Woodworking in Viking days

Hi All

Well Kens post on the wood carvers in Sweden got me searching for a picture to show the carvers i saw in Africa. Could not find the picture but found pictures i took (poor ones) of the time I spent in Denmark at the Viking Museum. Better than my pictures is a link I found for the museum on the web here

http://vikingeskibsmuseet.dk/index.php?id=1386&L=1

The site has some really good info on the boats and the restoration they are doing to Viking boat remains they uncovered in the Fjords around those parts.

We have all grown up with holywoods version or the cartoon version of Hagar the horribles Viking boat. It is always shown running with the wind with the sail full as if it were a spinnaker. Well this museum had a bunch of enthusiasts build a few Viking boats in a completely authentic manner. Same tools and materials of the time. They then set out to do sea trials of the boats and test to see if the boats could beat. (for those not familiar with sailing, beating is sailing 45 degrees into the wind.)
The reason being to cross from Europe to North America they had to be able to beat. So the big question was how did they perform.

Turns out really well. Take a look at the site specifically the exhibitions section and see the various designs of boats from that time.

There were big issues at the time I was there with preserving the wood from the boat carcasses found in the mud at the bottom of the fjords. They created small card board cut outs for each piece and then proceeded to pin them on a frame to see where they all went.

Story goes some old Viking tried to blockade a entrance by scuttling a number of boats in the fjord entrance way. The find was a very lucky one because it allowed for modern man to gain awareness as to the variety of types of ships built in those days.

Hope some of you find it interesting. Sorry no pics of my own, tried scanning them and they are not worth posting still taken back in the days of the instamatic.

Thanks a lot Rob!

That's very cool, Rob. My brother-in-law is an avid Viking re-enactor, so I'll have to make sure he sees that site.

Here are a couple pics of our version of Viking woodwork in the modern days. I did the cutting and mortising...he did the ornamentation and finishing.

Vaughn, your BIL's wive must be a very understanding woman My wife wouldn't let that in the house! She would say "I'll have nightmares" It's cool looking though!

Royall Clark said:

Vaughn, your BIL's wive must be a very understanding woman My wife wouldn't let that in the house! She would say "I'll have nightmares" It's cool looking though!

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He's single (big surprise) but we made the bed and several other similar pieces for his Viking encampment. He and his fellow re-enactors get paid to participate in festivals and lecture at schools, so they have a pretty extensive set-up with tents, tables, chairs, sword and spear racks, etc. I know he talked about using the bed frame at home instead of putting it in storage, but I'm not sure if he's doing that or not.