Viking era clamps/vises

Egfroth · Post by **Egfroth** » Sun Dec 04, 2005 12:04 am

I seem to recall seeing some reference that Vikings used clamps or vises made of two pieces of wood with a loose rivet through the middle, and a wedge driven in one end to force the jaws together at the other end.

Does anybody know anything about this? Preferably with pictures?

Cap'n Atli · Post by **Cap'n Atli** » Mon Dec 05, 2005 10:27 pm

I'm a little short on time of late, but these are used for boatbuilding and lapstrake construction. I have some photographs, but I can't lay my hands on them right now. A google image search didn't turn them up, so when I get a chance, I'll check my library.

If anyone else can beat me to it, that's good too. At least you know which tree to bark up. :wink:

Cap'n Atli · Post by **Cap'n Atli** » Mon Dec 05, 2005 11:18 pm

Here's one, a little different than other's I've seen, but it works:

www.fjellborg.org/AxesSawClamp.htm

Egfroth · Post by **Egfroth** » Mon Dec 05, 2005 11:37 pm

Sorry - I should have specified - I need pics of original artefacts. I understand there's a pic of one in the book "Viking to Crusader", but I can't lay my hands on it at the moment.

Halvgrimr · Post by **Halvgrimr** » Wed Dec 07, 2005 11:47 am

I understand there's a pic of one in the book "Viking to Crusader"

--I have mine here at work
I looked in the index under clamp and vice and there is nothing
I looked at all the references under Tools but came up with nothing again.

Got a more exact source? (ie page number or section?)

Halv

nathan · Post by **nathan** » Wed Dec 07, 2005 5:46 pm

What you have described sounds exactly like a (modern-ish) ring vice.

There are a couple of options in making one (mine has a large ring surrounding the middle and uses a wedge in the same way). So far as i am aware they are not VA period items (though are easy enough to make using period techniques).

If you find provenence please share, as they are handy items to be having.

earnest carruthers · Post by **earnest carruthers** » Thu Dec 08, 2005 2:36 pm

Out of the Viking era but the ring or hand vice is certainly around in the 15th c

http://www.farreaches.org/fishing/treatyse_hooks.html

the item in question is smack in the middle with the wegge/wedge to its right, the notation is not that precisely laid out but they are noted.

nathan · Post by **nathan** » Fri Dec 09, 2005 7:34 am

Ohh that's a nice little resource, ta very much for it (i have only just started looking at C15th civilian stuff).

It will make a lovely vice for holding small things (rings, pins, hooks), interesting it is made from iron ("a semi-clamp of iron"), when wood would be considered adequate these days. Possibly this is because the vice is for working steel (as opposed to softer metals).

earnest carruthers · Post by **earnest carruthers** » Fri Dec 09, 2005 7:40 am

My wife has a wood one with leather pads, for obvious reasons.

No reason to not make one out of wood should you wish, not the biggest conceptual leap for late medieval man to make.

Good depictions of tools are a real find, also nice when we see time honoured techniques beig portrayed, a sigh of relief that hand clamps for example can be used and swing compasses etc.

Halvgrimr · Post by **Halvgrimr** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 3:05 pm

Egfroth

I think I may have accidentally stumbled accross something useful for you.

Our ILL department notified me at lunch today that the copy of "Wikinger Museum Haithabu, Schaufenster einer fruhen Stadt" was in.

I went and picked it up imediately.

In the last few pages I think it shows an example of what your looking for.

It shows a clamp of some sort used to hold horn for comb making (at least I think thats what its showing)

Give me a few minutes and I will track down a scanner and get it webbed for you.

Halv

cristofre fortescu · Post by **cristofre fortescu** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 3:13 pm

Can you post it here so we all can see.

Thanks

Cris

Halvgrimr · Post by **Halvgrimr** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 3:28 pm

I THINK this might be a clamp/vice of some sort
Cant read the text though so I cant say where it comes from or when it dates to.

[img]http://www.vikingsna.org/temp/099.JPG[/img]

Hope that helps

Halv

Jason Grimes · Post by **Jason Grimes** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 5:08 pm

That looks almost exactly like a modern ring-clamp that jewlers use.

https://trorderonline.thomasregister.co ... rcl652.jpg

Egfroth · Post by **Egfroth** » Sat Dec 17, 2005 1:56 am

Ah, lovely! That looks great!

I'll have to see if i can laboriously translate it with my school dictionary - but I DO see the word Haithabu (Hedeby) in there.

Egfroth · Post by **Egfroth** » Sat Dec 17, 2005 2:23 am

Ah, lovely! That looks great!

I'll have to see if i can laboriously translate it with my school dictionary - but I DO see the word Haithabu (Hedeby) in there.

nathan · Post by **nathan** » Sat Dec 17, 2005 3:09 pm

whoot !!

Egfroth, if you wouldn't mind sharing your translation (or a summary) i would be rather grateful.

Halvgrim where is the reference from?

cheers
N.

Cap'n Atli · Post by **Cap'n Atli** » Sat Dec 17, 2005 10:35 pm

The ones for boatbuilding use the same principle but with (of course) different proportions. Given that you might be utilizing the curve of a tree branch, I would expect a lot of variation.

earnest carruthers · Post by **earnest carruthers** » Sun Dec 18, 2005 12:58 pm

And really easy to make, the viking one seems to have a pivot pintle type thing, rather than hinged straps.

Halvgrimr · Post by **Halvgrimr** » Mon Dec 19, 2005 8:32 am

Halvgrim where is the reference from?

"Wikinger Museum Haithabu, Schaufenster einer fruhen Stadt"

Halv

Egfroth · Post by **Egfroth** » Fri Dec 23, 2005 12:01 am

Translation of the text above (the translator is a native-speaking German who asks that his clumsy English be forgiven):

Handcraft is an important element of the town economy. This already applies to the early city, as Haithabu was. Everyone, looking at the remnants of activity relating to crafts in the find property of Haithabu, can convince himself of it. The archaeologists have excavated finished goods such as semi-manufactures, raw materials and waste products, various tools and devices and also within the settlement the places of some manufacturing plants relating to crafts to recognize to be able.

The emergence of cities in Northern Europe during the Viking period was connected to an internal migration of the rural population into the city, and the city settlements continued to grow in the Middle Ages by influx from the country. Thus a gradual division of labor between city and country was introduced. While one specialized here to produce food surplus with which the urban population could be supplied, those in the city strove around the production of special products, which one could sell to the rural households: In the city a handicraft ever more specialized developed. For this time the terms "handicraft" and "craftsman" are not to be determined always.

Not everyone active in the crafts was already thereby a "craftsman". From the domestic craftsman one demanded completely naturally a broad knowing and ability relating to crafts. Much craft work was implemented in the household by their members. Textile production and toepfern and others of the women just like tasks of the everyday life up to the building of houses, large small, of the men and - this in a settlement such as Haithabu rather an everyday work. All forms of manipulation relating to crafts within the closed housekeeping count as "house work". Besides a specialized occupation handicraft existed, in which lohnabhaengige craftsmen exercised their activity to the safety device of their living costs. Between "handicraft" and "house work" it may have given third form in the Viking period still another activity relating to crafts. In the house work also products will have been produced beyond the domestic need, which represented a source of supplementary income as goods for trade and market (Subsistenzwirtschaft).

In the Viking period it gave moving craftsman, who had to only look for each other work and working place or was also called beside craftsmen, who were bound to a stationary workshop, also. One assumes that they were specialized craftsmen, who satisfied a special marktbeduerfnis at their respective work place. Their activity promoted above all the cultural standardization. With security it gave the "Jack of all trades" in this time however frequently still, who controlled several handicraft techniques and exercised her also secondary or successively. Over the social position of the craftsmen little is well-known. Most likely it depended on the degree of its wage dependence on the possessing social class, for which they produced. If they were because of their technical skill particularly not looked for forces, which worked perhaps even on the king yard, they might have confessed socially among the free farmers.

Picture: Bone ferrule with semifinished comb from antlers (assembly).

A bit rough and ready, admittedly, but it gets the sense across.