Making a Mästermyr chest off-grid part1
The Mästermyr tool chest is one of the most extensive archaeological finds of Viking era tools made in Scandinavia. The blacksmithing tools are well known throughout the contemporary blacksmith community, not only for their subtle aesthetic features and practical use but for the fact that they appear almost identical to modern day forging tools. There are more than just blacksmith´s tools and a wooden chest in the find, quite a lot of woodworking tools and other tools where found at the site as well. This have been interpreted as if a blacksmith master of that time worked more than just one material, not to different from the stories of the Islandic sagas where blacksmiths seem to meddle with all sorts of magic making exceptional things appear out of seemingly prosaic materials.
In this series I will be that person. Throughout the previous videos I made tools out of sticks and stones, used the tools to forge other tools, and now I will use those to make a tool chest. It appears I will have to use more or less all the tools made and likely get to a point where a few more will have to be done. The chest will not be a museum copy of the Mästermyr chest, at least not as far as measurements goes. My intention is to focus on the techniques but also the material found or forged at the site I am at; a forest in mid-south Sweden, close to an old forge and a stream but also an old iron age stone circle, and the forest where I played children’s games far up my teenage years… still do it seems ; )
In this “first” tool-chest-episode I begin with a short recap of the tree, beam and boards making up the materials used. Then I focus on measurements. All the parts will have to fit in the end and without a ruler one piece will have to provide the size of another. Eventually when all the pieces fit together the chest can be assembled. But that is the theme of episode 2 for I do not want to miss a technique or approach in the 14 ½ minutes I´ve got. The wood I am working is still wet. I was repeatedly advices against that when I researched the project since the wood will crack, move and brake the chest as soon as it is finished, but I had little choice since I did not cut down a tree with off-grid tools two years ago… and the tools are still the focus here.
Пікірлер: 32
I really enjoyed this
thats awesome bearded axe
Very nice job. Do nt worry about making it from Green timber , I make boxes from green oak often and they hardly ever crack. Look up Peter Follansbee he makes lots of stuff from green timber. What your doing is more representative of what actually happened back in the day . The vast majority of reproduction we see these days are "to good" because most people are to idol to do things as they were done so the finished product does not look right, Keep up the good work
Inspirering. Thank you
@gustavthane2233
Жыл бұрын
Thank you
Wasn't there a saw in the Mästermyr chest? Just teasing! Great work, the hatchet work is SO precise!
Wow
Great videos! Glad youve moved away from the 360 videos, theyre tricky to watch on a phone and the quality seemed much lower
@gustavthane2233
Жыл бұрын
Yes, I think this is better. I liked the idea that you could put on a VR-headset and all of a sudden be there in the middle of the forest, look at the trees if you wanted and the craft if yo wanted. But it did not work, the resolution was to low and VR never quite took off.
Very impressive!
@gustavthane2233
2 жыл бұрын
Thank you
And you're sporting the mandatory manbun. Lol
@gustavthane2233
Жыл бұрын
Allways, what is a man without his bun? Except in this video: kzread.info/dash/bejne/Y4eF0dCcldXPZNo.html but he found a way back again somehow...
@jaymylotto8134
Жыл бұрын
@@gustavthane2233 Maybe you can use your tools to chop it off.
wow nice work man. you are a gluten for punisment lol keep up the good work
Truly inspiring work :)
@gustavthane2233
2 жыл бұрын
Thank you
When, historically, did hndsaws come into play?
@gustavthane2233
6 ай бұрын
Well, since they are not quite needed, most tasks can be done with an axe or knife, I guess they are alot younger than axes, but I seem to remember something about the ancient Egyptians... But its been some time now since I did my research so I can not say for sure. What I do know is that there was a saw in the Mästermyr chest, and the tools are considered to be of Roman style, according to people knowing more than me.
@timbarry5080
6 ай бұрын
@@gustavthane2233 thank you. I didn't realize they went back that far. I was watching an episode of "black sails", a pirate soap opera of sorts, that was set in the 1600s and they had bucking saws on set. I didn't know if that was accurate.
Участок леса, где вы занимаетесь своими делами, принадлежит вам на праве собственности?
@gustavthane2233
4 ай бұрын
It is not my own land but I have permission to use it, cut down some of the trees and use the barn for storage. When I was a child it belonged to my great grandfather and I played all summers long in these woods.
@user-cw8rc1ex3t
4 ай бұрын
Спасибо.
This is amazing all I can ask is how do you keep yourself motivated to do this things?
@gustavthane2233
Жыл бұрын
Thank you. Well, I never understood how people in general manage to stay and work at a payed job either. I guess this tedious work draw its motivations from being a thing that works the same way as the workings of my head, the work simply falls into place.🙂 But do not underestimate your role in this, It does feel a lot more meaningful to bring the camera due to the feeling of not being alone but also of telling a story that people listens to.
Great channel, I accidentally stumbled upon you! Its putting it mildly to say Im amazed at what Im seeing :D You are making the whole chest out of essentially green wood, albeit cut down in winter. I myself am looking into making shield boards in this way, just way thinner, 6-8mm. Would you recommend I take my boards to that thickness immediately, or do I make thicker planks first and then wait for them to dry and set, before taking them to their final thickness? I have no experience in making planks like this, especially not such thin ones. Any input is invaluable, if you could spare the time to answer :) Edit: Im just noticing youre leaving quite an extensive explanation bellow each video, so Im going to go ahead and read all of them, but Im probably going to need some more help :D
@gustavthane2233
Жыл бұрын
It is good to have you here. Thank you. Yes I did. What I have been told there are three factors making this possible. 1. The first is that I have used pine-tree, is has a porous inner structure making it more forgiving than hard wood. 2. it was cut down in the winter 3. I have never taken the chest indoors, not into a normally heated house. Well, thin boards would crack easily, but if that is what you want, thinner is better in the sense that you can put a weight on top of it while it dries and that way stop it from bending. Yes I would make them thin to begin with, the axe cut better in wet wood and it do not crack as easily as when dry. But thin is difficult to make for several reasons. It is light weight, causing several problems. You can solve one of them in part by making a groove in the workbench like I did. But that would also make it more sensitive to faulty blows with the axe. You will need a sharper axe to be able to cut into the wood rather than hitting it. I sharpened my axe with a local stone, I recommend you bring a whetstone. And do not cut from top to bottom like when splitting wood, cut from side to side, along the grain, but carefully not to brake it. Follow the grains carefully, that way it will not splinter as easily. But you could also make a plane, I made a video on that recently, it is less to use but less likely to make the wood crack. In Sweden, historically, it has been common to make ash wood baskets from really thin wood slices, that you braid or weave. But the slices are rarely wider than 10 cm. Those are split into 2-8 mm thick slices with a long knife that you hit with a hammer. That works too and is a lot quicker.
@dan_the_dj
Жыл бұрын
@@gustavthane2233 Cool, thank you very much! Im aiming at a historical reproduction of a viking age round shield, so I have to use said thicknesses. Regarding wood species, I would be lucky if I get a conifer tree, but most likely its going to be another soft wood like linden, aspen, poplar, even willow. Those are all common here and I have access to at least some of them. I think I can get away with harvesting thinner trunks and using only the middle for planks, saving the rest for other projects like spoons or something, or I could fell a large tree and split all the planks radially, like when you make wooden roof tiles, shingles. I will also try to weigh them down as best as I can, and hopefully find a nice place for them to dry. Thank you!
@gustavthane2233
Жыл бұрын
@@dan_the_dj Sound like an interesting project. good luck.
@dan_the_dj
Жыл бұрын
@@gustavthane2233 thanks. Im going to need it. Ill also be atempting to make your chest here, in die time. With some of the tools inside :D
This has inspired me to cut down my neighbors tree and build my own chest!
@gustavthane2233
Жыл бұрын
He he, I hope the neighbour enjoyed it as well. That is awesome, How far are you due? Given enough time it is not as complicated as one would have thought. I did mine without drying the wood first so I never bring it inside the house, that would risk braking it, but as an outdoor box I find it to be quite a useful design.