Dan Shaughnessy, longtime sportswriter for The Boston Globe, periodically writes a column full of random sports nuggets and observations called, Picked Up Pieces. It’s a series of pithy vignettes which, taken as a whole, present a larger picture of the local sports and cultural scene. In that spirit, The Riven Word presents its own version of random moments and events which have occupied our figurative desktops recently:
Yup–these are our readers…
Remember that tinder box our blacksmith Mark used in the fire-making video? It’s a ridiculously simple and practical way to keep fire-making materials like steel, flint, and char-cloth. The box is based on one of several which came up with The Mary Rose:
from Weapons of Warre: The Armaments of the Mary Rose The Archeology of the Mary Rose Volume 3 2011 edited by Alexzandra Hildred
John Wolf—friend to The Riven Word–made a great reproduction of the box and sent along a few photos. It’s made from a single piece of wood, as in the original. John used ash instead of oak, but we think it’ll be just as functional as the mid-16th century version.
Great work and happy fire-making John!
They knew they were pilgrims…
Big plug for our fellow bloggers across the lunch table. They’ve been posting some really interesting write-ups on their interpretive exploits. These are the good folks who bring life into the houses we make, and this is an opportunity for you to see just what goes into making a pilgrim in the 21st century.
See what goeth on behind coifs and brimmed hats:
http://blogs.plimoth.org/pilgrim-blog/
England, can we put that little war behind us?
image courtesy of ESPN/Boston
Local pigskin favorites The New England Patriots are playing this country’s version of football in London tomorrow. While it’s no Man-U vs Chelsea, we hope that our mutual ties and interests will compel you to root vociferously for The Pats. Click this link for a primer on NFL football rules. But the short of it is, whenever the St.Louis Rams quarterback breaks huddle on a third and long, cheer as though The Armada was just sunk!! PS: Flying Elvis is the vernacular for the Patriots helmet decal.
Thanks Irina and Alexey
Look what our friends from Salicicola dropped off yesterday:
Take that, invasives!
Two hornbeam seedlings and a handful of swamp white oak acorns to plant. It’s part of an informal naturalization project at the museum. Little gifts can mean a lot. Thanks I and A!!!
Public service announcment:
If you make a rick of wood, be sure to stack the rings either level or leaning a bit inward. Otherwise…
…you may have to pull down part of the rick and re-stack. This message brought to you by, The Woodricke Council.
Serendipitous house tour
We stopped in to see old friend Andrew at a restoration project just down the road from Plimoth. This led to a quick but fascinating tour of the original mid-17th century house.
Detail of purlin trench and score marks on oak rafter.
There’s nothing quite like a close inspection of an original frame to fire us up in building our own conjectural reproductions. Seeing tool marks and surveying frames is a direct link to the past for us, and never fails to inspire. Thanks to Elizabeth and John who welcomed us into their house for an impromptu tour yesterday. They have been here for 50 years, and John himself has done some top shelf restoration.
Nice to see you again old friend
"What are you doing over there besides looking good?" asked a guest of Justin recently.
So friend Justin is back to work after a fortnight of celebrating the birth of his son. Congrats all! Some of the crew don’t quite understand what parent-hood is all about and why Justin might come to work just a wee bit tired. Here’s the educational video we made for them to watch:
Is this a cottage which i see before me?
Framing timbers having been moved to their lot, Frank and Hester Cooke couldn’t wait to begin setting up house!
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
Tags: 17th century house, English carpentry, hewing, oak, pilgrim house, Plimoth Plantation, The Francis Cooke House
Dan Shaughnessy probably picked up the title from one John Updikes’ book of essays called Picked Up pieces. His first book I think and in it is the famous essay Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu–a very nice tribute to Ted Williams.
Thanks for the tip, France. Here’s a link to Picked-up pieces: http://books.google.com/books/about/Picked_up_pieces.html?id=DfEKAQAAMAAJ and to the essay on Teddy Ballgame’s last at bat at Fenway: http://www.baseball-almanac.com/articles/hub_fans_bid_kid_adieu_article.shtml
Very cool tinder box…and the linked video, too! Out of curiousity, do you happen to have a pictorial or other description for how John made the box without cutting out parts….or are the seams just not visible in the photo?
Thanks for the great run of shorts!
Cheers,
Derek
Thanks for saying, Derek. Our recreated tinder box was made by a former Plimoth artisan Ted Curtin. Knowing Ted, he copied the box as accurately as possible. I’ll see if I can track him down for details. I’ll let John speak to the particulars of his tinder box if he sees this and wants to weigh in. But, as in the originals, the boxes are made from a single piece of wood–no joints. There are shallow holes on the bases of the originals which to me speak of boring out the grain in various places to loosen it before squaring up with a chisel. (This is the same process we use when cutting a large mortice in a timber frame). The grain between the bored holes is short and loose. I’m not sure how the grooves were cut in the lid. I think a deft hand (and a short-handled chisel) would fit the bill, but the Mary Rose originals also show knife marks in some part of the box, and one could score and remove grain in a groove that way as well. How did you cut the grooves, John? It’d be instructive to see the originals up close and personal to look for subtle tool marks left behind which may not have been recorded by the book’s authors.
Hey, thanks for plugging our blog!
We come from a long line of blog-pluggers, Alex!
ha!
I agree with Alex, thanks!!
the box itself is, like you say, a giant mortise. I cut it like Peter Follansbee demonstrates in an earlier post. The pictures I worked from showed verticle cuts into the sides, I made mine look the same with the corner of the chisel and found it made pareing the sides verticle and smooth easier since the chips came out smaller (like hewing sort of). There were auger marks by the little sub compartment ( for char cloth? ) and as Rick said that made it much easier to carve out that tight little area. The grooves I started with a marking gauge which I then deepened with a backsaw at the open end, which made it easier to start the chisel cut. I scribed and pared out to the depth I wanted working along the grain, got the flat bottom of the groove to depth then finished the slanted dovetail part by pareing cross grain, or whatever it took to smooth and even it.In other words the box lay on it’s side and I slid the chisel corner along the marking gauge mark. the end groove I cut very carefully with mallet and chisel, some cleanup with a knife on end and corners. The whole thing could be made with a chisel and mallet. It’s easier done than said, the box is fun to make and easier to make than it looks. sorry to be so wordy!
John, thanks so much for your comment. Chipping out short grain is really a form of hewing, isn’t it? Great stuff. Peter F. said this morning that there’s nothing easy in making a box like this! So there’s that…! In the box that Ted Curtin made for Mark, Ted put a groove in the end of the box to receive the lid, in addition to the side grooves. Only on that groove, he didn’t taper the lid, but cut a square, shouldered tongue to fit. When the lid is closed, the end of the lid is flush with the box’s sides and end. Does that make sense? Also, the box he made was based on a drawing that the folks at Mary Rose sent to us some years ago. I will look more closely at the drawing to see whether it’s different from the boxes recorded in the published book. Regardless, that additional end groove may have been a Curtin adaptation.
Let us know how the lid and box respond to some seasoning. Again John, thanks!!