Posts: 793 Location: Stockholm, Sweden
Tue 04 Oct, 2011 3:07 pm
I saw a clue in what the tools may have looked like in the off center stamped ring. This would most likely not occur with a hinge as shown in the reconstruction posted earlier, unless it only fit very loosely together and had side to side play which I expect a craftsman would try to avoid with that design, but the offset could easily happen if the tool was made from a separate top and bottom stamp and you simply held it together wrong.
So what could that look like? What did other tools used for similar purposes look like in the viking age?
Here's what I came up with after some brainstorming and rifling through some find catalogue books. Coin stamps!
Here's an example of a viking age coin stamp, I think you'll see where I'm going with this.
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http://www.historyofyork.org.uk/themes/viking/viking-coins
Note the point to hammer it into a wooden block, the same type as on the small hammer-in anvils found all over europe in viking culture sites. Several of these stamps have been recovered from sites and I've been busy studying images and data on them before proceeding with the drop forge solid ring stamp. Finds exist with the lower part alone remaining but also in full sets with both an "anvil" and "striker" stamp if you will. They're usually round section or sort of square but with rounded corners. I'll scan off some books I have and show more examples from finds.
Some have been made from tempered steel, others from plain iron. I made my drop forge tools from cold rolled modern mild steel, which is in somewhere between these in hardness. I may coal the striking surface and temper it later if I feel it's necessary for a lasting tool.
Here's my first attempt, hardly pretty to look at but seems to work decently.
I'll probably make another lower tool, it's not as perfect round as the top stamp, and I'll make another for drop forging the overlapping rings into a slight teardrop in preparation for riveting also, if possible with an indentation mark for the awl for drifting the rivet hole.
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I was unable to reproduce the off center ring so far, because the stamp I have now has the same hardness as the rings and it seems like it's slightly damaging the stamps when I try it and not deforming the ring enough even striking considerably harder than when the ring is in the slot and forming nicely. I could experiment with annealing some rings to make them softer and more pliable, or I could try it with iron rings instead of steel.
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What I did get was some nicely rounded rings, the best ones to the right are from pre- ground rings, the ones to the left are simply straight from punching, with non-drop-forged comparison rings underneath. To the far right is an overlapping ring drop forged in the same tool. Interesting enough I've seen some rings that look just like that on some other round ring
mailles, riveted through a thin overlap with a tiny rivet without any teardrop flattening.
Here are some closeups of the best examples from this first test batch. The system seems to be working nicely and I feel like this is on the right track, but the tools are still a bit rough and need more work. What's hard to make out in these photos is that the very top of the solid actually has a flat area, the rounding doesn't go quite all the way over, just like on the original rings.
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The tools are a joy to work with.
First you hammer the lower tool into a block of wood, then you place the ring in the slot. You can easily find the right position since the ring slots securely into both tool surfaces, then you strike it with a slegehammer. You have to strike hard, but not harder than when punching the the ring from plate. Afterwards you grind the outside on the whetstone a little and then it's finished. One might want to oil burn it before assemby in a weave, but you can do it afterwards also.