Viking belt

The matching belt with the posh fittings are finally finished!

Bright red leather strap with polished edges. 66 brass sheath mounts. Alban Depper made the buckle and strap end!

Hope you like it!

 

 

Starting on some belt fittings!

Started on the matching belt for the red tarsoly. The customer wanted the tarsoly and the belt to look like a matching set I will make 70 new brass fittings.

Here is some pictures of how I make the fittings.

 

 

 

Bushcraft-style sheath for Fällkniven F1 with whetstone pouch.

Just finished up another bushcraft-style sheath for Fällkniven F1 with pouch for a DC3 or DC4 whetstone, snap button retention strap and holder for a fire steel. Hand sewed in full grain leather with thick waxed linen thread.

 

 

 

 

Bushcraft-style sheath for Fällkniven F1.

Sometimes I wander outside my comfort zone and make something a bit more modern!

Here is a bushcraft sheath for Fällkniven F1. Hardware in brass, 2,5 mm vegetable tanned full grain leather with sadel soap polished edges. Possibility for both horizontal and vertical carry. I added buckles so the knife would be easy to add and remove from a belt or a bag. The straps can be removed and exchanged if necessary or replaced with cord or strap directly through the sheath.

Fully modular design if user wants to add a fire steel or utility pouch. A similar one would be about 650:-/$100. Contact me for more details if you are interested.

Audhumbla at Medeltidsveckan in Visby!

Back from a wonderful week at Medeltidsveckan in Visby! We spent the week at Kapitelhusgården outside St Drotten and had a splendid time with a lot of old and new friends. I had about a dozen knifes with me for sale and only two left at the end of the week.

I forgot to take pictures on a couple but here are some of the knifes, hope you like them!

Ivy (Hedera helix) handle with lots of grain. Triangular blade from Aage Fredrikssen. Green veg tanned leather sheath with brass fittings and simple line ornamentation.

A small women fibula knife. Masur Birch handle, lauri carbon blade. Brass fittings and chain suspension for attachment to fibula.

Medium sized seax with two suspension points on scabbard. Linden wood handle, blade by Thomas Cederroth. Brass fittings on knife and around sheath.

Large Leuku with viking style scabbard. 4 mm thick full grain leather. Hourglass shaped flame birch handle, two suspension points.

Another small women fibula knife. Cherry handle, lauri carbon blade. Brass fittings and chain suspension for attachment to fibula.

Brass is flash!

Brassy project finished! Large knife with two suspension points on scabbard. Flame maple handle, pattern welded blade and brass fittings.

Hope you like it! More pictures below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How to peen a rivet

I have got quite a few requests to show how to peen a rivet. I had some time to take a couple of pictures showing how I usually do it and I hope this will be helpful. Of course this method is not the only one and this is only how I've learned myself so take it with a grain of salt. However, I have probably peened a couple of thousand rivets by now so it obviously works quite well.

1, Here is the fitting I start with. I have already marked and drilled the holes, my brass rivets are 2 mm in diameter so I drill the holes with a 2 mm drill bit. Be careful to get the holes straight through both the brass and leather and insert the rivet.

2, Here is the tools for the job. A wire cutter, a small ball peen hammer (100 g), some brass rivets (2 mm) and a broken off saw blade (more of this later).
 

3, You will need a hard and flat surface to peen against. I use a block of steel, but an anvil or a piece of railroad track works just as well. 

4, Put a rag or a towel between the peening block and the fittings. This will prevent scratches and dirt on the leather.

5, Now, take your broken off sawblade or anything else that is 1 mm thick and has a hole in the end. Carefully place the piece over the rivet.

6, Use the wire cutter to snip off the rest of the rivet, leaving a short piece. 

 

7, This is what it should look like. You could do all rivets like this before staring to peen or cut and peen and the moving to the next one. Be careful so the rivets don't fall out, it's a hassle to put them back in when they are so short.

8, Use a small ball peen hammer and carefully tap the rivet directly from the top. Use the saw blade to align the taps on the rivet. Do not strike to hard, gentle taps is the key to getting a good peen. The hammer should be doing all the work so just let it fall against the rivet.

9, You should have something like this. A flat rivet head that has been mushroomed over the metal.

10, Use the other side of the ball peen hammer (the ball side) to gently shape the flat rivet head. I usually tries for a round head on this side as well.

After this step the rivet is finished. Use some time to smooth the rivet out and then give it a good polish like you would do with the rest of the brass. I peen the rivets before any polishing and this helps to buff out any marks left by the hammer and tools.

If you don't have rivets with a finished head just use a piece of wire and make the two sides like above.

I hope this is helpful!

New knife from Lund

Here is a special type of knife!

The original was found in the neighbourhood Färgaren in the city of Lund. The sheath consists of shaped leather decorated with small silver rivets and a single bronze fitting for suspension to a belt. I believe the original is about 11th century.
 
Reconstruction was a bit of a challenge because of the rivets. There was nothing to hold the rivet in place except the leather so with that in mind I choose a very hard kind of half tanned raw hind centre leather. This hald tanned leather gave enough stability for the silver wire and made it possible to set the rivets.

This is a quite a different style than the sheaths with full bronze fittings but is still striking in it's simplicity. I really like it.

The knife is made by the customer.

I hope you like it!