Guthrum of Norwich

Guthrum of Norwich Historical Reproductions from Late Antiquity to the Late medieval period.
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Wow, I've not posted in a while!Things are pretty quiet, but I've got a few things ticking over. I promised myself I wou...
16/05/2025

Wow, I've not posted in a while!

Things are pretty quiet, but I've got a few things ticking over. I promised myself I would post less "in progress" stuff and more finished stuff, but seeing as that sort of content is slow, here's a few of the things I've been working on over the past few of months, as well as a new toy I treated myself to...

Things are probably going to remain quiet so don't panic. When I've got finished goodies to show off, I'll get them posted!

Hey all! A belated happy new year. I'm not dead yet, just not been up to much worth posting about!I need to get another ...
02/02/2025

Hey all! A belated happy new year. I'm not dead yet, just not been up to much worth posting about!

I need to get another order of the cast strap sliders on order ASAP. For reasons.

Before I do, is there any interest? They are normally £20 each, but discounts are available for people buying 10 pieces or more.

I have explained the provenance before but to go over it again briefly...

- Original was wooden and found in Haithabu / Hedeby. They are also a good match for an impression left on a scabbard leather in Gloucester, England

- they are dainty, much like the original, but offered in either cast Brass or cast Bronze (mould taken from a wooden master!) so they are stronger and more likely to survive a smack and have an 18mm slot (up from 13mm on the original)

DM the page if interested, I want to get the order in to the foundry no later than this time next week!

Ah, Milliput. My old adversary. We meet again.Probably won't be posting again before, so I wish everyone a nice festive ...
20/12/2024

Ah, Milliput. My old adversary. We meet again.

Probably won't be posting again before, so I wish everyone a nice festive period. Don't mind me, I'll be going slowly insane working with this stuff again! 😂

A slightly belated post, but I wanted to make sure all was well and it fit the bill before posting it - For my friends i...
07/12/2024

A slightly belated post, but I wanted to make sure all was well and it fit the bill before posting it - For my friends in Regia Anglorum for their new oven down at their site, Wychurst, I produced a simple fire rake based on finds of wet rakes from York, which I've been advised by Helen over at Waffle and Wood are very similar to fire rakes in how they are made. She also kindly let me have a close look at one of their replicas at TORM in November to get some pointers.

The head is some vintage French oak that has a helpful cup warp in it which lent itself nicely to the purpose and the handle is ash from a spear shaft blank I've had sat in the shed a few years now. I haven't applied any finish on account of its proximity to hot coals / fire and I wasn't sure if oil or wax would've been a good idea!

It took two goes as I shattered the first head like a dope, but it didn't take too much doing the second time around to get another made.

On a personal note, It's nice to have been able to contribute even just a little bit to a space I have enjoyed so much over the years I've been a member, even if I'm not quite fit and well enough to get all the way down there in person and help build anything (yet!)

(Third picture kindly provided by Jane Bateman)

Just a little project to keep me from going entirely mad, which is now mostly done - a hard case for the surface table I...
20/11/2024

Just a little project to keep me from going entirely mad, which is now mostly done - a hard case for the surface table I bought a few years back.

It's sat in my workshop and whilst I've been gentle with it, I'm concerned it's going to pick up damage, so I've quickly thrown together this cover and sprayed it my favourite colour once again - because why wouldn't I?

I'm contemplating lining the inside with woollen moving blanket and maybe putting a steel sheet on the top so it can be used (Gently!) as a mobile work table. It also needs one more coat of paint before I'm happy calling it done. But that's the gist of it 🙂

Also - can we just appreciate how tidy the shop is for a change?! My Mum's partner and his nephew have very kindly had a sort out in here for me whilst I was away at ARM / TORM, so now with the snotty weather closing in I'll have space to work!

A big delivery of scabbard bridges ready for a quick tidy up before they are handed off to their new owners 😄These are a...
12/11/2024

A big delivery of scabbard bridges ready for a quick tidy up before they are handed off to their new owners 😄

These are all spoken for, but I'll be putting in another run before long if anyone wants to get in on the next batch. £20 each plus P&P, with a bulk discount on orders of 10 pieces or more for people who make lots of scabbards. I can offer detailed specs, provenance etc on request, but I have outlined this in previous posts 🙂

Another job jobbed - New anvil stand 🙂Not much to say about this one. It's just some pressure treated lengths of pine sc...
28/10/2024

Another job jobbed - New anvil stand 🙂

Not much to say about this one. It's just some pressure treated lengths of pine screwed together. But I love making tools look nice so I've sprayed I thoroughly with my favourite paint. It's come out maybe a little bit gappier than I'd like but it won't go far wrong.

Easy peasy job to keep me from going totally doo lally this past weekend. There's a couple bits where the paint just needs touching up but I'm happy calling this basically done.

And so ends another looney project!My new combat shield is complete and has survived its first training. Specs are as fo...
06/10/2024

And so ends another looney project!

My new combat shield is complete and has survived its first training. Specs are as follows:

The board is 5mm plywood @ 84cm wide, cut by my friend Duncan and scored to mimic planks, edged first with H**p rope before being faced both sides with rawhide from GWA reenactment supplies as to overlap the rope twice, then edged in deer leather from Barrhead Leather.

The boss is from Wieland Forge and is a Rygh 565 / Vike type D1. The handle is from Ash and is my own work, leaning on a few extant finds.

The Gesso, Yellow Ochre and Mixing white paint and Matt varnish is all from Winsor & Newton and has been applied by my mum whilst I mucked about with leather and worked the day job.

This also wouldn't have been possible without the tireless advice of Bennett over at Scutae Borealis who has put up with my constant pestering with the patience of a saint.

The final diameter is about 86cm and weighs 3207g making this a pretty light and nippy shield as far as combat shields in the UK go,

The final photo is after a couple of hours of training, and I think it's help up just fine. The edge did what it's meant to and looks fine.

I've learned a lot from building this and there are some tweaks I need to make, but other than some sh*tty riveting on the ends of the handle, I'm very happy :)

What to do after an 8 hour shift on a Monday afternoon...? Do you kick back on the couch and watch telly? Relax and get ...
23/09/2024

What to do after an 8 hour shift on a Monday afternoon...? Do you kick back on the couch and watch telly? Relax and get ready for tomorrow?

NAH!

I Busted a gut for half an hour forging out nineteen more of these buggers ready for the next step in my LH display. If you missed or don't recall the last time I did these way back in the mists of time, these are my solution to disguise the painfully modern road pins a bit; they are no less an anachronism of course, but they aren't obviously modern so I prefer using these to modern road pins or plastic electric fence posts 🙂

I'm feeling a bit woozy now after that exertion, but it needed doing for my next show in November and I can't guarantee when I'll have the spoons to do it, so it's good it's done.

These have come out a bit of a mixed bag in terms of style and quality and there's one with a nasty big split where I think it's going to give up, but they were just a quick job. I didn't want to blow through the last of my Propane either so it really was a fast, one in the fire, one on the anvil job and for that, I'm happy enough.

And that's the next part of the mail kit sorted - a crank. Nothing fancy, just a hammer handle I have sprayed with my fa...
21/09/2024

And that's the next part of the mail kit sorted - a crank. Nothing fancy, just a hammer handle I have sprayed with my favourite green and some clear coat and a bit of 6mm diameter mild steel round stock, dog-legged, with a hole at 1.5mm diameter (EDIT: Now 2.5mm - check the comments section!) I played around with the idea of fancying up that crank handle, but the simple style just worked.

I can't claim credit for this idea, it's been shamelessly pinched from Ironskin - but it's a grand idea and I've had lots of fun making one :)

Quick job I sorted yesterday, but the paint is now dry enough to give it the finishing touches and to show it off - mail...
19/09/2024

Quick job I sorted yesterday, but the paint is now dry enough to give it the finishing touches and to show it off - mail making punch!

I'm going to be experimenting with mail armour, with an eye to getting it as close to the original Gjermundbu specs as possible with the intention of producing a nice posh aventail for a lid I've got on order. I'm not bothered about doing it in an LH setting, so I'll be making the tooling reasonably nice to a modern standard rather than anything authentic.

The first step in that is sorting out a punch for the rivet holes, so I've ground down a reasonably nice branded Vanadium steel cold chisel to a vicious but still sturdy point that seems to do the trick on test runs, followed by a couple coats of my favourite paint, which I'll probably stick some clear lacquer over when I can be bothered to give it a bit of a chance against my tomfoolery.

It might yet require further tweaking but at this size, I'll probably be accomplishing any more fettling using an oil stone! As it stands though, I'm quite pleased with the result :)

Taking a break from modern hammers to persue something decidedly more frightening... Mounted a mace head from Tods Works...
18/09/2024

Taking a break from modern hammers to persue something decidedly more frightening...

Mounted a mace head from Tods Workshop / Tod Cutler on a scabby bit of ash I found in my shed. Probably not the nicest it could've been, but I'm reasonably happy with it for a quick job.

I've got a show in November that I will probably need this for, so I wanted to get it done in good time. I might look at a nicer handle down the line, which I do have the timber for, but I suspect a lathe followed by a little bit of hand working would make better work of that.

Handle aside, it has a weight and feeling in the hand that can only be described as "Fooken Terrifying" - 476g of "I don't like the arrangement of your face" and with the tapered handle, I feel like it's not prone to slipping from the hand either, without resorting to any more unsightly solutions, which I'm quite happy with.

All in all, it should be a nice, Late period addition to the weapons demo line up I have planned for my LH display going forward.

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