Mastermyr hammers

[Nick]

I got it into my head today to make replicas of all the hammers recovered at Mastermyr. I've got a pretty good sized bar of indeterminite composition that I think might work. Here's a couple thoughts I had.

I've got a copy of "The Mastermyr Find" by Arwidsson and Berg, and the only description of the material on most of the hammers is "iron." According to the metalurgical analysis of sledgehammer No. 69, the peen was a higher carbon content than material further back, and was forge welded on. There's no information given about the carbon content of any of the other hammers. All the faces are mushroomed, though that could have happened even if the face was badly heat treated steel.

If I were to make these out of high carbon steel, then I'd try a heat treat. I'm curious about other Viking era hammers, though. If I were to make these as reproductions of the historical originals, would it be better to actually anneal or at least normalize a head made of high carbon or mild steel to get closer to the softness of the original wrought iron? Or, I could make them functioning hammers in the modern sense, fully heat treated out of high carbon steel.

Does anyone know anywhere I can get information on the mettalurgical makeup of Viking tools?

[oakwoodforge]

As far as I know the Mastermyr hammers were almost exclusively iron with almost no "steel" as were most tools and ferric metal objects from that era. A correct material for a "true" reproduction would be semi refined wrought iron made from bog iron in a charcoal smelter with a blister steel face welded on (Blister steel is carbonized bloomery iron of somewhat random carbon content) Our Viking ancestors would have literally killed for a few bars of 1095 or 5160. Steel production in the Viking era was a VERY costly & labor intensive process involving many 100's of man hours and tons of charcoal to produce a few scant pounds of wrought iron then 100's more hours and tons more charcoal to produce a small quantity of blister steel of unpredictable quality and carbon content.
Honestly, I'd try a piece of axle shaft from the scrap yard or some new 4140 , 1080 or something like that and use the shape as a pattern for everyday use. Save the Wrought iron & blister steel for display or the museum. Not even the most rabid "Living history nazi" is going to give you a hard time for correctly shaped hand forged steel hammers. Heck he'd need a a metallurgy lab to tell the difference between antique and modern steel, and How "Period " is that ?

Not to discount the quest for doing things the way our ancestors did, but doing things the old way requires LOTS of extra time and effort, and NOTHING was store bought. In our modern recreations we are sometimes pressed for time and using modern materials but ancient patterns or techniques is usually a acceptable compromise.

Hope this helps

Jens

[bruce wilcock]

wrought iron hammers stand up to forge work ,working wrought iron very well , its only when you start to work mild steel that they mark,
to work wrought you have to work at near welding snowball heat and once it loses its heat to a full red the slag layers forming the grain will crumble and the iron will delaminate,
Becouse mild steel can be worked at a lower temp men work mild to black heat ,and wrought hammers suffer .
wrought iron hammers were used a lot in the chain and anchor trades and stood up to the work for years welding .

[the_sandy_creek_forge]

Nick, you might also want to co-post across the street at anvilfire. link removed at the request of anvilfire There is gentlemen over there who is big into viking reenactment.

Otherwise, I would agree with Jens that using ancient patterns in modern materials would do the trick.
-Aaron @ the SCF

[ThomasPowers]

Jens we've smelted iron from ore in a Y1K scandanavian short stack bloomery and one thing we've noticed is that you can get hich carbon blooms directly without needing the time and fuel intensitive blistering process. Starting with clay in the creek it takes about 2 days for four people working fairly lightly to produce a 15 pound bloom---with premade charcoal and pre-collected ore. Further runs would be around 8 hours per bloom until the furnace needed re-working.

What Bruce said about working wrought iron is *very* *true* so if you will be working WI go with Wi if modern alloys use modern alloys.

I have a couple of wrought iron hammers with steeled faces that I have found over the years that live in my LH kit...

Thomas

[oakwoodforge]

Sounds Like Fun Thomas , I 'd love to be part of a Y1k Smelting team someday. Got any Pics or Links to pics form the Melts you've done ? or any pics of the WI hammers ? heck I'd Love to see the whole LH kit


Jens

[bruce wilcock]

sounds like fun ,you must be joking it sounds like bleeding hard work ,to get a bit of wrought iron ,take a diver to the nearest habour throw him in with a rope and a float and tell him to tye it to any old anchor he finds just lying on the bottom without a chain going up to the top, go to the pub ,when he staggers ashore coverd in mud ,give him a pint remembr you might need him again, then go with a boat with a lifting gear and you have 1/2 a ton of iron, a good tip is to do all this an the dark ,so not to upset the guy that his granddad lost the anchor, and you might need to go back for another some time

[bruce wilcock]

a brand new steel anchor pinched of the sea bed will get you on the wanted list ,give it a try ,i will bake you a cake with a file in it ,just tell me address of the jail i have to send it to .

[Ten Hammers]

Bruce, this is absolutely good advice you give ( on after dark ). Too bad we have no such harbors near us. The Mississippi River might be a plan though, thanks.

[Nick]

There's a lot of wrought on the bottom of the Upper Harbor in Marquette. A friend of mine is a rescue diver, and found a bunch while diving.

Thanks for all the info. I think I'll endeavor to make the first hammers from more modern materials, but at some point in the future I want to make as close to 100% accurate reproductions as possible. I have an interest in making usable reproductions but also in period reproduction. I'd like to make a wrought iron greathelm some day as well, welding it up the back like the Pembridge helm.

Cheers
Nick