wood-msg

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wood-msg - 2/8/08

Different types of wood, period terms.

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From: corliss at hal.PHysics.wayne.EDU (David J. Corliss)

Newsgroups: rec.org.sca

Subject: Oak and ash: a thorny question

Date: 2 Mar 1994 11:39:55 -0500

As an answer to the question: "What wood is used for spear shafts and axe

hafts" in the Viking Age quiz, it was written:

> Ash or Oak

Allow me to be more specific. We must recall that there are many differents

kinds of ashes and oaks, including cork (oak). The answer should be (my opinion

only): _Black_ Ash (now used for poles for pole vaulting, baseball bats, etc)

and _White_ Oak. All oaks have natural open spaces in the wood. Some are so

extensive that they leave no strength (see cork, above). In white oak, these

voids are filled with the glue that holds the wood fibers together to form the

tree. Thus, it is exceptionally strong.

While on the subject, white oak is a pain in the neck to work (by hand) and so

is not used except when neccessary. Red oak is the variety most commonly found

in this country. In the middle ages, black oak was generally used. However,

the differences between black oak and red oak are so slight that lumber yards

make no distinction. (Red is New World; black was brought over by early

colonists.) I am informed that about 10% of all wood sold as "red oak" in the

U.S. is, in fact, black oak. Thus, red oak should be the oak of choice in our

recreations, except when another is specifically required in a particular

project.

Beorthwine

From: ayotte at milo.NOdak.EDU (Robert Arthur Ayotte)

Newsgroups: rec.org.sca

Subject: Re: Oak and ash: a thorny question

Date: 3 Mar 1994 13:54:46 -0500

Organization: North Dakota State University ACM, Fargo ND

In article <9403021634.AA10282 at hal.physics.wayne.edu> you wrote:

: As an answer to the question: "What wood is used for spear shafts and axe

: hafts" in the Viking Age quiz, it was written:

: > Ash or Oak

: While on the subject, white oak is a pain in the neck to work (by hand) andso

: is not used except when neccessary.

: .......... This has been a public service message from the Middle

: Kingdom College of Sciences...........

: Beorthwine

Howdy from Horace one time MoS/A for a smallish group in the Middle,

First, white oak when worked green is fairly easy to work and

very flexable. The nature of the wood tends to prevent it from

spliting or worping when it dries. Examples are the white oak baskets

that are hand stripped from logs, and other tools. It makes great handles

but when cured/dry it is a pain to work.

A note on oak species. (Sorry the botanist creeping out) Many oaks

freely hybridize in the wild, so if you select your own woods in the forest

keep in mind leaf ID is not always valid without secondary confirmation, and

the wood may not be similar to others that appear to be from the same species.

Second, there are many oaks as Beorthwine pointed out, common names can often

be confusing ESP in different parts of the country or world. In the south

I have often heard Blackjack oak refered to as black oak (shor scrubby trees)

that I doubt any would wish to make things from (as the wood I have seen tends

to misshape when drying.)

Another thing, one can often buy handle blanks and save a lot of work.

White oak does resit breakage for throwing axes (but nothing lasts forever).

Hope this bit of trivia is interesting.

Horace

From: corliss at hal.PHysics.wayne.EDU (David J. Corliss)

Newsgroups: rec.org.sca

Subject: Oak and Ash

Date: 4 Mar 1994 13:42:47 -0500

Organization: The Internet

Hrolf has sent unto me this question. I felt many would like to hear the answer

and several could better it. He writes:

> Please, If I may ask,

> What wood types are common to the North of the Deciduos

> Tree Line (Norway, my home town.)

> Purpose: Shields

Spear shafts

hull & keel timbers

Crossbows (not that I know of the Norse using them)

In general, the question you ask is: what wood has the highest

strength-to-weight ratio that I can get, so long as it has enough strength

to do the job?

Spruce has a very high strength-to-weight ratio: it is even higher than

oak and ash. This wood would have been used for both shields and ships.

For shields, the grain must be _vertical_ (that way, a downstroke caught by

the shield has a good chance of getting the weapon wedged into the wood). For

ships, the hull must be _clinker-built_ (boards overlapping at the edges,

as oppssed to carvel-built: edges of the board butted together) for added

strength.

Alas, spruce simply is not strong enough for spear shafts. Therefore, it must

be imported to areas that do not support deciduous trees.

Beorthwine

From: jjordan at yorick.umd.edu (James L. Jordan)

Newsgroups: rec.org.sca

Subject: Re: Thakka Feyrir, Vanaheim Vikings

Date: 13 Apr 1994 12:36:43 -0400

Organization: University of Maryland, College Park

Hvordan har du det?

As to period viking woods, Oak was a biggy for furniture and yew was used

mostly for bows and small things. Oak was also used in building their ships,

if your planning that sort of project (maybe not). In looking through my

'Vikings to Crusader' (very good stuff) I found maple and beach were used

a lot for some furniture (chairs). As to how closely related white oak is

to the european strain, I can't really say. The maple is pretty close in

grain, color, etc.

P.S. every chest I have read that bothered to give the wood type was oak.

Understandable if you're trying to build strong.

Ha det Bra! Thorvald Hrafnsson, Atlantia

From: haslock at oleum.zso.dec.com (Nigel Haslock)

Newsgroups: rec.org.sca

Subject: Re: Thakka Feyrir, Vanaheim Vikings

Date: 14 Apr 1994 00:51:01 GMT

Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation

Greetings from Fiacha,

According to reports, the Irish used lots of Yew for utensils. I recall

one reference to bog fig, fir trees that had been absorbed into the peat

bogs. I don't know of references to oak being used in a similar fashion.

Also, maple is unknown in England but Sycamore is similar and currently common.

I don't known long this has been so. Fruit woods, apple, pear, cherry were

available but I do not know of any references to their use. Kipling referred

to Elm as coffin wood but I don't know why.

Woods that bear investigation are birch, beech and box. I was told that box was

so named because it was considered ideal for making boxes out of. Beech is

still considered to be one of the best woods for household artefacts.

The best answer is still to study atefacts but I hope this helps a little.

Fiacha

From: jab2 at stl.stc.co.uk (Jennifer Ann Bray)

Newsgroups: rec.org.sca

Subject: Re: Thakka Feyrir, Vanaheim Vikings

Date: 18 Apr 94 11:03:06

Organization: STC Technology Ltd., London Road, Harlow, UK.

>Also, maple is unknown in England but Sycamore is similar and

>currently common.

I thought maple wasn't a European wood, but in "The Vikings in

England, and in their Danish Homeland" (which is the catalogue of an

exhibition that toured Denmark and England in 1981/82) there is an

entry on page 34 as follws:

" B42 The Ringerike style: the ornament on a maple wood walking stick

Lund, Sweden: from the settlement. KM

[59] 26:795]

The upper part is shaped like an animal head with a mane of curved

tendrils. the name 'Ulvkil' is inscribed in runes 29cm below the

ornament L. 98.5cm

Ringerike style animals are well built and thie anatomy is instantly

recognisable. they are however characterised, and almost dominated, by

attenuated curving tendrils, a feature which was the result of

influences from abroad - from the contemporary Winchester style in

England, for example (see K16) The style takes its name from

Ringerike, a region in Norway where it is strongly represented. Date

c975-1050."

Either someone mis-identified the wood, or they mistranslated another

tree name to maple, or there were maples around in Northern europe at

the time. maybe I'd better go hunt out my tree identifiers and see

what they say about maples.

The danish book with illustrations giving constructional details on

Viking age woodwork is:

Series title: Danmarkshistorien

Volume title: Vikingetiden

Author: Frank Birkebaek

ISBN 87-7324-485-6 (for one volume)

ISBN 87-7324-638.7 (for the whole series)

publishers: Forlagt Sesam a/s, Kobenhavn 1982

This is part of a series on Denmark's history, there are two volumes

on the viking age. teh one above is the one with cooking items such as

kneading troughs, buckets, bowls etc. and textile implements such as

looms, skein winders etc.

The other one of the pair is the one with furniture, and boxes, but i

left that at home, so I can't give you the details right now, but if

you can get at an inter-library loan database, you should be able to

find them both with that amount of information. don't be put off by

the fact that the books are in Danish, the line drawings are very

clear without the text.

The book on the finds from Dublin is

Title: Viking-Age Decorated Wood, a study of it's ornament and style

Author: James T. Lang

Publishers: Royal Irish Academy 1988

ISBN: 0 901714 68 2 hardback

0 901714 69 0 paperback

As the title suggests this book is more concerned with decoration than

function, many items are fragmentary, but the sorts of things

represented are:

a small carved box & lid, a stopper, stylus, weavers swords, toggles,

an awl, knife handles, bowls, spoons, winders, a harness bow, a plane,

a writing tablet, a shuttle(?), a carding comb, toys, and fragments of

larger things like benches and chairs.

Well worth a look if you want to whittle designs onto your woodwork,

the carving is mostly quite simple but very effective. Once you've

copied a few pieces with the book in front of you it becomes quite

easy. Many everyday items were decorated with some sort of incised

ornament, so a bit of whittling does not necessarily mean that the

item belonged to a noble.

I have sat around camp fires whittling designs onto plain wooden

items, people never fail to be impressed by the results, though it is

really very simple to do if you have a good sharp knife. I would

imagine that many of the carved items in the book were produced in a

similar fashion: by someone whiling away a long evening. After a

while you start to find that all your wooden kit is covered in

doodles, to the extent that I now have carving even on my wooden tent

pegs and mallet, I'm running out of things to carve, and have taken to

sawing up planks to make candle holders to decorate. Be warned this

whittling can be addictive!

The book on the Gokstad ship is worth a look if you can track it down,

but it's over a hundred years old now so it can be hard to find. It

has detailed line drawings of the woodwork from the ship which

includes: candleholders, beds, a carved tent frame, bowls, shields, a

game board, a wooden needle, a cup, bowls and trenchers, and of course

the ship itself complete with oars and sail.

Title: The Viking-ship Discovered at Gokstad in Norway

Author: N. Nicolaysen

Publishers: Alb. Cammermeyer 1882

There are plenty of other books with woodwork in them, but these are

the ones that firts sprung to mind, let me know if you want any more

info.

Jennifer/Rannveik

Vanaheim Vikings.

From: jab2 at stl.stc.co.uk (Jennifer Ann Bray)

Newsgroups: rec.org.sca

Subject: Re: Thakka Feyrir, Vanaheim Vikings

Date: 15 Apr 94 19:48:39

Organization: STC Technology Ltd., London Road, Harlow, UK.

> Kipling referred to Elm as coffin wood but I don't know why.

Elm is amazingly resistant to rotting, for this reason it is the

trasitional material used for wooden wheelbarrows which were often

left standing with wet loads, and were regularly left out in the rain.

Similarly hollow elm pipes were used for sewers in medieval london.

Some of the sewers were still in use within living memory and hadn't

rotted despite centuries under their odious load. I would imagine that

if elm were used in a coffin it would be for it's proof against

rotting.

I believe Elm was used in the timbers of the tent buried with the

Oseberg ship (8th century). The ships tents could be pitched on the

ship or on land, so they probably got wet a lot, and I daresay that

was the reason for choosing elm.

Fruitwood is very hard even when green, so I don't think it was much

used in everyday woodwork, though I'm ready to be corrected if anyone

knows better. Early medieval woodworking was mostly done with green

wood, that's why English Tudor buildings are all so crooked: as the

wood dried it tended to move a bit. In Germant they used pre-seasoned

pine for their buildings, and they came out much straighter, they also

got more decorated buildings because the pine was so much easier to

work than even green oak.

I agree that oak was the prefered wood for most tasks, England used to

be covered in Oak woodland, there's not a lot left now. But other

woods had particular uses. e.g. In the traditional windsor chairs

different woods were employed for each part of the chair, I can't

recall which were used where right now, but I can go check it out.

Jennifer/Rannveik

Vanaheim vikings

Newsgroups: rec.org.sca

From: keegan at netcom.com (Tim Bray/C. Keegan)

Subject: Re: Thakka Feyrir, Vanaheim Vikings

Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest)

Date: Wed, 20 Apr 1994 15:37:51 GMT

Nigel Haslock (haslock at oleum.zso.dec.com) wrote:

: Also, maple is unknown in England but Sycamore is similar and currently common.

: I don't known long this has been so. Fruit woods, apple, pear, cherry were

: available but I do not know of any references to their use. Kipling referred

: to Elm as coffin wood but I don't know why.

What is called sycamore in America is a different tree in Europe.

European sycamore is called Plane tree.

Limewood was frequently used for applications that required strength and

toughness, especially in thin pieces - like small boxes, coffers,

carvings (especially religious), etc. Numerous examples exist in museums.

Elm is extremely tough and, as Rannveigr points out, water-resistnt. It

was used for a variety of applications, including furniture.

: Woods that bear investigation are birch, beech and box. I was told that box was

: so named because it was considered ideal for making boxes out of. Beech is

: still considered to be one of the best woods for household artefacts.

Boxwood was used a lot for miniature carvings with lots of detail - it is

very fine-grained. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC has a couple of

incredible examples. It was also used for musical instruments (along

with lime, I believe). Also basswood (linden), pear, etc.

: The best answer is still to study atefacts but I hope this helps a little.

A couple of references I have that discuss period woods:

Know Your Woods: A Complete Guide to Trees, Woods, and Veneers. Albert

Constantine, Jr. ISBN 0-684-18778-7 (Macmillan Publishing, NY)

Oak Funriture, The British Tradition. Victor Chinnery. ISBN 1 85149 013

2 (Antique Collector's Club, Woodbridge, Suffolk UK)

Have fun,

Colin

Newsgroups: rec.org.sca

From: keegan at netcom.com (Tim Bray/C. Keegan)

Subject: Re: Thakka Feyrir, Vanaheim Vikings

Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest)

Date: Wed, 20 Apr 1994 16:13:15 GMT

I missed the origin of this thread, so apologies if this is redundant or

out of place.

Doug Brunner (techws at hp-pcd.hp.cv.com) wrote:

: There are many types of wood available, here. I know that the Middle Age

: Western Europe had Oak and Walnut. I'm not sure about other types of wood.

: As an example, Yew wood. I don't believe that the Pacific Yew is that similar.

: The Yew, here, is red. I believe that the UK has Alder, but I'm not sure. What

: are/were the common woods? The Oak and Walnut are a different Genus,

: but they seem to be similar in appearance. Also, what about different types

: of Maple, Acer Genus?

A book called - Oak Funiture: The British Tradition (Victor Chinnery, 1979,

reprinted 1993, ISBN 1 85149 013 2 published by Antique Collector's Club

Ltd, Woodbridge, Suffolk, IP12 1DS UK - contains a wealth of info about

woods and their uses in Britain prior to 1750, including much on the

Middle Ages.

European Oak is Quercus robur (also "sessile oak," Q. petraea).

Basically, nothing available today is comparable to Medieval oak, because

the habit of growth is different now (as a result of the complete loss of

the old-growth forest cover). American White Oak (Q. alba) "is very

similar to the European Q. robur, with a finely pronounced figure, and

similar working properties... It is virtually indistinguishable in use

from robur, even by microanalysis..." If you are going to do medieval

furniture, try to get quartersawn white oak; it comes closest to the

appearance and properties of "period" oak.

Other woods used for medieval furniture include:

Ash (Fraxinus excelsior) - easily riven into thin boards; widely used by

turners for chairmaking

Elm (Ulmus procera - English; U. x hollandica - Dutch) Very tough and

difficult to cleave; used for table-tops & chair seats

Beech (Fagus sylvatica) - inferior to ash, and not much to look at, so

usually covered with fabric, paint, etc.

Walnut (Juglans regia) - supposedly introduced to Britain by the Romans;