Guthrum of Norwich

23/04/2024

Still on hiatus, and I'm making progress with sorting my workshop out now, but I just wanted to share a pretty little thing I found in a tin shoved at the back of my shed 🙂

Little Early Medieval Silver biconical dress pin I had made a while back. Being as it was as-cast in terms of hardness, it was dead soft. I thought it rude to send it on its way without a little work, so with some gentle attention with a hammer, it's now a bit more springy.

Funny the old crap you find when you have a sort out.

Also attached is what I've been up to - building drawers, painting bits of railroad track and making weird slidey stuff so I can shove it out of the way when I'm not using it.

19/03/2024

Hi all

Technically I'm still on hiatus, but after watching a video on a jeweller recycling sterling silver, I had a bit of an "Aha!" moment and have successfully repaired a really badly messed up attempt at melting some 925 scrap down into Viking ingots 🙂

I had previously tried it with a fairly bog standard torch in a little ceramic crucible which didn't go so well.

I achieved this result first by cutting up and remelting the oxide cake on a block of charred hardwood using my Oxy-Mapp torch, then cut up the resultant nuggets, stacked them in a thumb ingot mold and melted them in place using the same, followed by a bit of "neatening" with a hammer, minimal tidy up with some wire wool and a sisal wheel on a dremel with some Tripoli, and there's the result.

Probably a smidge over 925 now as in my youthful stupidity I dumped a goodly sum of fine bullion silver in the pot, too, but I reckon that'll do for my slowly growing hoard of silver 🙂

22/01/2024

Hey all. Not dead yet, just busy as hell.

I've decided I'm going to put Guthrum of Norwich on Hiatus for a little while. This is Including videos, which remain half finished on my laptop.

I'm focusing my time less on recreations and more on getting my workshop organised and set up how I want it (see pics for progress on that front!) and I'll come back to it when I'm ready to grab it with both hands rather than working in between the piles of s**t.

On top of this I'm also staring down expensive repairs on my van and moving out soon with my girlfriend (my workshop will still be here for my use so I'm not stressing about that at least!) so lots on the plate right now.

I'll be back when life is a bit more settled.

Party on!

~ G

06/12/2023

At last, some craftwork!

Viking age, Scandi style skillet from Åkre, Norway (Unimus number C1757)

This build had a lot of firsts for me and it isn't quite as close as I'd like and it's definitely wonky, but I'm quite happy with what I've ended up with all things considered.

It's also the subject of my first actual video! I've been recording since about 10am this morning (except when my phone died and I lost a lot of the forge work 😞) trying to get as much content as possible. The video should be going live this time next week I reckon, by the time I edit it all down and get the voice over recorded.

I majorly hurt now, though. I am reminded why I've been taking it steady lately instead of busting my guts forging out bits of steel 😅

28/11/2023

Hey all - under the weather as I'm recovering from a wee medical procedure, so no craftwork to show off yet, but I've laid the groundwork for my next two videos - Video #2 pending footage of some smithy and sheet work and Video #3 pending some 3D printing, casting and polishing work.

If there's anything specific people are wanting to see in videos, now would be a really good time to speak up because I am looking for suggestions! 🙂

Cheers!

~G

21/11/2023

My first YouTube video will be premiering today at 12:00 noon :)

An introduction to the channel, a bit of my past work, background and other ramblings :)Link to the page: www.facebook.com/GuthrumofNorwich

13/11/2023

Hey all - no craftwork to report, but I have been mucking about in 3D a little. Early days on that and I posted it on my personal rather than shooting it over here before it's finished as that is the direction I am deciding to go with this page now - less in-progress stuff, more finished goods.

However, the main reason I'm making this post - would folks be interested if I were to start producing videos on my 3D processes? Once my workshop is set up properly, I might consider doing workshop-based videos too.

It would certainly not be tutorials or anything too in-depth, but I could string together some simple stuff to show some of what I do?

I would probably post them here, but for neatness, I am thinking of doing a YouTube channel too.

Again, we aren't looking at anything major. This is my hobby, not my vocation after all and especially with my wonky physical and mental health, it's unlikely to become a consistent thing, but if there's interest, I can look into it :)