Filling in missing items for my kit

[Tudor MercWench Smith]

6 hours ago, madPete said:

you should try the shellac again, sounds like Miranda had good luck with it

 

I can bring my bottle to 1721! I barely even dipped into it for my hat so I've plenty to go around and no opportunities for the foreseeable future to use it before it goes bad

[madPete]

2 hours ago, Tudor MercWench Smith said:

I can bring my bottle to 1721! I barely even dipped into it for my hat so I've plenty to go around and no opportunities for the foreseeable future to use it before it goes bad

MInes been sitting for 2 years with no issues

 

[madPete]

Got the hammock out today. Really dont have an attachment point on my patio tho.

I will have to remedy that.

So the cook its bringing a hammock... Anyone else?

 

[Stynky Tudor]

15 hours ago, Tudor MercWench Smith said:

22 hours ago, madPete said:

you should try the shellac again, sounds like Miranda had good luck with it

I can bring my bottle to 1721! I barely even dipped into it for my hat so I've plenty to go around and no opportunities for the foreseeable future to use it before it goes bad

Thanks for the offer, but I'm good for the moment - though I'd like to pick Pete's your brains about it while we're at the event.

In the early 2000s I gave the shellac thing a try and failed miserably. I tried making my own hat blanks too - that failed too, but ended made great cat cup beds.

[Stynky Tudor]

13 hours ago, madPete said:

So the cook its bringing a hammcok...

Nice job, looks great!

[madPete]

I started to make this for my middle son since he threatened to go to Dana Point with us and it fell thru. I went ahead and finished it since all I have is a snapsack and a leather possibles bag.

Medium linen 10 inch X 11 inch. I added a lining on the flap and the strap is heavy linen stitched and turned inside out.

[Mary Diamond]

Love the striped lining!

[Stynky Tudor]

Made another bedroll, this one used coconut buttons instead of (poplar) wood toggles. Just removed the foam and mailed it off to @Tartan Jack.

[madPete]

8 hours ago, Stynky Tudor said:

Made another bedroll, this one used coconut buttons instead of (poplar) wood toggles. Just removed the foam and mailed it off to @Tartan Jack.

Nice! I made one for my son and GF using the self-inflating mattresses (about 2 inches thick)

[madPete]

On 1/27/2024 at 10:49 AM, madPete said:

Ok, made some progress on the watchman cloak this morning. Advice is, find the widest material you can. I started with 5 yards (YES 5 YARDS) 60 inches wide of a charcoal (mixed black and white) suit weight wool. I made one of these for my youngest with just slightly heavier wool and cotton flannel blackwatch (green and black) lining. And it seems plenty warm and reduces the weight somewhat (warm enough for Arizona so take that with a grain of salt).

The plan is for long cloak (mid calf or ankle) with a shoulder cape and lining. I would plan no less than 5 1/2 yards of 60inch wide. Having said that wool is not inexpensive. I found somewhat of a deal on 5 yards already cut that came in 2 pieces. But a full on coating weight wool is gonna be at least $20 a yard and maybe closed to 35-40 depending what you choose.  And dont forget, you need only slightly less for the lining. I chose a heavy window pane linen bought from Joanns online.  So a significant investment!

If you want to do a cloak that goes half circle, you will have to piece it at least minimally. There are several ways to do it, but I chose to extend the corners at the bottom, like wings. I figured it would be less distracting and use smaller pieces than a horizontal seam halfway down the cape.  As it was, I scrimping for fabric already. I would like to have used one large piece instead of two smaller pieces but wasn't sure I could do that. If I make another I will get an extra half yard to make it happen.

With the shoulder cape and the half circle, it has pretty much used up that 5 yards. Altho the material has no pattern, there is definately a grain. The outside (rightside) grain is vertical, inside is horizontal. so if you have a patterned material you may need more to match seams.  I'm doing the seams by machine. Its a lot of yardage to hand sew and I did the shoulder cape mostly by hand, especially the hemmed edges and front. I'll do likewise hemming the bottom and front edge of the main body by hand.

First photo is a rough example of the target - a men's watchman cloak. I was surprised how many originals I found that were red (mostly later 18th century tho)

Next photos are the shoulder cape, the overall size and the pieces (or wings) I used to extend it.

After deciding this material was far too thin, and several misfires trying to buy coat weight wool on ebay. I think I bought and got refunded 3 times because it wasnt coat weight wool as advertised.  As a follow up, Miranda turned me on to a 70% off sale at Fabric mart where I got this fine coatweight wool at a bargain price.  The cloak in the photo is not finished, but I've indeed made serious progress. I need to add a standup collar, and I'll likely do hooks so the cape can be removed. oh, and some kind of a front closure.

[Tudor MercWench Smith]

37 minutes ago, madPete said:

After deciding this material was far too thin, and several misfires trying to buy coat weight wool on ebay. I think I bought and got refunded 3 times because it wasnt coat weight wool as advertised.  As a follow up, Miranda turned me on to a 70% off sale at Fabric mart where I got this fine coatweight wool at a bargain price.  The cloak in the photo is not finished, but I've indeed made serious progress. I need to add a standup collar, and I'll likely do hooks so the cape can be removed. oh, and some kind of a front closure.

Love that you scored such a good deal - it looks like it's coming together really well so far

[Mary Diamond]

Very nice! Should be a great addition to your kit.

[madPete]

On 11/14/2024 at 9:06 PM, madPete said:

After deciding this material was far too thin, and several misfires trying to buy coat weight wool on ebay. I think I bought and got refunded 3 times because it wasnt coat weight wool as advertised.  As a follow up, Miranda turned me on to a 70% off sale at Fabric mart where I got this fine coatweight wool at a bargain price.  The cloak in the photo is not finished, but I've indeed made serious progress. I need to add a standup collar, and I'll likely do hooks so the cape can be removed. oh, and some kind of a front closure.

 

Added the collar. still debating on the cape. Thinking it should hang lower which means it needs to be bigger.

[Red-Handed Jill]

Looks amazing!

[Stynky Tudor]

On 11/17/2024 at 9:48 PM, madPete said:

Added the collar. still debating on the cape. Thinking it should hang lower which means it needs to be bigger.

Have you thought about adding a lining - might make it more substantial.

[madPete]

Nope. This is coatweight wool and is already pretty heavy. This is not the same wool I started with in this thread.

[madPete]

I've been procrastinating on finishing the cloak. There has been talk of an event in the UK next year, so I'm mulling over assembling a heavy wool coat as well, since it can get a bit blustery and may possibly need a warm coat for the whole trip. The cloak will get finished, but momentum was lost and will need to pick it up later. It still needs cape attached, arm holes opened up and a closure of some sort, nothing major.

Also purchased a Dutch oven (i'm not yet inclined to start iron casting), a steel tripod and hook for local events. It's been seasoned and it will be making potato soup next weekend at our Rev War event. I'm making use of some duplicate implements from building the pyracy cook kits in local events as well.

The kids and I are making a trip to the local ren fair for Viking weekend in a month or so. Since none of us had much of anything outside of some generic ren fair wear, I went on a whirlwind and made kits for the three of us. Details in the next post.

Back to the reason I started this post. I got the itch to make a fire poker/blow tube, and my welding skills have fallen to the wayside, so figured this was a good practce session. To that end I picked up some hollow steel tube from Homedepot or Lowes, I forget which.  I welded a washer on the input end and made 2 cuts 90 degrees apart and  1/2" deep on the output end. I hammered this to concentrate the air into a smaller diameter, then welded each cut and ground smooth. A piece of 5/16 round stock was welded 6-7" from the end and ground to a point for a hook to grab with. Everything ground smooth and painted a satin black. Then I proceeded to wrap the handle end in hemp twine and tie it off. Wallah! combination fire poker/blow tube for fire starting. I'll be testing it next weekend

[madPete]

This is not pirate (Or is it? since I'm pirating my own thread and vikings are pretty close to pirates in a different era). So I went on a total sideways off topic effort to make three Viking kits. Our event is still a month out, so I'm  working on the last bits. 

So far I've completed three linen tunics, three leather (and fur) pouches for wallet/keys/phone. 4 wool caps, and a sheath for my seax. We each had a belt that will pass for viking era and we previously used natural cotton pajama pants, which I reasoned will work. Between tunic hanging to mid thigh and ankle wraps/winningas up to knees, maybe only 6 or 7 inches show anyway.

There is literally almost nothing modern that works for viking shoes and with my middle son being a size 13+, I figured he would need custom made anyway. My younger son has the same foot profile as my wide duck foot with high instep, so we basically need custom shoes too. I've started the first of 3 pairs of Viking turnshoes.

The first shoe was a learning experience (read failure, but with teachable moments). The second shoe came out well. I've already told the kids use them sparingly cause I wont be making more after this. Its too rough on my fingers/hands. For every day spent working the shoes, I need three to recover feeling in my fingers. 

After watching several youtube videos on the process, we made a pattern for each of us. This consists of tracing your right foot (hopefully our right/left feet are same size). And then putting on an old sock which is completely wrapped around in duct tape mimicing the profile of your foot.  The videos wrapped feet in newspaper and then tape to give extra space required with thick viking socks. You then cut the tape down the front (where laces would normally be on a modern shoe) far enough to get the pattern off. Then you cut the sole out of the pattern and finish the cut up the middle, this gives you the leather pattern which you have to augment a bit by making the toes and heel pointed (adding length). I found a happy medium to add a little extra to make up for the newspaper wrap.

It's rather difficult to keep your head wrapped around each one, since everything is reversed when you piece them together. You basically stitch them together inside out, and then turn them rightside out. so what looks like a left foot shoe is actually the right once turned.

[Tudor MercWench Smith]

holy crap, I have seen seasoned "viking" reenactors with less impressive kit. Go you!

Also the blow poke looks great, but I've watched way too many true crime documentaries to not be sus of it lol . . .

[Mary Diamond]

Well, someone has been busy! Beautiful work as always - best be careful, you may have to add a wing to your shop… Slops, Shoes and More by Chaaps 😊

[madPete]

10 hours ago, Tudor MercWench Smith said:

holy crap, I have seen seasoned "viking" reenactors with less impressive kit. Go you!

It's just the renfair viking weekend. I guess I cant help myself. If you are gonna do it...

10 hours ago, Tudor MercWench Smith said:

Also the blow poke looks great, but I've watched way too many true crime documentaries to not be sus of it lol . . .

It hasnt been to an event yet. LOL

[Edit: its hollow so isnt nearly as hefty as it looks on first glance]

[madPete]

2 hours ago, Mary Diamond said:

Well, someone has been busy! Beautiful work as always - best be careful, you may have to add a wing to your shop… Slops, Shoes and More by Chaaps 😊

I've made lots of kit, doesnt mean I want to make and sell tho. especially shoes!  this is for me and family

[michaelsbagley]

What MercWench said, having been in the authentic Norse reenacting scene (okay, it has been a few more than a few years for me), and having visited some Viking reenactment events, yeah, what you did makes a lot of what is commonly used out there look "less" (trying to be tactful to less authentic leaning players here).

Great job.

[madPete]

2 hours ago, michaelsbagley said:

What MercWench said, having been in the authentic Norse reenacting scene (okay, it has been a few more than a few years for me), and having visited some Viking reenactment events, yeah, what you did makes a lot of what is commonly used out there look "less" (trying to be tactful to less authentic leaning players here).

Great job.

Thanks Michael. I discovered there is a viking event in soCal in the fall. I know a few folks that go there, so we'll see...

[William Brand]

All great additions.  Love to see you tackling new stuff.