Saturday, September 23, 2006

'Outlander' - Viking Age Cookware

What I have been doing # 5

If you have been following the blog for a while, you have seen the piece about my current project - an assortment of Viking Age replica cookware for the feature film 'Outlander. Todays entry will also refer back to an earlier commentary on historic welding fluxes - and the Lund meat spit...

This image shows a number of the cookware pieces for the Outlander project:


Spiral Iron - Here a pretty standard interpretation of the few existing artifact samples. All are very small, in the range of 10 - 15 cm diameter. Intended for use in the 'Chieftain' house, mainly due to the large amount of metal required to form the piece.

Dish Iron - There are two of these, each with a dish about 25 cm diameter. One virtually identical to the artifact samples, and intended for a 'Bondi' house. The second has been upscaled to suit the 'Chieftain'. On this piece there is line and dot punch work along the handle. The hanging loop has been created by punching and drifting. It is then detailed with punch work to resemble a human face. Quite intentionally, the handle is forked and the dish is attached to it using TWO rivets. There is at least one artifact sample that uses this method. (Which puts an end to the idea that the dish was rotated during cooking.)

Meat Fork - This is replica of a large meat cooking fork, used with a joint of meat which would be supported on a forked stick over the fire. This type is an alternative to a meat spit. The fork is made from a large piece of flat bar, split back and then drawn to points. The remaining bar is then shouldered and pulled to a cylinder. The socket was made separately (from heavy pipe in this case) and then the two pieces welded together. Set on a length of sapling.

Meat Spit - This is based on the Lund sword spit discussed in that earlier posting. Again a heavy piece of flat stock is the starting point for the working end. First the long tapered point was drawn out. I decided that this shape would taper in width and thickness, so keeping a rectangular cross section down the length. (Other interpretations often create a diamond cross section, but I can't see this on the artifact images and descriptions.) The base is then split and drawn to cylindrical points, which are then curled forward. The long shaft is made of a piece of square stock - with the two pieces welded together as the last step.

Next set of objects is a collection of woodworking and blacksmithing tools, followed by a cauldron hanger and several larger pots and cauldrons.

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February 15 - May 15, 2012 : Supported by a Crafts Projects - Creation and Development Grant

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