Tools of the Trades: Dumb as a...

I don't know if it's a real memory or something my adolescent brain concocted after the fact, but I remember a day when my grandpa swore that something or someone was "Dumb as a bag of hammers." Being a kid that took an inordinate amount of joy from the tools grandpa let him use, in the memory I told him I didn't understand why that would be dumb. I couldn't think of anything better than a Whole Bag of Hammers!

I'm mostly suspicious of the memory because it makes me sound rather more precocious and clever than I suspect that I really was. It's one of the oddments of life that you can't always trust your own memories, but there you go.

Be that as it may, I still get an inordinate amount of joy out of my tools. And now that I actually have enough hammers to fill a bag, I can tell you from the bottom of my heart that this apocryphal memory holds a kernal of truth: There really aren't many things cooler than a Whole Bag of Hammers.

I suppose that some of you are, quite correctly, pointing out that there's also a half dozen mallets in that bag. All the same, there are enough hammers to make the bag rather heavier than I'd like to tote around.

For the record, this isn't an example of excess. Each of those hammers (and mallets) has a specific purpose to which it is best suited. It is enormously frustrating to me to watch someone use the wrong hammer for their task. Or, worse yet, to use something else like a wrench in place of a hammer.

My wife thinks I need to seek professional help.

Believe it or not, there is a distinct difference between a claw hammer, a rip hammer, and a ball peen hammer. The face of each hammer is shaped to best suit the task for which it was intended, and the temper of the metal as well. Try to form metal with a claw hammer and you'll get a good idea why you shouldn't, no matter what Jamie from Mythbusters might wish you to believe. Will a hammer explode on you if you're using it wrong? No, that's a bit silly. But you will expend more energy than you would if you went to the toolbox and got the correct tool.

It's difficult to choose favorites, but if you put my feet to the fire, I think the shoemaker's hammer you see above is my favorite. Aesthetically, it's just intrinsically pleasing. Like the distilled cartoony ideal of the essence of hammerness. It's shape and the domed face are designed for shaping shoeleather, condensing the leather and forcing it down over the last without damaging or marring the finish.

The horn hammer underneath it is also a leatherworking tool used by mask makers for much the same purpose. The point of the horn forces leather down into the voids of the mask matrix as it condenses and hardens the leather. This also has the charming effect of dimpling the leather, giving the mask a characteristic look you can't get otherwise. 

These mallets serve various purposes. Top is a felloe mallet. These were originally used and made by wheelwrights, who would cut them from old sections of wheel. These sections are properly called "felloes". Pop a handle on it and sell it to your fellow craftsmen and you've got a lucrative sideline. Like most woodworkers, I use mine for carving and whacking chisels.

Next one down is a rawhide mallet. That head is made from rolled rawhide leather that has been varnished into a nice, hard, mallet head. The resultant head is hard enough to drive a chisel if you've a mind to, but not hard enough to knock a dent into wood. I bought it to use on leather tools, but since I rarely tool my leathergoods, it's mostly used in cabinetmaking.

The two gavel-looking mallets are also for cabinetmaking. They're used to knock together mortise and tenon joinery and also to set the blades in wood-body planes. I'll discuss those a lot more when we're in the joinery section of the project.

Of course, these are but a few of the mallets and hammers I'll use in the course of this year. Ball-peen hammers, blacksmithing and sheet metal hammers, even a mason's rock hammer. All of them serve a specific purpose, and have evolved over centuries, even millennia, into their current shapes.

So give a care to the humble hammer and choose the correct one for your task. Both you and your project will thank you.

Oh, and keep them in a toolbox. Don't keep them in a bag. Because grandpa was right; that is kinda dumb.

~Scott

My kingdom for a horse: An Incomplete History of the Shaving Horse

I have a pile of oak staves waiting to be turned into something useful, a razor-sharp draw knife in my hand and a far away look in my eye. Like almost all of my best hand tools, the knife was left to me by my grandpa, who taught me an enormous amount about how to make wood do what I want it to.

I was always a little afraid of the draw knife.  In no small part, this was because the way my dad and grandpa used it seemed weird and unsafe. In fact, I said so once and got in trouble for my cheek.  Grandpa and dad tended to brace the piece of wood they were shaving between their stomachs and a table and scrape away.

They never cut themselves. Never even came close as far as I know. This might've been because they wore heavy jackets, but it was probably a combination of the way you hold a drawknife and the breadth of the blade, they might not even have been in any danger of doing so, but it still seems to me to be an unnecessary risk.

When I inherited grandpa's drawknife, it was put away until I built a proper shaving horse.  Because though dad and grandpa lived charmed lives (at least where draw knives are concerned) I do not. I'm clumsy and need to stack the odds in my favor.

What? You thought this would be a history of the shaving horse rather than a history of why I think I need one?

Fine, be that way.

Image Source: Wikimedia Commons

The picture above is the stereotypical shaving horse from a 19th century book of trades.

The shaving horse is a key element of the cooper's art and mystery. It is, in effect, a foot-powered vice designed to hold wooden slats as they are shaped. The user straddles what amounts to a modified sawhorse with their feet on the pegs at the bottom of a timber that is hinged where it passes through the top of the horse. 

Note: Sadly, the hovering shaving horse didn't pan out, so I put legs on mine.

By pushing away with your feet you apply pressure to the top of a slanted portion of the horse, pinching your workpiece in place.

Here's a picture and you should go back and watch the video of the cooper at Colonial Williamsburg that I posted last week to see it in action. 

So much safer than holding the stave against your tummy.  Don't worry, mom, I'll be wearing a leather apron anyway. 

Just in case.

Is it period-appropriate for a 16th century cooper?

I was a bit surprised to discover that this is a controversial question in certain circles.

A rudimentary shaving horse is depicted in use in the 1556 book De Re Metallica. For the record, it's shown being utilized by a miner to make bertte, a wood billet with shavings left attached to be used as fire-starters. In the case of the miners in the etching, to light fires in a mine to fracture rock.

Bertie makes the best bertte in all of Bavaria!

The bertte maker is the image of a shaving horse most bandied about in these discussions online. And I thought it might be the only one in existance until I paged through the Mendel Hausbuch and noticed that half the coopers in the book are using a shaving horse of some sort.

                                                                                                                         Photo Source: Stadtbibliothek Nuernberg 

So there's a cooper at work, his tools in the background, including a shaving horse. Case closed as far as I'm concerned. More pictures of the same foot vice here and here. Since the monk in the second image is using his as a sort of ersatz workbench, you can see the whole thing in profile, including the arrangement of the foot pedal and vice dog.

This is mine...

It's worth nothing that none of the shaving horses I've found have the angled surface that mine (and every other shaving horse I've ever seen) has. That slanted piece makes shaving with knife or spokeshave easier, but would preclude using the horse as a work surface as that second monk was doing.

It might be a later addition to the design; I'm not sure and don't have any data one way or the other on that topic. Mine has the slanted second level and I'm not planning to remove it so we'll make a note of it and move on.

~Scott

----

I was flipping through NetFlix videos and found an episode of Dirty Jobs where he learned to make a wine barrel. Hilarity ensues...
http://videos.howstuffworks.com/discovery/27751-dirty-jobs-building-a-barrel-video.htm

News: Plus Stuff and Tools and OMG all the STUFF!!!

Beard = Serious Scholar

I've been silent for awhile as I do important things like acquire hard-to-find tools, rare books, and grow a new beard (very important, I am told for these historical research projects). Seriously, I've been travelling all over the country, visiting family, haunting antique stores, and generally ramp up the behind-the-scenes portions of this effort and tie off a bunch of projects both personally and professionally that will be on-hold while I'm doing this.

I seriously think that at some point in the recent past all of the antique tools in America were loaded in trucks and hauled to rural Missouri.

My studio is starting to look like Brueghel's Satire of a Merchant's Greed.  Which might be the nerdiest reference I've made in recent memory... Also, Amazon has started sending me emails that say things like "Special sale for our customers who like hammers..."

Yes.

Oh, and while doing this, I've been applying and interviewing for a full-time job at the college where I am currently working part-time. Which will seriously change the dynamic of this project if I get it.

And I really hope I do get it. Not because a potential background checker might see this post but because it sounds like an awesome job that I'd really enjoy that would allow me to actually use the skills I paid tuition dollars to learn.

(Gasp!)

I bring this up because I haven't before, and we need to start this with everyone knowing that I will be fitting this project in the spaces around my "Real Life". Yes, I will be "getting 500 years behind" in my free time, which is an unfortunately limited commodity. This project is about pursuing my deep and abiding desire to LEARN ALL THE THINGS (as we say on the interwebs) not about putting food on the table, so anything that pays will inevitably take first chair.

Image Inserted to Meet the guidelines set forth in the International Treaty 

for Internet Meme Propagation, 921.4, section C, subsection L9

The upshot being that I might actually be ready for this.

(Panics and runs to re-check that everything is in order for the umpteen millionth time.)

Chateau de Guedelon: A medieval castle for the modern era

My friend Jon reminded me the other day of this effort to build a castle in France using artisans pursuing only the period techniques circa 1200 or so.  There was a BBC article updating the world on their progress recently (link below) and it's always something to learn from things like this.

The craftsmanship is amazing, the dedication astounding. It predates my project by hundreds of years, but nonetheless... wow.

Recent BBC coverage:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10440300

The Official Website (English edition):
http://www.guedelon.fr/en/

The article on Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gu%C3%A9delon_Castle

Some videos from YouTube:

The Livery Companies: A list in progress

This is a work in progress, with the beginnings of details and possible projects being sketched out along with critical resources for completion.  All advice, feedback, and suggestions of source material are appreciated at this stage of things.

Not all of the projects will happen in this order and not all are set in stone. Everything is an idea at this point and I'm not done with the list either. (Hey, I still have a few months, right?) Nevertheless, I'm looking for all the help I can get.

Critical Online Source for Background info: The Records of London's Livery Companies Online:  Apprentices and Freemen 1400-1900 http://www.londonroll.org/about

Section 1.01: What shall we eat?

(a)     The Worshipful Company of Salters
Modern Iteration: http://www.salters.co.uk/

The salters began in the manufacture and trade of salt, a key commodity in a time when salt-curing was the only real way to preserve meat for any length of time.

" By the fourteenth century, salt was an essential commodity in England. It was used mainly for preserving meat and fish before the advent of tin cans and refrigeration. Other uses included any operation where ‘chemical’ action was required, such as cleaning, dyeing fabric, bleaching, degreasing, dehairing and softening leather and in the formulation of medicines and ointments.  As well as dealing in salt, Salters were experts in the dry salting of fish and meat and also dealt with flax, hemp, logwood, cochineal, potashes and chemical preparations. The modern day association of The Salters’ Company with chemistry and science can therefore be traced right back to its roots."

- From the modern guild's website

Project: Curing meat. Make some bacon.

(b)    The Worshipful Company of Grocers
Modern Iteration: http://www.grocershall.co.uk/

Originally the Guild of Pepperers, the grocers became the merchant guild supporting the importation and sale of bulk foodstuffs.Projects: Wheat -- from the field to the ovens. Also the tao of peppercorns.

(c)     The Worshipful Company of Fishmongers
Modern Iteration: http://www.fishhall.org.uk/

The Fishmongers were granted a royal monopoly on the sale of fish in the city of London in 1399 by Richard II. Through most of the period before the Reformation, Three days a week were 'fast days' not counting Lent, making fish (not considered a meat by doctrinal standards) a supremely lucrative market to corner.

Project: Get on a boat and go catch a fish.  No, really. Out to sea with you! Then bring it home and cook it.

(d)    The Worshipful Company of Brewers
Modern Iteration: http://www.brewershall.co.uk/

Brewers brewed beer on an industrial scale, setting the standards and trade practices for an important comestible in the days before water purification. Historians estimate that northern Europeans drank an average of three liters of beer a day; it was of widely variant alcohol content (hence Henry VI proposing that drinking 'small beer' be a crime in Shakespeare's play) but that's still a lot of beer.
Research Note: Strangely, the spectacles makers first aligned under the brewer's banner before being granted their own charter in the next century.

Project: Period beer brewed in a proper oak barrel. Maybe some spectacles as a bonus project?

(e)     The Worshipful Company of Bakers
Modern Iteration: http://www.bakers.co.uk/ 
The other half of the twin staples of the medieval and renaissance diet: bread and beer, the bakers were immensely powerful in early modern society. Most villagers could not afford an oven of their own, so communal ovens were often created or the village baker would bake the loaves of the village goodwives for a nominal fee.

Note: The function and nature of yeast was not understood until the latter half of the 18th century. The brewers and bakers worked together in this mystery, the bakers obtaining their yeast from the brewers stocks as often as from natural sources such as apple trees, oddly enough.
Project: Build a wood-fired oven and bake some bread

(f)      The Worshipful Company of Cooks
Modern Iteration: http://www.cookslivery.org.uk/

Near and dear to my foodie heart (especially considering the inspiration of this project) this is also the smallest of the livery companies, the cooks were a confederation of those who made food for others.

Project: Cooking in ceramic vessels over open flames. (Demo)Project: Cooking in ceramic vessels over open flames. (Demo)

(g)     The Worshipful Company of Butchers
Modern Iteration: www.butchershall.com/ (website currently inactive 09/21/2012)

They are just as you might think they are, those who guide and control the slaughter of livestock and the sale of their meat. A crucial force in a time before refrigeration, it was the butchers who held their members responsible for selling meats that had been properly cured or freshly killed and punished those who sold bad meat to the detriment of public health.

Project: Meat in the Elizabethan diet. Cooking demo on the rotisserie.

(h)    The Worshipful Company of Poulterers
Modern Iteration: http://www.poulters.org.uk/

The poulters were responsible in much the same way as the butchers for the regulation of trade and husbandry for all poultry, including chickens, ducks, swans, pigeons, as well as rabbits.
Project: Count your chickens before they hatch.

(i)      The Worshipful Company of Fruiterers
Modern Iteration: http://www.fruiterers.org.uk/

The orchards and gardens of England produced many fruits for the tables of the renaissance. The fruiterers governed the trade and quality of the fruits both fresh and preserved imported into the city.
Project: Cider from the tree to the press to the bottle.  Get thee to Yakima!

Section 1.02 What shall we wear?

(a)     The Worshipful Company of Dyers
Modern Iteration: http://www.dyerscompany.co.uk/

Those who held and protected the mysteries of dyed cloth and traded in the dyestuffs used for same.Project: Experiment with period dyestuffs, maybe a madder and an indigo.

(b)    The Worshipful Company of Clothworkers
Modern Iteration: http://www.clothworkers.co.uk/

The combination of the Shearmen and the Fullers, combining two aspects of the creation of woolen cloth. Taking the woolens from the weaver and then fulling and trimming it into the material used for darn near everything in the 16th century.

Project: Time for a discussion of the many period forms of woolen cloth available in the 16th century and how they differ from the modern ideas of wool.

(c)     The Worshipful Company of Merchant Tailors
Modern Iteration: http://www.merchant-taylors.co.uk/

Tailors and creators of clothing, both made to measure and off the rack (though little of it was off the rack unless it was used, the province of the fripperer.)
Project: Patter drafting and draping techniques with Joel Reid, who has graciously volunteered.

(d)    The Worshipful Company of Skinners
Modern Iteration: http://www.skinnershall.co.uk/

Trade in furs and the management of the trade of furs and fur garments in a time when the wearing or possession of same could be a crime.

Projects: Zibellini and the Victorian imagination -- the myth of the flea fur.

(e)     The Worshipful Company of Mercers
Modern Iteration: http://www.mercers.co.uk/
See the Haberdasher's, below.

Project: ??? Yeah, not sure about this one.

(f)      The Worshipful Company of Drapers
Modern Iteration: http://www.thedrapers.co.uk

See the Haberdasher's, below.

Project: ???

(g)     The Worshipful Company of Haberdashers
Modern Iteration: http://www.haberdashers.co.uk/

Three associations of merchants and purveyors of cloth, the Mercers, Drapers, and Haberdashers are weirdly intertwined and overlapping, often to the point of creating confusion even in their own ranks.  The haberdashers at least had a focus on sewing supplies, needles, pins, and cetera.
This one will be a dawdle to demonstrate, but a b**** to explain in a non-wonky manner.

Great Google Books source material here.
Project: Create and demonstrate the proper use of period sewing kit and various basic tradegoods.

(h)    The Worshipful Company of Leathersellers
Modern Iteration: http://www.leathersellers.co.uk/

A guild that controls the sale of leather goods and inspects every hide and leather good in London to verify quality and origin, punishing imposters who attempt to substitute one skin for another. This gives them control over the crucial supplies that are the lifeblood of  those whose livelihoods require leather, including the Cordwainers, Curriers, Girdlers, Glovers, Glovers, and Saddlers as well as some of the ancillary goods that arise from the manufacture of leather, such as the Tallow Chandlers.

It's interesting to note that despite their prominence on the Leatherseller's website, the making of leather bottles was the province of the Horners Company.

General leatherworking. Gloves or a purse, perhaps?

(i)       The Worshipful Company of Girdlers
Modern Iteration: http://www.girdlers.co.uk/

Makers of luxury goods: fine belts for the gentry, including sword belts and hangers.

Project: Swordhanger.a cloth one Discussion: The myth of the Hollywood BIG BUCKLE SWASHBUCKLER BELT.

(j)      The Worshipful Company of Cordwainers
Modern Iteration: http://www.cordwainers.org/

Fine leather used in the production of shoes and other luxury goods, mostly from cordovan, a goat leather developed in Spain and considered to be the finest available in the period.

Projects: Shoes -- Need to track down and get an introduction to a proper shoemaker working in a period style and methodology.

(k)    The Worshipful Company of Weavers (The Most Ancient)
Modern Iteration: http://www.weavers.org.uk/history

Quite possibly the earliest craft mastered by human hands, the weavers style themselves "The Most Ancient" for good reason.  Originally the most powerful of all the textile guilds, the weavers waned in power as the specialist textile guilds rose: the mercers especially.
Projects: Warm up that loom that's in the living room.

(l)      The Worshipful Company of Woolmen
Modern Iteration: http://www.woolmen.com/

Spinning, sheep, and selling raw wool. Wool was England's strongest and most important industry up to the Industrial revolution. "So concerned was Queen Elizabeth I about the wool trade that she had Parliament make everyone over the age of six (except the wealthiest) wear on Sundays "a cap of wool knit and dressed in England". Under Charles II Parliament passed a law requiring coffins to be lined in fleece and shrouds to be made of wool. Later, carriages had to be lined with it." - Guild website

Project: Herding, Shearing, Carding, and Spinning. THEN, knit something because the knitters never formed a guild and deserve some notice. A nice hat, perhaps.

(m)  The Worshipful Company of Curriers
Modern Iteration: http://www.curriers.co.uk/

Those who cured leather for eventual use by others to create trade goods.
Project: Cure a hide? I am so very much not looking forward to this one.

(n)    The Worshipful Company of Broderers
Modern Iteration: http://www.broderers.co.uk/

The broderers were artists in thread, the embroiderers who adorned everything from tapestries to clothing, even creating home embroidery kits reminiscent of modern cross stitch kits.
Stitch demos, simple blackwork

Section 1.03 Makers of Hard Goods

(a)     The Worshipful Company of Pewterers

Project: Soapstone casting -- make a pendant or a hat badge.

(b)    The Worshipful Company of GoldsmithsIncluded workers in silver.

Project: Yeah, I still dunno.

(c)     The Worshipful Company of Cutlers

Project: Hilt an eating knife or cooking knife?

(d)    The Worshipful Company of Wax Chandlers

Project: Beekeeping and wax candles.

(e)     The Worshipful Company of Tallow Chandlers

Project: Rushlights! LARD; it's not just for dinner anymore.

(f)      The Worshipful Company of Armorers & Brasiers

(g)     The Worshipful Company of Saddlers
Modern Iteration: http://www.saddlersco.co.uk

Obvious, isn't it? They made saddles but not usually tack.
Project: No ideas. All of the horse-related items together in one. I think I might need to discuss this with Neb & Gordon first. They're the most knowledgeable people I know about these things...             

(i)     Loriners (edited)- Makers of tack. A Loriner produced horse furnishings in leather, fabric and metal such as traces, bridles, bits and spurs. (via Leatherworking Rev)

I didn't know that bit about the spurs, but it certainly makes sense. Their status as an independent entity is uncertain (to me) at this time, but tied to the saddlers.

(h)    The Worshipful Company of Founders (Brass and Bronze)

Project: Lost wax casting in Brass.

(i)      The Worshipful Company of Coopers

Project: Make a Mary Rose stein and maybe a butter churn.

(j)      The Worshipful Company of Bowyers

Project: Visit Patrick's Friend. Maybe a trip to Maryland?

(k)    The Worshipful Company of fletchers
Project: Learn to shoot the bow and arrow from Robin Hood. Yes, Robin Hood. If he will deign to teach me, of course...

(l)      The Worshipful Company of Joiners & Ceilerers

Project: The hand-jointed X-chair sans nails.

(m)  The Worshipful Company of Stationers

Project: Making paper.

(n)    The Worshipful Company of Upholders

Project: Upholster an X-chair?

(o)    The Worshipful Company of Turners

Project: Human-powered lathe

(p)    The Worshipful Company of Basketmakers

Project: Weave a basket, of course.

(q)    The Worshipful Company of Glaziers

Project: Glass in an Elizabethan home.

(r)     The Worshipful Company of Horners (And Bottlers)

Project: Beaker, Spoon, leather Bottel

Section 1.04 Services & Labor

(a)     The Worshipful Company of Barbers

(b)    The Worshipful Company of Carpenters

Making period nails and assembling something with them. Perhaps a nice chest or something?

(c)     The Worshipful Company of Painter-Stainers

(d)    The Worshipful Company of Blacksmiths

Make some stuff: Pinking chisels, stonemason's chisels, hinges, hasps, etcetera...

                (i)     Farriers are still in the mix in this period, I think. Once again, I should email Gordon for leads on this one...

(e)     The Worshipful Company of Masons

Projects: Carve a Mortar & Pestle? Not really a mason's main gig, but still it's pretty fiddly as stonecutting goes...

(f)      The Worshipful Company of Plumbers

(g)     The Worshipful Company of Innholders

(h)    The Worshipful Company of Tilers & Bricklayers

Project: Build a brick hearth for the back yard.

(i)      The Worshipful Company of Scriveners

Project: Quills, inks, and the strange mysteries of Elizabethan secretary script.

(j)      The Worshipful Company of Plaisterers

Project: Would this include plaster moulding or maybe just painting a fresco?

(k)    The Worshipful Company of Musicians

Project: Recorder lessons

Progress Report: Volunteers and A Growing Library

Research is a drug for me. Mostly because it means acquiring more books and shoehorning them into the groaning shelves of my home library.

Comments on Facebook have inspired me to move forward and post the bibliography of books I've been consulting here on the blog. To keep it from getting lost, it will be added as a "page" (the tabs across the top of the blog).

I will post links when I can to places like Project Gutenberg and the Internet Archive where available.

At the moment, my reading is dominated by textiles, blacksmithing, and food.  A reading list that has raised the eyebrow of many a local librarian, let me tell you.

As we get closer to the start of the project, these posts will generally have a single topic, but for the moment, I'm all over the place trying to line things up before January.

In the spring edition of Piecework magazine's "Knitting Traditions" special, The Engineer found a lovely article on knitting and knitted goods of the 16th century, focusing on the 'Monmouth cap', mentioned by Shakespeare in Henry V, it is a knitted and fulled wool cap that was favored by laborers, soldiers, and sailors of the period. Pretty much anyone who needed to keep their ears warm.

I will be learning to knit as part of this and it's all I can do not to cheat and practice ahead of time so as not to make a total fool of myself come time to do it for the project. The Engineer has bravely stepped forward to teach me how to do this.

She is a brave, brave woman.

Looking at the photos in the article, I could wear a cap like this through any shopping mall in America and no one would bat an eyelash.  It's amazing how persistent a simple, elegant design can be.

Speaking of the simple things that haven't changed much, I tagged along when my friend and colleague Cory recently brewed a batch of beer in his kitchen. Other than the occasional brewery tour, I've never really watched the process of brewing up close.

The processes of brewing were pretty much established in medieval times and hasn't changed greatly. As I am finding in many cases, it's mostly a matter of refining the recipes for modern tastes (not to mention production on an industrial scale) but the technology we use in modern brewing is just a surrogate for the exact same processes the monks were using in the 12th century.

Oh, and I suppose we actually know what yeast is, so we have that going for us.

Cory also has a line on a Tacoma brewer that's doing small-batch brewing in barrels! So I'm one step closer on that front as well.  I'm sure we'll be seeing more of Cory in the course of this project. The man knows everybody!

Also, I have a firm commitment to demonstrate the art of the Merchant Tailor. Yes, I am a costumer, but I costume for myself, which is a different animal entirely from clothing another. Therefore, I have prevailed upon Seattle costumer Joel Reid to demonstrate the subtle arts of fitting period garments and discuss with us the foundations of Elizabethan dress. As soon as he has a website available, I shall link to it.

Mental Note: Even more than a list of links, I really need a cast of characters, don't I?

Also, I have several lines on gold/silver smiths, bowyers, blacksmiths, and armourers but cannot announce those folks until I have a hard commitment.  Anyone know where I can find a good 16th century barber surgeon?

Off to do more research before the weekend's honey-do list steals me away!

-Scott

Planning ahead: A Bread Oven

A lot of this project is going to involve planning ahead to have the facilities set up to do the tasks I need to perform in order to check something off my list. One of the things I'll need is a place to perform cooking and baking and the first step on that road is building an oven.

A wood-fired oven, to be exact.

I have no affiliation with these fine folks, but I am a big fan of the wares sold by the historical wares sold by Jas Townsend and was delighted when a friend sent me this video, along with the many others they've put up in a series dedicated to breathing life into a kitchen of the 1800's.

More after the video...



It is interesting to me that cooking changed so little between the 14th century and the 19th. The Jas Townsend folks concentrate in the 1800's, but the oven they made in that video would be right at home in any renaissance village.

This is, essentially, the oven I am planning to build in my back garden.  (BTW: I checked with The Engineer and she's cool with it because after the project, we'll use it to make woodfired pizza. Ohhhhh yeah.)

But before I can start planning any pizza parties, I have to build the darn thing.

Project List:

• "Shed" roof to protect the worksite from the Washington rains.
• Source refractory brick for the base.
• Sourcing clay, sand, straw
• Building the oven.

Sourcebooks: 
English Bread and Yeast Cookery by Elizabeth David

Build Your Own Earth Oven, 3rd Edition by Kiko Denzer
The Bread Builders: Hearth Loaves and Masonry Ovens by Daniel Wing

Various baking and recipe books.