixed some white glue with water to make a medium to soak the cloth and infuse it with glue, then spread glue on the shield face. I wanted it to be ready to go once I did the next step.
Second, spread the cloth on the face of the shield, and with a paintbrush, dabbed and squooshed the water-glue mix into the cloth.
Third, using little brad nails I stretched the cloth across the shield, holding in place with the brads.
Let dry, trim the cloth, remove the brads.
While I was waiting for the cloth to dry I dished a dollar store stainless steel bowl into a boss.
Add the boss, a leather edging and paint the raven design onto the cloth and...well, take a look...



I'm not sure of how long it took to make in total. I really should learn to document the process better with pictures and time to make. I was toying with the idea of adding more decoration like knotwork, runes, etc. But I like it as is, and it serves as a white shield of peace and the two ravens can represent Odin's ravens, Hugin and Munin.

Oak log Splitting - the Saga Continues

Over the winter the plan was to split the remaining oak logs during a cold snap to see how oak logs split when frozen and test the theory that it is easier and thus, the norse would have split the logs in the winter.

We never had a cold snap all winter except for a few below freezing days which were not enough to freeze the entire log. That experiment was abandoned. But there was still a pile of oak to deal with and projects looming...

So Yngivald and I got together, at relatively short notice, with more power at our disposal on April 14th to get the job done. It was an experiment in itself as I didn't know how a 14" electric chainsaw and 14A circular saw would handle it.

First, start with sharp blades - duh!
Second, plan how you want to cut. Much of the oak  was going to be used for kubb sets so we started with the chainsaw to cut some of the oak into short chunks which later can be cut into the blocks.
For the material to be made into planks it is very useful to have the log split lengthwise in nice straight lines. But our experience is that the log doesn't cooperate. It was obvious that the chainsaw we had was not up to the task of ripping the logs lengthwise. Also, it is back-breaking work.

So we tried cutting a line with the circular saw, as deep as it would go in a straight line along the length of the log and down the end. Then drive wedges along the cut lines, starting at the narrow end, or the end opposite any major knots. This was important.

What we ended up with were very nicely split pieces that would need minimal dressing and provide a good starting point for further splitting to get planks.

So, as you can see from the pictures, it wasn't all split authentic to the period but some lessons were learned, none the less (like reading the wood so you can start at the right end).