The Armour Archive

Cap'n Atli

BETTER than the comic book!

Cap'n Atli

OH BOY, OH BOY, OH BOY!

I remember when they raised the Vasa; I kept that issue of National Geographic for years and years.

I'm really looking forward to more on the Mars.

(Three smilies!)

Cap'n Atli

Holy $h!+

PHARAOHS WORE BLUEJEANS!

(But were they dyed with indigo or woad?)

Cap'n Atli

Another style of early medieval forge, brought over by a couple of Norwegian reenactors for the display we put on at Union Station for the embassy in 1999. They also participated in the Smithsonian exhibition for the Leif Erickson Millennial celebration. m The main feature of the forge was the gap b...

Cap'n Atli

Pictures? Any pictures?

Cap'n Atli

If Thomas can't find anything appropriate, I have some "pan" stock and such so that we could forge the entire piece. However, I'll need someone to come down and help me with the forging, due to my "delicate" condition. I think I owe your camp (or one of the later medieval camps) ...

Cap'n Atli

Hey! I contend it's not a fair if it ain't got a blacksmith! I missed the Smithsonian Folklife Festival this summer, due to my "2 1/2 heart attacks," but there is almost always a blacksmith or metalworker there in one of the tents. As for picky, knowledgeable, patrons: frequently they are ...

Cap'n Atli

Iron dwarf has a good point, it is paramount to be able to actually make things. You can have a modern forge set up, and explain what was different between now and then, and what techniques are the same. How tools and techniques evolved is part of the history. Are you advocating using a modern forg...

Cap'n Atli

At the County Fair a couple of years ago, I had setups and explanatory signs for my early medieval forge, 19/20th century pan forge, and 20/21st century gas forge. We used the two most recent forges, but we used the tools and anvils from all three rigs. A triumph of "time travel." Iron dwa...

Cap'n Atli

Time to take up Classical Greek Historic Reenactment? It would look great on the trireme!

Cap'n Atli

Large Labor Pools & Other Considerations: As mentioned, above, you need at least one extra person pumping the bellows. Depending upon the design, they need to know how to build up the pressure smoothly and keep it going evenly to avoid back-blast (one bellows sucks, instead of blows, superheated...

Cap'n Atli

Perhaps (and just perhaps) mail coifs are cooler, more flexible, and just about as effective? Also, never disregard fashion in human affairs. Thousands of teenage boys wore their baseball caps backwards from the 1980s through the '90s and beyond. Utterly impractical; and totally inspired by one char...

Cap'n Atli

...and here's me at the anvil, with separate hardy and bick set into the stump (note that there is a downloadable picture under the other picture):

Cap'n Atli

Here's a picture of my setup; first the forge:

Cap'n Atli

Getting ready for my first regular voyage since my "2 1/2 heart attacks;" this Sunday. As luck would have it one of the guests is one of my cardio rehab nurses, and another is the doctor down the road. Well, it should at least reassure my wif. Looks like we will have about 18 folks aboard,...

Cap'n Atli

Trust me, through the various women that married into these lines, you're related to a fair share of Normans, Vikings, Saxons, Britons, Romans... Family trees look clean and neat on paper, but the reality is less of a tree than a tangled thicket! (And that's just the ancestors that we sort of know a...

Cap'n Atli

And the Sae Hrafn sails off into the night...

Cap'n Atli

Swinging by with Durgil:

Cap'n Atli

A few shots of the ship:

Cap'n Atli

Johann ColdIron wrote:I like the way the bend at the tops of the second tripod give more room inside it for cooking.

It's also designed so that all three legs fold into the same plane; each of the bends is a little longer than the other. We used a flattened penny as the top washer for the riveted hook.

Cap'n Atli

Thomas Powers wrote:Atli; won't you have trouble suspending a family from that tripod?

Only use as much as will fit in the pot; you just have to use them a little at a time.

Cap'n Atli

"Spices" was sometimes an inclusive term for not just foodstuffs, but chemicals such as alum or dyes for cloth processing.

Hey, maybe they were stoning out on chemicals!

Cap'n Atli

Tripods are good, basic bread and butter stuff. Be sure to make it big enough for what you really use it for. (Don't mindlessly copy the Oseberg Ship's gear, it's an odd duck and rather short. There's a good blog collection on the ins-and-outs of the Oseberg Tripod at: m ). You could, of course, mak...

Cap'n Atli

Matthew Amt wrote:Aw, man, I quit! How long we been at this, Atli, 30 and 40 years? Did WE ever get a line of that many warrriors looking that good? Might have to move to Texas...

Matthew

Hey Matt:

We may lose the Beauty Contest. We may even lose the race. But we'll win the rumble at the meadhall!

Cap'n Atli

Ooohgh! But it would hurt more going in... ...and out!

Bjorn: Just because you can, doesn't mean you should. (Certainly not according to me wif!)

Cap'n Atli

Here are some links to our sister ship that Kerry Eikenskold built for the Boy Scout Adventure Camp down in Texas. Sh'e about 32' long and has an 8' beam.

http://www.longhorncouncil.org/Camps--- ... llery.aspx

http://www.longhorncouncil.org/Camps--- ... tpost.aspx

http://www.longhorncouncil.org/uploads/ ... 4e392e.pdf

Looks good to me!

Cap'n Atli

Forgive me; I know tastes vary, but does it seem a little silly to any of the rest of us to spend time making a steel knive look like knapped flint?

Cap'n Atli

Yep, that's the Yrsa; 27' of nautical goodness. Owned by Viking Sam: m Built by Kerry Eikenskold: m We had our first nightime voyage in a while last Saturday evening, after the crab feast at Camp Fenby; pretty much just us out on the water under the quarter moon and stars, with the crew singing at t...

Cap'n Atli

Hold it; it was probably Viking Sam's boat, the Yrsa, built by our shipwright, Kerry Eikenskold. For comparison, the Gyrfalcon is 20', the Yrsa is 27', the Fyrdraca is 32', and the Sae Hrafn is 38' (40' sparred length, w/ head & tail).

Google Ravenkraft or Viking Sam for pictures of the Yrsa.

Cap'n Atli

No, that was our old ship, the Fyrdraca. She was sold to the folks out in MO when we had the Sae Hrafn in the stocks.

Cap'n Atli

For best (or at least tolerable) ratios, I'd hit the Guru's Den over at http://www.anvilfire.com. Jock is really good at this sort of thing; I just sort of muck about until things work.

Cap'n Atli

You should make a run down to Savannah, Ga. But first, we will have to survive another shakedown voyage this Saturday night, in conjunction with Camp Fenby. I'm afraid Savannah would be quite a row, but if you know any organizations that are in the habit of throwing money at tall ships, perhaps a p...

Cap'n Atli

So (continuing the theme of the last two posts) the results and efficacy of trying to harden off-the-shelf mild steel, especially steels of 20 pts. or lower, is a total crap shoot. A-36 "mild steel" sometimes has a relatively high carbon content, but who knows what it is from purchase to p...

Cap'n Atli

I'm getting a Chinese 404 on the link. Y'all been hacked?

Cap'n Atli

There is some information in The Scottish Dirk by James D. Forman ( (c) Museum Restoration Service, 1991; ISBN 0-919316-26-3) There was a lot of historic and stylistic variation in Scottish knives. A visit to the library and an interlibrary loan (ILL) could probably provide all sorts of other books ...

Re: The Norse Pantheon ala LEGO (pic heavy)

Re: 'New Vasa' shipwreck found on Baltic seabed

Re: Medieval Fry Pan

Re: Dark Age Forge / Blacksmith

Re: Battle of Hastings - Declaration of Sides

Re: Medieval Fry Pan

Re: Dark Age Forge / Blacksmith

Re: Dark Age Forge / Blacksmith

Re: Dark Age Forge / Blacksmith

Re: Corinthian Helmet That I Bought

Re: Dark Age Forge / Blacksmith

Re: Why Did Cheek Pieces and Neck Guards Go Away?

Re: Dark Age Forge / Blacksmith

Re: Dark Age Forge / Blacksmith

Re: Longship Launched for Season

Re: I'm conflicted

Re: LH Inspiration Pics of Awesomeness.

Re: LH Inspiration Pics of Awesomeness.

Re: LH Inspiration Pics of Awesomeness.

Re: My first forged 'tool'

Re: My first forged 'tool'

Re: "Wine and spices" in Froissart

Re: My first forged 'tool'

Re: Our Sister Ship with BSA in TX

Re: How do you think they got this effect?

Our Sister Ship with BSA in TX

Re: How do you think they got this effect?

Re: Longship Launched for Season

Re: Longship Launched for Season

Re: Longship Launched for Season

Re: DIY hand cranked blower for my forge

Re: Longship Launched for Season

Re: Looking for basic info on tempering mild steel

Re: The Peel Affinity

Re: Sgian duhbs...since I can't find an existing topic.