I learned, last time I was in the chat, that others here are Viking/Medieval history buffs like me, so I thought I'd throw this out here. Anyone know how the lock on the mastermyr box works? I can't tell from the pics and illustraions I've seen. I'd love to make a full scale replica, but the lock has been stopping me.

Thanks!
Jeff

I had never even herd of this before; so i did a search and WOW!!! Now that is cool. I used to fool around with the Adrian society for a bit and the Viking thing was what I started to get into, mostly because we have traced our family name back to it. In the search for this box I discovered a lot of cool sights on vikings. Thanks

I think that it was bomlin that made a replica of the chest. Try asking him.

Thanks Tyler. Ran into him on chat last night.

Part of the chest, it's contents, and a little about it can be seen here:

The Mastermyr Project

Another view, including the front of the lock plate:

Mastermyr

It's from Gotland Sweden from around 1000 AD, give or take. It had a bunch of viking smiths tools inside, so it's a great resource for what they had in that time. There is a book called "The Mastermyr Find, a Viking Age Tool Chest from Gotland" By Greta Ardwidsson and G

Anvils and bick iron:






I've not seen any large anvils from that era. One theory being that they lacked the ability to heat that much steel (later water driven bellows could push a lot more air).

There are records of areas with thousands of smelters in the Viking age, and smelters that seem to be a part time business of a farmer/smith/smelter. If you were in an area with bog iron, and had the land and the time, iron was an available thing.

I think the size of the key was likly necessary to move the internal bits of the lock.


Jeff