Primitive Method is a blog on Ganoksin, covering my studies in
jewellery from the early medieval period, with a particular focus on
the Vikings and Anglo-Saxons.
http://primitive.ganoksin.com/blogs/
It’s been a busy month for me. My library is growing fast, I’ve done
almost all the research for my basic toolkit, and I’m about to get a
quote for converting my outbuilding into a workshop.Last month I was
hungrily looking at lists of books, and I took the plunge, spending
about UKP 80 on five books through Amazon. And that’s just the
beginning!
My Amazon wishlist is three pages long already! The books I bought
are:
-
“Mappae Clavicula” - A Little Key to the World of Medieval
Techniques translated by C. S. Smith and J. G. Hawthorne -
“The Mystermyr Find” - A Viking Age Tool Chest from Gotland by G.
Arwidsson and G. Berg -
“Theophilus - On Divers Arts” by Smith and Hawthorne* “The
Treatises of Benvenuto Cellini on Goldsmithing and Sculpture”
translated by C. R. Ashbee -
“Georgius Agricola” - De Re Metallica translated by H. C. & L. H.
Hoover
I’ve started the process of reviewing the books, but it’s slow
going, because I do, of course, have to read them first. So far, I’ve
reviewed Theophilus and Cellini.I feel a little silly, because I
misunderstood some of the advice I was given, and ordered “Agricola -
De Re Metallica” when I should have ordered “De Re Metallica - edited
by Robert Bork”. I hope you agree that it’s an easy mistake to make,
and Agricola’s work is still interesting as it covers refining,
smelting and similar processes - perhaps not directly useful to me,
but very relevant to the subject.I’ve written posts on various tools:
Wiremaking Tools, Files, Gravers and Punches. I also put up a post on
my tests for pickle. I’ve still got a lot of ground to cover with
tools,= like saws, polishing equipment, touchstones and many others
(not forgetting safety equipment), but I’m going to start putting
together a toolkit and converting my outbuildings to a workshop in
May. I’ve done my first scavenging run for tools, at my dad’s
workshop, and that has yielded quite a lot, although most of them
need cleaning up. More on that next month.
Jamie
