Finally - shoes!

And now - what you have all been waiting for: My shoes! It is not much to say, really. They are finished, and I am kinda happy with them, although I would like them to be just a bit more pointy. And next pair will.

I am a tentmaker, episode 02

Of course we didn't start stitching until about saturday noon. It's so typical - when you set out to do something, it is always those little things that get in your way. We shopped a couple of beers and a lot of food, so that we could have a pleasant time while working; if it's anything you need when putting your back to it, it is proper food and drink.

The work force was a bit crippled, due to my daughter Isolde - one of us always had to keep an eye out for her. She loves the following:

- Knives (and other weapons)
- Every other little thing she can use to harm herself

It sounds really awful, but neither me nor my wife have actively encouraged her. She has found her way all by herself. It was not until evening, when she went to bed, that we could really start working. By then Lunda had joined us, and we were building up severe pressure in the kitchen of Simon's parents.

First of all, we measured up the cloth. The tent is made up by triangles with a base of 160 centimetres, and a height of 344 centimetres, so we started working on the floor, cutting the cloth into what we wanted. It was clear that these tents will be a lot bigger than our previous ones, which is a good thing. Now we will finally have enough space for everyone. And then the stitching commenced. And it went on until 2 in the morning...

We continued for some hours the next day, but the tent was only about half finished. That gives us the opportunity to meet again in april to finish it, and to have another fantastic time. Thanks guys, and Simon's parents, for a great weekend with excellent food, lots of laughs and good company.

Woodworker

On another note, I've finally started to work on a couple of chests. I bought the wood years and years ago - fine oak from the northern parts of Skåne - and thanks to Daniel of Fraternis Militia Carnis, who is a woodwork teacher at a school nearby, I have access to a fully equipped workshop. Furthermore, he can advise me when I am about to make terrible mistakes - as you all know, I am not a craftsman, so these mistakes do happen, more often than not.

I have been shaving about 50% of the planks (no, not with a razor but with a plane - not a flying one, but one that you use to make wood smooth), and they look severely nice. I am content the chests will be really sweet as soon as they are finished.

Magnus, also from Fraternis Militia Carnis, has been nice enough to show me his thoughts on construction. He and I looked through about a 100 pics of chests from my PC, and then we shared ideas. As he seems to be better at "constructive thinking", he eventually sketched up a blue print for our chests. Both his and my chests will be constructed in a similar way, so it was good to have the opinion of someone more "crafty".

There is a lot of work to be done when building a chest, I'll tell you. I'll be posting some pics now and then, as my work progresses. Stay tuned!

I am a tent maker, episode 01

Today I am leaving town to go with some of the other guys of Albrechts Bössor to the small town Kivik, which is located in the absolute south of Sweden. We are going to hand-stitch a new tent at Simon's place. The guys in the "northern section", around Stockholm, are going to do the same, which means that we will finally have lots of space when going on events.

I searched high and low for good fabric, and I finally found a sturdy, white linen. It is cloth for making sails, more or less, and will live through most weathers.

We will be making the same old tents that we alreday have three of. They are called bell-tents by some. They resemble a teepee, and they are the only tents, except for regular pavilions and some other tent types with a frame, that I have seen during our period. There are LOADS of pics of pavilion, but more or less NO pics of tents of smaller type - soldier's tents. We feel it would be inapropriate if common soldiers lived in a pavilion; lots of things point to that tents weren't very common at all during the 14th century, even for officers. It is more likely that soldiers took shelter where ever they could, and if they didn't find a roof, they would simply sleep under the sky, wrapped up in blankets. That is my opinion.

But. As most reenactors are utter weaklings (including me and most of my friends), we choose to have tents. And to make it credible, we only have tents that we could transport ourselves. This makes the teepee-tent ideal for our needs, as it is very easy to put up and to put down, and it is light to carry. There is no need to bring the center pole; as long as you know how tall it needs to be, you can simply grab the nearest fence pole of appropriate length and - voila!

I have been looking forward to this meeting a long time now, and it will be glorious to meet the guys again. I have a feeling it will be a great weekend, filled with good friends, laughter, stitches, hard work, sweating, snapping needles, swearing, cursing and at least five different "I hate this crap! I give up! I'm going home!". Then again - there will be pizza and beer... And I will be getting away from Växjö for a while :-)

Med brinnande lunta..?

Maybe it's time to tell those of you that does not speak Swedish what the blog name means. It is actually a part of conditions for surrender, meaning that if you can surrender in this manner, you are not beaten, but can march off with pride and fighting spirit, ready to strike back. The full sentence reads: "Med brinnande lunta, flygande fanor och kula i munnen" and is translated into: "With burning slow match, flying banners and a bullet in the mouth." The bullet in the mouth part is for quick reload; when you fire your first round, all you have to do is top up with powder and spit the bullet into the muzzle. Then you are more or less ready for another go.

Needle case and a freaking oud

One of my friends contacted me the other day. We usually chat on the msn or on the phone, and give each other advice on stuff medieval. He is a goldsmith by trade (he made my wedding ring, among other things), and he knows a lot about crafting, so I sometimes ask him when I need to know. As I stated - I am not a craftsman. I am a reading man. And that is why my friend contacted me. I can't help out much, but what I can do is get 14th century manuscript pictures of most stuff imaginable. So he told me:
"I've got a challenge for you! I bet you can't come up with a picture of an oud."
"What the...?"
"Yeah. It's like a lute used in islamic cultures. They used it in southern Europe as well during the 14th century."

I smiled. I smiled because I recently saw a picture of the instrument he was after in a French manuscript. So I promptly sent it to him by mail. Just to show him.
"Check your inbox." I told him. His msn was still. No messages in sight. He paused. I waited. Finally:
"OK. Thanks. Splendid work! Talk to you later!"
And that was that. I felt good. Challenge-Schmallenge!

Some day later he phoned me, and said:
"Hey. You know you always get me sources on everything?"
"Yeah?"
"Well, me and Stefan really appreciate it, and we would like to do something for you in return."
"No need, but thanks." He ignored me.
"I heard someone lost his needle case last summer." I frowned.
"It was actually my wife..."
"Blame whoever you wish. Still it's gone, right?"
"True."
"We'll make you one. Get me a source on a nice one, and you'll have it in your hand before spring."

I was deeply touched. I really was. And then I started to look for sources. And you know what? Despite of all my bragging, I still haven't found a good source...

If you have a good source on an extant needle case in metal, preferrably from Scandinavia or northern Germany - please tell me!

A new year

I hope you all had good holidays. I was out travelling through Sweden to meet the family and the friends. It seemed easy enough, but it eventually turned out to be a two week long odyssey, with little time for rest.

First of all, I would like to write a short notice on the upcoming Burns' Night. It seems sheep entrails are considered non-edible by the Swedish ministry of health - and that means that you can only get them through more or less unofficial channels, like your friends, and not through butcher's shops. This means that I probably can't get the ingredients for my haggis :-(, and THAT means you won't get to read yucky details on my second attempt :-)

Fear not. Soon I will present a heap of new stuff - upcoming kettle hat, made by Ralph Snel, a bagpipe, made by Thorsten Stoye, pics of my "new" shoes and my new coat, plus pics of an upcoming gorget made by Simon Lundqvist.

I will also report on the making of new greaves, and of me not going on the Albrechts Bössor winter march.

Stay tuned!