Medieval Scissors

[Nick]

I got a commission to make a pair of scissors based on an excavated Viking-era pair.  I've never made scissors before, but have been thinking about it for a while.  I couldn't find much on blade geometry so I copied a pair of old all-metal scissors (the ones with the black painted handles) for the set of the blades.  I forged them from 1/2" round coil spring, finished length about 5.5".

 

The original piece:

 

Mine:

 

 

Not an exact match, the handles on mine are a little smaller and the transition from handle to blade is rounder.  I'll work on making them more even the next time, but the important thing is they cut for the whole length of the blade. 

 

I had tested them with a bolt before heat treating, and they cut fine.  Then I hardened, tempered, and riveted them, but they refused to cut.  I think a blade warped when I quenched, so I popped out the rivet, reset the blades, re-heat treated, and riveted again.  Second time worked! 

[Loneforge]

Cool project. I have dabbled with the idea of Pattern Welded scissors and this helps to inspire.....Thanks for sharing Nick.

[Frosty]

That's a pretty darned accurate looking reproduction Nick. The only thing I see off the top to comment on is the bevel on the edge, it looks pretty acute for scissors or shears I'm familiar with. I don' think I've ever seen a pair that acute. I believe you're going to have museums bidding on your skills if they aren't already.

 

Frosty The Lucky.

[Wayne]

Thats a nice pair of scissors, 

 

I would be interested in the reference source for those if it is available?

Wayne

[bigfootnampa]

They still make scissors like that Frosty.  They are knife edge scissors!  Very good for cutting thicker stuff!  Possibly the originals were intended to cut leather.  Knife edge scissors are still favored by leather workers today!

[ThomasPowers]

I'd like to know the reference too!

[Eddie Mullins]

Excellent job. I like the forged looked and temper color coming through.

 

What was your metal of choice for those?

[Nick]

Thanks!  I'm afraid they don't have an entirely reliable provenance, they were from Ukraine, probably dug up by a metal detectorist.  They were sold on eBay, which is where my customer found them and got the photo from (I ended up finding them while doing research online).  Something I need to look more into.  Thomas, do you know any titles off-hand that have anything on medieval scissors?

 

Frosty, I would like to do work for museums some day, perhaps making educational reproductions.  Regarding the angle, I think it's between the usual bevel and a true knife edge.  Something to experiment with in future sets.

 

Eddie, the steel was heavy coil spring from my scrap pile, but I have used it before so I knew it was suitable.  Not sure of the alloy.  Doing it again I would probably get some high carbon flat stock instead of forging down 1/2" round, just to make production a little faster and less time in the fire.

[ThomasPowers]

Knives and Scabbards, Museum of London has several pages of scissors and shears in it.

 

Also page 196 of "The Viking" Bertil Almgren et al has 3 sets of shears on it.

 

Both are respected sources.

 

The reason we asked for the reference is that I have never seen that style used during viking times and only have seen them several centuries after the viking era.  We were hoping for a new discovery with good provenance; but I fear it's more Caveat Emptor.

[Nick]

Thanks, Thomas, I will look into those.  I remember there were similar ones from Novgorod, and possibly York.  I don't have access to the huge collection of archaeological reports in the library at Leeds anymore, which is frustrating.  Ideally the next pair will have a more certain date.

[ThomasPowers]

I met Dominic Tweedle of the York Archeological Trust at a Medieval Technology conference at Pennstate must be 20+ years ago.  Really wished I could have taken him up on the invite to stop by if ever I was in the area.

 

I really would like to know the early bound for that type of scissors; I'm not near my research library either but 12th century sticks in my mind---I certainly wouldn't advise *anyone* to take that date as at all certain!

 

Another datum: I don't see signs of an applied steel edge to theose originals which was more common in earlier times even for quite small items.

[Frosty]

They still make scissors like that Frosty.  They are knife edge scissors!  Very good for cutting thicker stuff!  Possibly the originals were intended to cut leather.  Knife edge scissors are still favored by leather workers today!

 

That makes sense, just because I've never seen something doesn't mean all that much. Leather shears or similar, learned something new, I love that.

 

Thanks mucho.

 

Frosty The Lucky.

[Nick]

Another datum: I don't see signs of an applied steel edge to theose originals which was more common in earlier times even for quite small items.

I wondered about this. The original is coated in a hot wax dip, which can obscure detail, but if a strip of steel was welded to the inside face of the blade it might not be visible in the photo anyway. I thought about doing a mild/HC with welded on handles or a wrought/HC with the cutting edge welded in, but decided I needed to figure out setting the blades first.


I found my copy of Knives and Scabbards, it has been in a box since I moved back from England and just happened to be in one of the boxes already in my new place. One pair is case hardened and another is all steel (320 and 325), which would also account for the lack of any weld line on the originals above. One has a single piece of steel welded to the blade, the others two pieces of steel around a wrought core.

[ThomasPowers]

What do the dates show about the shears vs scissors?  (I think my copy went walk about recently)

[Rashelle]

I don't know how accurate this book is but I have a book titled scissors. It is from Magna books and is a translation from an Italian book. Text and photographs by Massimiliano Mandel.In the beginning it thanks Giuseppe Crippa, the Giuseppina collection, the museum of archeology in Konya Turkey, etc.