Wareham Forge makes the News...

... as in 'ThorNews'

ThorNews describes itself as 'a supplier of Norwegian Culture' - with a very heavy load of Viking Age topics represented.

Author Thor Lanesskog had chosen to use an image of a group of replica spears I had made to help illustrate today's blog post :

The Viking Age Spears – “The Ones Who Stare from a Long Distance”

By ThorNews on October 19, 2017

" The majority of the spears are decorated with fish bone patterns, pattern forged along the middle of the blade " 

I sent back a bit of a clarification :

The 'forged pattern' is the result of welding layers of soft and hard iron metals together, then twisting and welding again, most typically to form the core part of a blade. There are some (unresolved) questions about why this method, called 'pattern welding' in archaeology, was undertaken originally. It can provide functional advantages, especially for long blades (so with swords). It may be as simple as building up a larger block when all the smith had were small pieces. The techniques were also clearly used for their decorative effects. Spears using pattern welding a very good example.
'Wolf's Tooth' actually refers to a specific effect caused by a specific method of working with the starting layered bars. I would refer you to the work of British blacksmith Owen Bush, who I know has investigated how to duplicate those specific patterns. 

DARC at Vinland - seen on ExARC!

https://exarc.net/issue-2017-4/mm/dark-ages-recreation-company-lanse-aux-meadows-nhsc-2017

Neil Peterson, with additions from DARC members Marcus, Kate and Karen, has had a very complete summary of the group's July 2107 presentation at L'Anse aux Meadows NHSC published in the journal ExARC.

Abstract:

To celebrate Canada’s 150th anniversary and the 20th anniversary of the historical interpretation program at L’Anse aux Meadows, NHSC, Parks Canada invested to extend their regular staff with a 10 day special program. Darrell Markewitz, the designer of the original program, and the Dark Ages Recreation Company (DARC) returned once again to this UNESCO World Heritage site to interact with the staff and public and mount displays of various craft activities.

The article details the public presentations and experimental archaeology projects carried out over the 11 day stay by a total of 14 DARC members.
Mounting such a major display, 3000 km from home base in Ontario, represents a major effort for DARC.

Next up for the group? 

Participating in the Royal Ontario Museum's presentation of 'Vikings' - a traveling exhibit from the Swedish History Museum

Review: Making glass beads from the past

Making glass beads from the past

EuroREA 7 (2010) Jannika GRIMBE https://exarc.net/files/exarc-eurorea_7_2010-making_glass_beads_from_the_past.pdf
This is a nice little (4 page) article on Jannika's experimental bead making. The first page covers the usual archaeological evidence and background on Viking Era beadmaking. There are a lot of assumptions being made, and statements for which I would love to see citations. For example, the metal plate from Ribe is presented conclusively as a pre-heating plate for glass fragments before adding them to a punty rod. While that is one possible idea there are other suggestions for that plate that have been made over the years. Her final bullet point in the archaeological section mentioned that "Analyses of 'non-glass' rests in the bead holes of beads from Ribe prove the use of separators". Statements like that really do require citations. On the plus side, a citation does appear on page three when the point is repeated.

The second page begins with a discussion of the furnaces. Sadly, she begins her discussion with "Since there is no knowledge about what the prehistoric furnaces looked like". This is simply false. The hearths from Ribe have published shapes and dimensions. Any effort to re-create the furnaces must begin with an understanding of that basic fact. If your furnace design is going to deviate from those bases you need to explain why you chose to do so.

The practical experiments were quite interesting as she worked heavily with punty rods. This isn't something we have done a lot of work with ourselves but is certainly a reasonable area to explore. I am happy to see someone exploring it. A method she did not try for working with a punty rod, which we have done, and is done today by Turkish beadmakers is to use a crucible to collect and melt the fragments. The rod can then be inserted into the crucible and the glass collected on it for future use. See for example https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0G5EMXekreM. The experimental sequence involving resists ("rests" according to the article),  is very much worth the read. Some good basic options of clay and salt are tested and discussed. Overall a good experimental summary.