[Regia-NA] [Fwd: [SCA-AS] Spiffing up your Pennsic (Lillies, Gulf, Estrella, GWW, etc...) Encampment]

[rmhowe]

As long as we are discussing furniture in the following post
I might note here that a couple of years ago I had some out
of copyright articles on Medieval English Chests sent to
Jack Thompson of the Caber Press so he could reprint them as
they were very detailed on construction of some of the many
chests, and that they covered about five centuries if you
include the pictures of highly ornate chests
included from the second article in the back. They came with
rubbings of the carvings from the first article so you could
duplicate them. I don't profit from the sale of the books, but
they were too good and useful not to reprint as I have found the
constructional details nowhere else in the hundreds of books on
woodworking I own. If you are interested in the
modestly priced book of about 110 pages plus the rubbings contact
tlc at teleport.com .  He also has one on Ancient Locks and Keys
including some medieval examples, a bibliography on further sources,
and various books on medieval leather articles, inks, hornworking,
etc. All are reasonably priced.
Jack C. Thompson
Thompson Conservation Lab.
7549 N. Fenwick
Portland, OR  97217

503/735-3942  (voice/fax)
tcl at teleport.com
http://home.teleport.com/~tcl/ 1/03
http://www.teleport.com/~tcl/
http://home.teleport.com/~tcl/caber.htm 1/03

http://home.teleport.com/~tcl/CaberPress_web.pdf

Also Norm Larson of Norm Larson Books reprinted The Mastermyr Find:
A Viking Age Tool Chest from Gotland for $18 plus $2 shipping within
the U.S.A. (Elsewhere would differ). This is the largest find of
medieval tools in context and includes woodworking, metalworking,
jewelry, and cooking tools (a Cauldron and a folding hanging fishgrill)
as well as details of the chest itself and its lock.
Norm Larson Books,
5426 E. Hwy 246, Lompoc, CA 93436.
  Fax 805-735-8367, Ph 800-743-4766
  Postage is $2 for first book
  plus $.50 for each additional book to a maximum of $5.00
larbooks at impulse.net

Master Magnus Malleus, OL, SCA; Manx; Regia.org; Great Dark Horde
*** Please do not repost to usenet newsgroups ***
Your local elist, be it kingdom, canton or shire, or friends are
fine. Reason: newsgroups tend to have spam robots stripping them
for addresses and often very argumentative people.
This would include the Rialto - rec.org.sca.
You may reprint anything I send for local newsletters.

Dame Aoife Finn of Ynos Mon may feel differently.
Contact her if in doubt.


-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [SCA-AS] Spiffing up your Pennsic (Lillies, Gulf, Estrella, 
GWW,	etc...) Encampment
Date: Thu, 3 Jun 2004 17:49:05 -0400
From: "Lis" <liontamr at ptd.net>
Reply-To: Arts and Sciences in the SCA <artssciences at lists.gallowglass.org>
To:

Hail, fellow campers!

Camping should be a joy and an experience of beauty when done inproper
medieval style, not an experience to be suffered through. This issue of the
Links List can help with that, as it is about camping with flair. Below you
will find 31 links in all, with links for camp furniture and accessories to
make your encampment the envy of your neighbors.

As always, please "pay it forward" and send the Links List along to others
who might find it useful.

Cheers

Aoife

Dame Aoife Finn of Ynos Mon
m/k/a Lisbeth Herr-Gelatt
Riverouge
Aethelmearc

Camp Furniture by Thomas Rettie
http://www.his.com/~tom/sca/campstuff.html
(Site Excerpt) Boxes and Chests. Perhaps the most basic and fundamentally
useful piece of kit for a reenactor is the six-board chest. In a pinch this
can double as a bench, and it has much to recommend itself over plastic
tubs. In its simplest form, the boards simply butt one another, but you'll
get a more weather-tight box if you rabbet the edges. If you nail strips
across the bottom, it will keep the bottom off the ground and lessen the
effects of mud, wet grass, etc.
See also "An Article on Making Medieval Tusk Tennons for Knock-Down
Furniturehttp://www.his.com/~tom/sca/tusktenons.pdf and   "Tryangle stolys
for my Lord" at http://www.his.com/~tom/sca/turnedstools.html

Regia Anglorum Anglo-Saxon and Viking Woodworking
http://www.regia.org/woodwork.htm
(Site Excerpt) Timber was the most important resource for the Anglo-Saxons
and Vikings. The early medieval carpenter was not only skilled in working
the wood, but also in selecting the correct timber and shape for the job. If
the finished item needed to have a curve in it, the carpenter would select a
piece of timber that had the correct natural curve. You can use natural
junctions where a branch joins to the tree as joints that have grown to suit
a job that you had in mind. These natural joints are stronger than man-made
ones and save the carpenter a lot of time creating joints. Wherever possible
they would 'follow the grain' to leave the finished product as strong as
possible.

David Friedman (Cariadoc's) Miscellany article: A Period Rope Bed
http://www.daviddfriedman.com/Medieval/Articles/rope_bed/rope_bed.htm
(Site Excerpt) The basic problem with rope beds is that unless the rope is
very taut, they sag. The solution in this design is to have the mesh of
ropes fasten not to the food of the bed but to a horizontal dowel a little
above the foot. You wrap a rope six times around the dowel and foot and
pull. This pulls the dowel towards the foot with a mechanical advantage of
twelve to one (minus substantial losses from friction and some loss from the
rope not being quite a right angles to the dowel), tightening the bed.

Making a Rope Bed
http://www.lydia.org/~zaphod/sca/ropebed/
(Site Excerpt) the disadvantages there is no such thing as a free lunch.
here are two problems with rope beds.
sag     rope beds sag into the middle, they all do. If you are one person
sleeping on the bed, then it is not a big deal (although a really saggy bed
can cause back pain) but two people sleeping on a rope bed will find
themselves rolling into each other a lot. it is up to concerned parties to
determine if this is good or bad.
stretch    the new rope in a bed stretches a lot, and you'll find yourself
retightening the ropes a lot. Even in older beds with rope that should darn
well have stretched itself to limit, you will find yourself rolling into the
center of the bed during longer events. See the hints on using wedges as a
way to quickly tighten up a bed.

My Slat Bed by Jon MacQuarrie
http://www.checksix.net/jon/bed/bed.htm
(Site Excerpt) The bed depicted here is for a full-sized mattress (aka.
"Grandma") and tall enough to store those green Rubbermaid bins you can get
at WalMart.  There is no headboard on this design, although one is planned
and will be easily added to the head of the bed.

Ravensgard Viking Beds
http://www.ravensgard.org/gerekr/bed.html
(Site Excerpt) Beds and fragments of beds have been found in two
archaeological sites from the Viking Age: Oseberg and Gokstad in Norway. The
Oseberg find is dated to circa 850 and Gokstad circa 900.  This is a
reproduction of one of the Oseberg state beds from a museum in Norway. Note
the angled headposts.

Medieval Benches by Master Terafan
http://www.greydragon.org/furniture/benches.html
(Site Excerpt) All of the wood joinery is done using a 10 degree angle.
This allows the top to stay attached to the legs when you pick the bench up
by the top.  It also allows the bench legs to not be at the ends of the
bench, yet not cause tipping when someone sits on the end of the bench.  The
stabilizing bar is also cut at 10 degree angles to allow the edges to meet
flush with the legs, and then a peg locks the leg tight against the
stabilizing bar, and everything is held in place.  A picture of the peg is
at the right.

Early Furnishings: Ancient Chairs (Acrobat required)
http://www.currentmiddleages.org/tents/article3ancientchairs.pdf
(Site Excerpt) As our Saga of Medieval Furniture Continues, in this issue we
look at a couple of early period chairs.....the first is modelled after what
may be a single example of a viking "hex" chair.

Sligo Chair by Matthew Power Artol, Count of Aaramor (Acrobat Required)
http://www.currentmiddleages.org/tents/chair10sligo.pdf
(Site Excerpt) Although the Irish Taum remains one of the most popular sets
of plans I have included in Sacred Spaces, you may recall that inmy previous
article I cofessed to having little research to support it's
existence...aside from a photo I had found in a book on Ancient Irish
crafts. Well, all that has changed, with the publication of a densley
researched book titled Irish Country Furniture....

The Glastonbury Chair by Daniel Diehl copyright 1994 (Acrobat Required--note
that this is a web-publication of one of his book articles)
http://www.currentmiddleages.org/tents/chair8glasttext.pdf

Reconstruct a Tudor Table by Matthew Power
http://www.currentmiddleages.org/tents/table2tudor.pdf
(Site Excerpt) Building MEdieval Furniture doesn't get any better than this.
When the photo above was taken in 1919, this rugged trestle table, built
during Henry VIII's reign, looked as if it might last another 400 years.

How to make a replica of a Viking Table based on the Sala Hytta Find
By Stephen Francis Wyley
http://www.angelfire.com/wy/svenskildbiter/Viking/viktable.html
(Site Excerpt)After making numerous replicas of the 'Lund Viking' stool I
was enthused enough to look at making other forms of Viking furniture.
Amongst the many tomes of Peter Beatson's Library I had previously come
across an article on the "Hørning Grave, a chamber grave from ca. 1000 with
a woman buried in a body of a carriage".

Italian Cassone
http://www.greydragon.org/cassone/index.html
(Site Excerpt) Italian Cassone. Master Dafydd ap Gwystl and Terafan
Greydragon created a reproduction of a 15th century Italian cassone (chest).
They created the cassone to raffle off at Kingdom Twelfth Night to raise
funds for the Oak, which is the Atlantian Arts and Sciences newsletter. The
chest is based upon a late 15th century Italian cassone in the Philadelphia
Museum of Art. The hardware to carry the chest is based upon a 16th century
chest. The enlarged detail at the right shows the original hardware. To see
the whole chest, click the image at the right.

Dragon Wing: A Medieval Wooden Chest. Plans for a storage box that doubles
as a camp stool
http://midtown.net/dragonwing/col0011.htm
(Site Excerpt)This box is the latest addition to the tourney gear we usually
bring to events. It's not a strict reproduction of any particular box, but
rather acombination of two styles. The first style, shown in Figure A
(below, left) is a fifteenth-century gabled chest, was my inspiration for
the carcass of my chest (although I used different carving patterns), but
since I wished to use the chest as an extra seat in camp, I elected to make
it with a flat top, like the thirteenth-century German chest shown in Figure
B, on the right.

The Voxtorp Church Chest, Plans and Pictures of a Replica by Stephen Francis
Wyley
http://www.geocities.com/svenskildbiter/Craft/voxtorp.html
(Site Excerpt) This article is set forth to aid the re-constructor in
building a chest based on the Voxtorp Church Chest. The Voxtorp Church Chest
is a rectangular sided chest made from pine with decorative ironwork, from
Småland in Sweden, dating from c. 1200, the length of the chest is 146 cm,
the width is 32 cm and the height is 90 cm.  The chest is currently housed
at the Statens Historiska Museum in Stockholm, Sweden (ref no. 4094). See
Figure 1.

The Medieval Chest by Master Dafydd ap Gwystl
http://www.greydragon.org/library/chests.html
(Site Excerpt) This article examines the six general styles or classes of
medieval chest: box, standard, Viking chest, six-board chest, hutch, and
panel chest. The first two classes (box and standard) are legless designs;
the other four (Viking, six-board, hutch, and panel chest) are designs with
legs.

Greydragon Furniture Collection: Medieval Chandeliers
http://www.greydragon.org/furniture/chandeliers.html
(Site Excerpt) The chandelier comes apart for storage.  It goes together
with a single screw that stays in the bottom of the vertical hanger when
stored. For 'candles', I choose to use refillable, liquid paraffin lamps.
The liquid paraffin is much safer than lamp oil or citronella, and it
delivers a clean, odor-free flame. It is classified as non-toxic (unless
consumed internally) and non-flammable.

Building an Armour Stand by Eric Slyter
http://www.arador.com/articles/stand.html
(Site Excerpt) Quite a few people have asked how to build a display stand so
that they may show off their armour at their home, event or wherever. I have
an armour stand that I designed that has served me very well for quite some
time, and is simple in it's construction. You'll require some 2x4s, some
1/2" plywood, wood glue, nails, and preferably a ripsaw and a jigsaw. I am
not providing exact dimensions for the pieces of this stand, as there are
many variables due to customization, which may change the 'formula'. Adjust
at will, and as necessary.

She'erah's little house on the flatbed
http://home.jtan.com/~cellio/house/
(Site Excerpt) This house was built in the spring/summer of 2000 to satisfy
a dream of many years of having a "little house on a flatbed" at Pennsic
(like some of the merchants do). It was assembled at Coopers' Lake
Campground, where it lives year-round.

Portable Period Shower by Peter Ellis (Duke Sir Gavin Kilkenny)
http://www.currentmiddleages.org/tents/article4portableshower.pdf
(Site Excerpt) ..One of several items of interest we found in Visby was a
pumphouse, in the courtyard of the museum. The structure is about eight feet
tall....

Stenciling By Lady Faoiltighearna inghean mhic Ghuaire
Copyright © 1999 Margo Farnsworth
http://www.mfgraffix.com/hird/faoilt/stencil.html
(Site Excerpt)  I have found this to be the easiest way to decorate a
pavilion and have had many requests to teach this technique to others. We
have evidence of painted pavillions in period, but I have not found any
evidence (yet) that they were stenciled. I have also used this technique to
decorate a cover for my cooler, a wooden kitchen table, my lords shield,
napkins, t-shirts, hats, and shoes. Someone joked that if you stood still in
our encampment too long you would be stenciled! Once you have the technique
down, you will find that it is very addictive.

Maestra Damiana's ingenious stenciled cooler cover
http://www.mfgraffix.com/hird/pictures/cooler.html
Photo only, but a real beauty.

Footstools for the Royal House of Meridies
http://cls.coe.utk.edu/mcnutt/SCA/portfolio/woodworking/royalstools/default.htm
(Site Excerpt) Brother Michael hit upon the idea of low footstools for the
Queen and Princess.  As an optional accessory to the Thrones, the ladies
would be able to step up with dignity, and comfortable rest their feet
during court as well.  Because he wanted to focus his time as creative
energy on the thrones, Brother Michael opted to sub-contract the footstools
to Lord Richard and myself.  As Brother Michael is a Master Finisher by
trade, that he would entrust a project to be display alongside his work was
a great honor.

Was medieval furniture "sanded"?
http://www.his.com/~tom/sca/abrasives.html
(Site Excerpt) Sandpaper (or glass paper) is a relatively modern innovation.
Prior to its introduction, woodworkers relied on chiefly on skill with a
plane and scraper to produce a smooth, flat surface. When abrasives were
needed, natural alternatives were available, such as cattails (used by
turners), fine sand, and rottenstone (a soft, decomposed limestone).

Camp Chair Plans by Boy Scouts of America
http://home.earthlink.net/~scouters/chair.html
(Site Excerpt) These plans are based upon several designs used by scouts in
our council. Some people call this a scissors chair. The chair is composed
to two pieces: the seat and the back. The two pieces slip together and
require no fasteners when used. When carried the seat stows between the
sides of the back for a very compact package.

Fauldstool
http://www.bumply.com/Medieval/Fauldstool/index.htm
(Site Excerpt) Having seen these stools in the Maciejowski Bible and
elsewhere, a few years ago I decided my pavilion needed one. So, blissfully
ignorant of furniture making, I went ahead and made it. It was not hard, it
was not expensive, and it looks lovely.

Stefan's Florilegium
http://www.florilegium.org/
The florilegium has a host of articles on various types of furniture. Click
on home-sweet-home for a plethora of information.

Medieval Encampment Guild (a yahoo group)
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MedievalEncampments/
(Site Excerpt) Known World Medieval Encampment Guild-- mailing list
for those interested in tents, wood-working, furniture research and
construction, camp cooking,
and any other aspects of reenactment camping.

Tournaments Illuminated Index: Furniture
http://www.sca.org/ti/topic.html#furnmisc

"How many ideas have there been in history that were unthinkable ten years
before they appeared?"--Fyodor Dostoyevsky

_______________________________________________
Artssciences mailing list
Artssciences at lists.gallowglass.org
http://lists.gallowglass.org/mailman/listinfo/artssciences