Norse Trefoil Arrowheads

My friend Neil Peterson has been after me for some (too long) a time to forge some replica Viking Age arrowheads.

I have begged off this - primarily because this is largely specialist work. There are a few others out there who have concentrated (solely, from the look of it) on the skills and tooling required to be effective at this type of work. Hector Cole of the UK being the 'state of the art' in my opinion.

Neil has been most interested in two specific points, illustrated in the (almost impossible to find) 'Viking Artifacts' by James Graham-Campbell :

Image adjusted to life size

These are described as his number 12 (part of a group) and 267 (two shown) , " ... from the large find discovered in Estuna churchyard in 1964. ... objects of 7th to 11th century date are 245 arrowheads ... the greater part dating to the Viking Period." (pg 12)
From : Estuna, Uppland, Sweden, listed as Statens Historiska Museum 27761 (both images).
Further details are given on the second entry #267:
"Two tanged iron arrow-heads, with trefoil-sectioned blades of pointed oval form : between the blade and the tang is a rounded shaft, the larger having two ornamental mouldings. L 15.7 and 11.3 cm." (pg 74)

Forging a trefoil head represents a bit of a forging problem. Being able to see the original, or have some better idea of the detailed cross section, would most likely suggest the method used.
After a couple of forging tests, using differing starting shapes and sizes, differing forging steps, this is what I eventually came up with:

Life size - 1/4 inch grid

These are *rough forged* - and would need to be trimmed / sharpened on the cutting edges to finish. The longer of the two (#12) would then have the circular notch cut in, most likely with the edge of a file (like the square profile one found in the Mastermyr Tool Chest).

I ended up using a bottom profile tool to create a sharp line for the trefoil cross section:

This is the selection of tools I used for the work, with the addition of a cut off (or a straight chisel)
- The tongs are a special fine pair of goose neck, designed with a 'half square' notch on each jaw. The basic goose neck shape is seen in many VA tongs - although not so extreme. I am not aware of any artifact tongs with notched or profiled jaws (all I have seen are flat jaw).
- The shouldering tool here is intended for mounting in the hardie hole of a modern anvil, a feature no artifact anvil has. It is also quite possible to make this tool as a simple U shape, to be held by an assistant. There is no artifact version of this tool (again that I am aware of). Mind you, the simple construction would easily lend the metal to be quickly re-cycled as needed. Norse objects do show the shouldering form - 'loop and tab' hinges being a clear example.
- The bottom tool is *not* found in the artifact record.
I found the best way to create a robust central rib in the trefoil cross section was to lay a square taper 'edge down' into the groove, then pound flat from above. There may be a modern conception of 'mass production' at play here however. Using the bottom tool certainly was much faster and created a thicker cross section than hammering two diagonal bevels on one side. The results were also more consistent (but I can see repetitive skill coming to play there).

If there are any readers who have examined these, or other Viking Age trefoil arrow heads, please take the time to add a comment!

Neil has now added the full 'mini paper' up on the DARC web site:
http://darkcompany.ca/articles/trefoils.php 

Yule to you too

Because I know a lot of you are pretty sick of 'Happy Happy'... 

(click for larger size to read the text)

Some IRON snippets...

...stumbled or sent via the wide world of the web.

Telluric iron

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Iron, native iron or telluric iron
Sawed slab of basalt with bright, metallic native iron inclusions from Uivfaq, Disko Island (size: 7.8 x 3.5 x 0.6 cm)

Telluric iron, also called native iron, is iron that originated on Earth, but is found in a metallic form rather than as an ore. Telluric iron is extremely rare, with only one known major deposit in the world, located in Greenland.

I'm always telling people about this - the only occasion metallic iron is found on the earth's surface, other than nickle-iron meteors. Someone should compare the trace elements in this material against known Norse artifacts - to see if this resource (within reach of the Greenland Colony) was ever utilized by the Norse. 

Excerpt on Iron Making from the BBC's Tudor Monastery Farm 

Filmed at the Rural Life Center in Surrey, England

link to clip

From the Rural Life Center web site : 'Smiths and Wrights' :

... a half-scale furnace complete with bellows and hammer at the Rural Life Centre. ...
There have been several burns in the furnace, proving the efficiency of the bellows, but currently there isn't a big enough supply of charcoal yet to enable iron to be made – despite being only half-size, this furnace will still need four tons of charcoal when in action.
Actual smelting of ore is still being considered (due to potential dangers involved) but a charcoal burning programme has already been initiated at the museum ...

Those who have ever undertaken or observed a full iron smelt likely spotted the same thing I did on viewing the video clip : Everything was spotless clean and there was no heat effects visible on the tapping surface - or slag anywhere. This is also an early blast furnace (late Medieval technologies), charcoal fired to produce liquid *cast* iron. Mention is made of the second part of this system, the use of a separate 'finery' forge set up to effectively *remove* carbon from the cast iron to create workable wrought iron. I strongly suspect the large bar seen being worked under the (very neat!) water powered tilt hammer is actually modern mild steel - understandably used for demonstration purposes.

Tentative (!) 2015 Schedule

Believe it or not, I have had people asking me about the 2015 courses schedule for several weeks already!

	Basic Course	Teaching	Research	Iron Smelt	Retail Shows
	Special Course	Tenative	Tentative	Demonstration
						NOTE
JANUARY	3 - 4	10 - 11	17 - 18	24 - 25	31 - (1)
FEBRUARY	(31) - 1	7 - 8	14 - 15	21 - 22	28 - (1)
		Basic (two day)		Casting
MARCH	(28) - 1	7 - 8	14 - 15	21 - 22	28 - 29	FITP = Turf to Tools
		Basic (two day)		Welding	FITP
					Waterloo
APRIL	4 - 5	11 - 12	18 - 19	25 - 26		EI4 = Smelt demo?
		Basic		Early Iron
				Olivebridge NY
MAY	2 - 3	9 - 10	16 - 17	23 - 24	30 - 31	ICMS = Aristotle
		Basic	ICMS	Iron Smelt		ICMS = Turf to Tools
			Kalamazoo MI
JUNE	6 - 7	13 - 14	20 - 21	27 - 28
	DARK Upper Canada	Basic	Iron Smelt	Bladesmith
	Morrisburg
JULY	4 - 5	11 - 12	18 - 19	25 - 26
	CanIRON 10	Basic		Layered
	Badeck NS
AUGUST	1 - 2	8 - 9	15 - 16	22 - 23	29 - 30	Celtic College = Glass
	Celtic College	Celtic Festival	Summerfolk	Viking
	Goderich	Goderich	Owen Sound
SEPTEMBER	5 - 6	12 - 13	19 - 20	26 - 27		Known World = Iron Smelt
	Known World	Basic		Quad State
	Minnesota			Troy - OH
OCTOBER	3 - 4	10 - 11	17 -18	24 - 25	(31) - 1	ReARC = Iron Smelt ?
	Basic	Iron Smelt	ReARC	Zombie	Iron Smelt
			Gastonia
NOVEMBER	(31) - 1	7 - 8	14 - 15	21 - 22	28 - 29
	Iron Smelt	Basic		Casting
DECEMBER	5 - 6	12 - 13	19 - 20	26 - 27
		Basic (two day)

NOTES:

The main change for 2015 is that I have attempted to place all the workshop courses at the Wareham Forge on either the second or fourth weekend of each month. Introduction to Blacksmithing (Basic) are all offered on the second weekend. Various specialty courses are offered on the fourth weekend. 

Basic (two day) : This program will be limited to TWO students, working only PROPANE. Only offered in the cold weather months!

Viking : This is a new 2 1/2 program - Forging the Viking Age, no previous skills required.  It will compose of an evening lecture, first day working modern equipment but making Norse objects, second day working with a Norse charcoal forge and bellows combination.

Experimental Iron Smelting has been shifted to coincide with the Summer Solstice and Samhain, plus the normal Thanksgiving, weekends.


Those who wax poetic about the 'free and easy life of the artist' might note that 2015 is still not even here yet, but already my schedule for next year leaves me only FOUR 'open' weekends - from mid May to mid November!