Viking antler marlin spike

[Aelric]

I have noticed that some of my better dressed Viking friends have a carved antler marlin spike hanging from their belt. I have no doubt that these would be useful to a seaborne trader but I can not find any documentation for them. I am trying to bling up my Viking kit and need a few more doo dads. Also, I have a stone and a small seax and Im going to make a birka pouch, do you guys have any other ideas on bits I can make. I am a late period, 1050ish eastern Swede.

Aelric

[Haldan]

Interesting. I've not seen that anywhere I've been. Could it be a household type thing?

Haldan

[Wolf]

i am wondering if it is a rope spike. it wedge into knots in ropes to help loosen them up so you can untie things. like with the rope is wet or frozen. i used to have a knife that had a spike that flipped out.

but, most reenactors use white tail deer antler for their spikes, handles buttons etc, which is really wrong lol

[Cian of Storvik]

I might be mis-remembering here and please someone correct me if I am wrong; but I think I read that Vikings had small grooming tools similar to the findings we have in later medieval european ages. Things like ear-spoons, cleaning picks (teeth and nails) and such carved wood and bone.

Vikings were also pretty clever with thier spring locks. It may fit, but That may not be something someone would be walking around with in a belt pouch.
-Cian

[Cap'n Atli]

If you do nail-down any historic information on an antler marlin spike, please let me know. Unfortunately, that's just the sort of tool that a) wouldn't survive most conditions and b) if it left any remains, could easily be interpreted as something else entirely. :sigh:


"Obviously a fertility talisman!"

[Vladimir]

"Obviously a fertility talisman!"

Obviously. I mean something longer than it is wide couldn't possibly have any practical use, could it?

I used to have a friend who majored in Psychiatry. Every knife or sword he saw was a phallic symbol. Apparently anyone who liked axes had an interest in ancient weapons, but anyone who liked swords wanted to masturbate.

Not what he said, just what I gathered from listening to him.

[white mountain armoury]

i am wondering if it is a rope spike. it wedge into knots in ropes to help loosen them up so you can untie things. like with the rope is wet or frozen.

Also known as a marlin spike

[Primvs Pavlvs]

i am wondering if it is a rope spike. it wedge into knots in ropes to help loosen them up so you can untie things. like with the rope is wet or frozen.

Also known as a marlin spike

Dad was retired Coast Guard, taught me knots and the art of splicing at an early age. At 13 I was teaching knot tying classes to Scout Masters. He always called his a "fid".

[Cap'n Atli]

Marline spikes are usually metal, whereas fids are usually wood (or whalebone or... maybe antler) BUT, like most nomenclature, the terms vary at different times, places and ships. Fids also tend to be bigger. I have a "pricker," a marline spike and a fid in my rigging box, each larger for different tasks; but the marlin spike on my folding knife is smaller than the pricker. I've turned some nice fids on the lathe of holly, black walnut, ash and hickory for various crew members, enabling too many "throw a fid" jokes.

Hey, "Different ships, different long-splices."

If I get to the LSCoNEO this afternoon, after my genteel and leisurely walk, I'll drag them back for photographs.

[Primvs Pavlvs]

I have been carrying a WW2 British infantry pocketknife for the past few months. I cannot believe how much I have been using the attached Marling spike. Now I know why a soldiers knife has one on it!

I have always wondered the difference between the terms Cap'n. I never thought to ask my dad while he was still with us.

[Cap'n Atli]

Okay, from top to bottom:

I threw in a serving mallet (used to serve marline around the standing rigging, you actually don't hit anything with it) and a sewing palm (for pushing the three-sided needles through multiple layers of sailcloth and/or leather) for the fun of it.

Below those are:

A wooden fid

A steel marlin spike, the point being slightly flattened and the other end headed and with a lanyard hole

A pricker, twisted steel and connected by a lanyard to the fid (so that both go overboard together, BUT the fid should float)

A British "Curren Lockspike Bo'sun" knife with blade and marlin spike; a gift from my future wife and carried by me for over 40 years, with one fathom of 1/8" braid monkey-chained down to about 3' as a belt lanyard. (That way it only goes overboard if I go overboard; where I might need it anyway. )

A hollow plastic fid for use on braided line (or pressed into service as necessary)

A Durham "patent" bronze fid; particularly useful for tightly laid lines.

For scale a Bayeux Tapestry 12"/30cm ruler.

All tools circa early 1970s, or older.

As I stated earlier, nomenclature may vary. One of my projects, once I heal-up, is a new chest that will hold all of this, plus my ditty bag and some handy woodworking tools (since our blocks are wood), more beeswax, etc.

[Cap'n Atli]

So, here's one problem: What gets preserved, or even noticed, in an archeological context.

One of my books had some nice pictures of boathook points and other iron artifacts recovered from European rivers and dating from the Migration Age. So, several years back I took an afternoon and forged a boat hook and mounted it on an 8' ash shaft; a simple job, but of great use on the ship. Then one of our crew said: “Are you serious, you’re going to waste part of your theoretical lifetime allotment of two kilograms of iron on a boat hook?” Then he took a piece of deer antler, lashed it to a shaved-down branch with some leather, and proceeded to spend the next few years demonstrating how light, strong and versatile it was. Its major flaw, as far as I can discern, is that antlers and sticks do not tend to be either well preserved, or well represented, in the archeological record.

Just for the sheer perversity of it; I will probably add an "antler marline spike" to my new rigging tools chest. That, and my sheath knife, will do just fine to stand in for my old "Lockspike Bo'sun."


(Edited for ypographical terror.)

[Ziad]

Worm and parcel with the lay
Turn and serve the other way.



Z

[juan]

A British "Curren Lockspike Bo'sun" knife with blade and marlin spike; a gift from my future wife and carried by me for over 40 years

THAT's a long engagement!

[Halfdan]

There is a fancy bronze knot/marlin spike of this type in the Haithabu Museum in northern Germany. I have an antler one I got from Scot at Viking U Lyk. He referred to it as a speardan, if that helps.

I think one of these would make a great closing pin for a less ornate Birka pouch.

[Cap'n Atli]

A British "Curren Lockspike Bo'sun" knife with blade and marlin spike; a gift from my future wife and carried by me for over 40 years

THAT's a long engagement!

Okay, "...a gift from my then future wife." Actually, the courtship was maybe two years, the marriage going on 40; so at least dating the wif led to dating the knife.

[Cap'n Atli]

There is a fancy bronze knot/marlin spike of this type in the Haithabu Museum in northern Germany. I have an antler one I got from Scot at Viking U Lyk. He referred to it as a speardan, if that helps.

I think one of these would make a great closing pin for a less ornate Birka pouch.

Any pictures or further leads? What was the date for Haithabu?

[Halfdan]

Here is the Haitabu/Hedeby museum page featuring "The Famous Dragon Headed Needle." http://www.schloss-gottorf.de/haithabu/ ... usstellung

[Cap'n Atli]

I’ve linked to this topic on the LSCo discussion board at YahooGroups. It has received some interesting responses:

From our retired Coast Guard Commander and current LSCo Trustee:

The pocket knife pictured was introduced to me in 1968 as my "plebe knife" at the US Merchant Marine Academy, and not being able to produce it on demand for an upperclassman was punishable by something worse than death. As a result, I was never without one again, until airport security started taking such things away from us.
In my seamanship classes, the wooden fid was used for splicing fiber rope. The steel marlinspike was used for splicing wire rope. The small marlinspike on the plebe knife, however, was mostly useful for splicing small stuff and undoing jammed knots. Also a threatening weapon in a dark alley. Use your roommate's spike to enlarge the ring enough to fit around an index finger, then carry the knife in the back pocket, ring upward, and it could be pulled out, twirled into the palm, and the marlinspike opened all with one hand.

William R.


From one of the crew:

There's no shortage of hooks and cleats made of animal teeth, bones and horn among the Esquimaux.
http://explore-art.pem.org/object/nativ ... 557/detail
https://education.alaska.gov/productcar ... category=6

--Charlie


From one of our skippers (and LSCo Secretary):

An interesting thread indeed. It reminded me to my visit to Old Sarum, the Iron Age fortification on Salisbury Plain. It original mounds and ditches surrounding it are neolithic--and we were told much of the digging and mounding was done with antlers. Use what's readily available...

Dave T.

[Aelric]

That is good stuff Cap! Ill send Scott an email and see what he has to say about it too.

Aelric