A Laurel, a Herald, a Scribe, and a Weaver walk into a room... (Looms)

EDIT: Free PDF of loom prints located here

 It almost seems like too easy a setup for a bad joke, but that is quite literally the way this got started. Master Isaac Bane, Lady Eadwyn seo Gathyrde, my own wife, Ladyship Lillias MacGuffin and myself were in a Google Hangout room on a Sunday night. It was a normal, and convenient ritual for the four of us, a safe means to socialize in a world still dealing with COVID and its complicating factors in everyone's life. 

Outside work bench

Our two families had known of each other for years, and had bonded over the last 24 months, the catalyst for that being a post event dinner trip to Pho 54 restaurant  after Yule Revel. 

The past 5 months of my life has been long list of work as my wife and I settled into our new house, and I worked to make shelves, and other addons to it to help make it out home. 

Recessed Shelves

I've always liked working with my hands, and woodwork, among other things, usually was as relaxing as it was tiring for me. But, none the less, having a shop, and a place to actually use and store, AND access my tools had meant that I was able to talk into skills and knowledge that before.... really just existed in my head with no real outlet. 

One of just *4* sets of 
shelves built for our 
home library. 

Of course, one of the longest standing projects on the list (as in, dating back to before I was engaged, let alone having a house) was my promise to make my wife a library worthy of the famous scene in the animated Beauty and the Beast. 

Folding workbench (stored)

 

 

Also, having a shop in itself was a major boon. it meant I has access to space, and infrastructure where I could work on projects without interrupting the rest of the house. This was just something that was categorically not possible in our old home. 

Not long after we moved into our new home in Wiesenfeuer, I started expanding on my shop as well. This meant not only buying new tools, but making new places to store them. 

Something of a centerpiece to my shop was the compound miter saw and rolling stand/saw horse I made for it. A LOT of really important work was made easy with this rig. 

All of this, of course, is only background for the conversation at hand, however. Eadwyn had not long before taken up the office of local Minister of Arts and Sciences, and was taking the job seriously, with a steady string of classes and open A&S meetings held via the newly appreciated online forums. One such class was an upcoming weaving class, which would be one of the fist in-person classes following the B.O.D.'s latest directive on safe conduct for in-person activities once again. Consequential to this, the ever present question of looms came up. 

Isaac asked me if I could open my shop up and help him with a project run to try and make one or two new loaner looms based on a design he had. it looked....'simple' enough, or should I say straight forward. Nothing about looms ever struck me as 'simple', there were just always too many parts to consider, even if none of them moved. 

We talked for an hour, and at first glance, a rough estimate of the project, based on the wood, wing nuts, and bolts needed would be somewhere between $15 and $25, the latter largely due to the recent spike in lumber costs (also thanks to COVID). 

The other thing that I was more than sketchy about was the cost in manpower. Between the joints, the pegs, and the clam, the whole thing just looked like it would suck up a lot of time in order to get it together. On top of this, I am an old school (little c) conservative when it comes to building things; the more parts there are, the more room there is for something to go wrong. 

Inkle loom from 
OakeandAshe
(no affiliation with this blog)

We looked online at different designs as well, and there were two constant themes in all of it. One, they were all relatively complex at one level or another, and two: they were all damned expensive. The cheapest we found was north of $80, and some of them were easily over $200. Now, granted, a lot of that was labor, and I'm never going to begrudge a skilled worker their time, or their intent to charge for it. 









But... damned! that means that if someone wanted to get into weaving in the SCA, they either had to borrow a loom (which was still $20+ in materials, and a few hours time to make in the first place, let alone maintain/fix over time), or they would  need to cough up $100+ on their own. And THEN... what happens if they don't like it? 

The whole dynamic of the situation left me with a bad taste in my mouth the more we talked about it. There had to be some way to do this, at least at a fundamental level, and not have it cost  that much in time and material. 

The more we talked, the more I was also thinking about the whole process and what went into it. Isaac did a really good job of breaking down the basic needs of what a loom needed to do at its core in order to function, and some of the looms we were seeing online were really simple at their core, they just had a lot of details in their design that were... 'above and beyond' when you broke it down. 

a tradition, hand-tool-only
six-board chest

There was a lot, a whole lot of back and forth on the subject, but the more I thought about it, the more I kept thinking about a lot of the woodworking I had learned and learned about from my father, and from places like The Woodwright's shop and YouTuber Rex Kruger. I was also feel a lot more confident about tackling some new projects now that I had built my own 6-board chest for SCA events. I had gotten a good feel for some of my more fundamental tools and was actually not that worried about more precise woodwork and joinery like I was only a few months before. 

Isaac and Eadwyn broke it down relatively well actually. When you sifted down to the basics, the loom wasn't anything special, or complicated, but it did need some things in order to work. In my head, In ideas at that point, a concept. I could cut slots into wood, and lock them together, creating the arms that hold the string taught. One could be pulled out and turned over, like a flat bobbin. The other, could have a bar across the top of it that would be tied down to make the clam to hold the other end of the string. 

Really, it was a lot harder to verbalize than it was to see in my head. I even wound up sharing my screen and pulling up my copy of Librecad and drawing what I was talking about on my screen for them. Isaac and Eadwyn were both intrigued by my idea, but I could tell that there was also a lot lost in translation. I think in three dimensions by default, but I know what its like trying to translate my ideas to people who don't speak fluent "Ivo".  But at the same time, if I was right, my idea would mean we could make a simple, effectively loom for as little as $5 in materials. And while I didn't know how much time it would take,  it had to be faster than the multi-peg beast Isaac had been looking to duplicate. 

We talked until way too late into the night, my wife actually abandoned the conversation and went to bed before the rest of us gave up and did the same.  The next morning was Monday, but it was also a holiday, meaning I still had the day off. During a morning shopping trip, I detoured to the local hardware store and picked up a 8 foot board of 1x4 line. The rest of the morning was dedicated to some house cleaning, and a few other projects, but at noon, I hit a break, and decided to distract myself out in the shop. 

I pulled out my Ryoba pull saw, my chisel set, mallet, square, and my marking knife. I also wound up pulling our my files as well, but really, that was it. No power tools, no fancy gizmos, just a lot of time honored handwork. 

I started with the board and make three cuts across it. The first made a two foot long piece, and the next two that were just over 8 eight inches long. In total, I measured and cut four slots, cleaning them out with the chisel, and then checking the fit and maki9ng adjustments with my files. I made one last cut across the top of one piece for the clamp head, and that was it. When it all came together, the parts fit just about perfectly. It was actually kind of startling. 

When I looked up at my shop clock, it was just after 1:30, I hadn't been out there more then ninety minutes. 

I looked at the receipt from the board purchase. 

$7.64

That means that the loom was less than $4 in material, and less than 90 minutes time, and that was only hand tools. 

My porotype loom.
The "bobbin" is on the left.
The arm and clamp on the right. 

Excited that it had all come together, I sent Eadwyn a photo, and asked he if she wanted me to run it over to her that same day. She responded with an excited "yes".

Less than an hour after I dropped it off, she replied to my message with a photo of the loom fully warped and a patter already in progress. 

It had its shortcomings, to be sure, but the important thing was that it worked. The design had survived the basic, and had proved that we could get someone started in this for less than the arm-and-a-leg price tag we had been looking at before. 

The following day, Isaac took the loom into his own shop over a lunch break and made some of the modifications that Eadwyn had pointed out to me. The first being the cutout along the spine so that she could better get to the threads without running into the side of the loom. the second was making afoot to keep the loom stable when it was on a flat surface. He used the cutout piece for the foot, so we were still looking at less than $4 in wood. The foot was attached with two nails and glue, so the price had gone up by pennies, if that. The last thing he did was put a whole in the 'bobbin' end to help secure the thread with. 

The relief cut on the spine so that the shuttle
can pass cleaning through the strings.

The foot, and the whole in the bobbin
are best seen in this photo.
[Both on the right end in this shot]

She finished the first weaving later than week, I think it was all of 3 days, and those were broken up by her own work, and life with two kids. No sooner had she finished that than she send me a photo of the loom rewrapped with an even larger project, these was yarn, 20 strings worth, 16 feet long. 

That following weekend was the first in-person event in Ansteorra, a collegium hosted by the canton of Myrgenfeld.  I was scheduled to site herald for the event, so I would be going no mater what. But Isaac was there as well, running logistics for our kingdom archery competition, the Royal Huntsman, that was on site as well.  Unbeknownst to me, he had produced his own copy of the loom the day before. While Eadwyn still worked on the original, Isaac had brought number two for us to show around the event. When I hit a lull in activity, I picked up the loom and walked around with it, waiving it under the noses of a 'few' people I knew to be at least hip deep in weaving or the fiber arts scene (or just people I knew would think it was cool). 

The conversation I worked out as a 'sales pitch' (such as it were), went like this.

Me: "So, if someone wanted to get into weaving right now, how much would a starter loom cost?" 

Them: "Oh... easily seventy or eighty dollars. Maybe a hundred or more." 

Me: "and if someone were to make one, how long would it take?"

Them: "oh, maybe five or six hours, depending."

Me: [hands them this loom]  Thats $4 in parts, no metal, and it takes 90 minutes to make, front to back, with hand tools only. 

Them: [Jaw drops]. 

There is no real 'end' to this story, really, just the note about the beginning. The goal was always to get people into weaving with it, or let them see what it was like without a massive investment (by them, or the group). This past week, I locked myself in my shop and pulled out another two boards. It took a few days because the work was broken up by life... but all told, these look like they are ready to go for Eadwyn's weaving class next weekend. 

Looms 3 through 6, ready to go. 

His Lordship Ivo Blackhawk

Kingdom of Ansteorra
"Long Live the King!"

Sword Sunday #52 - North's sword...and all good things must come to and end.

So, in something of a new tradition for my family, we sat down Christmas eve and watched "Rise of the guardians" as a family. Say what you will about the movie, but I found that the story narrative, the characters (a Tattooed Russian "Santa", a marshal arts trained, six foot tall, Australian Easter Bunny,  a hummingbird-winded, feathered Tooth fairy, and a plump, Sand man literally made of magic sand) and the plot to be engaging, fun, and most importantly, entertaining. 

So, for the fifty second Sword Sunday of 2020, I wanted to have some fun and talk about the set of swords our butt-kicked Santa Clause was swinging as he went against "Pitch", the aptly nick-named Boogieman. 

Our hard hitting Russian enforcer brings a matched pair of single bladed, straight-backed swords with single hilts and hand-guards. The handles are wrapped, and likely wire wrapped to help shift the center of gravity back towards the hands for balance, which lends itself towards the speed of the strike with a single handed weapon. 

If you look at the weapon in detail, it is actually a fairly well illustrated back-sword, which dates to the second quarter of the sixteenth century in western Europe, and did, in fact, have some counterparts into Russia. Like the weapon in the movie, the back sword was regarded has a sharp, fast cutting weapon with a secondary thrusting attack. It was made for the speed of the strike, and was used as a fast moving weapon meant to cut deeply on the strike or the draw. 

And, if you look at the movie and how "North" wields his matched pair, that is very much in line with how he swings at the Nightmares and then at "Pitch" in the film. 

So, Truth be told, Kudo's to the director and animators for this really well done bit of Hollywood weaponry. 

And, that leads us to our final topic of the series.

When I set out to do this project, I knew that it was be a one year undertaking, and I knew that while there was a lot more to talk about, I couldn't blindly go on just talking about swords, not with as many things as I have going on right now in my life. And.... to think that I laid out this project before 2020 became "2020".... the fact that I made it is, frankly, no small miracle in my opinion. 

I hope you have enjoyed this year-long voyage of swords as a topic, both as weapons and a cultural icons. it has been an eye opening process writing about them, and an engaging process sharing my findings and information about them with you.

But, as was said by better people than me,

All good things must come to an end.

And with that, I leave you on this, the last Sword Sunday, and the last Sunday of 2020. 

His Lordship Ivo Blackhawk
Kingdom of Ansteorra
"Long Live the King!"

Sword Sunday # 51 - Two case Studies, and a lesson in culture.

This week we take a quick look at two different situations on opposite sides of the world from each other. 

There is nothing Japanese about Miriam and Martin Carrington, of west Yorkshire, England. The couple, however, did have an interest in Japanese culture, and that lead them to purchase a 'wall hanger' decorate katana for their bedroom several years ago. As far as Miriam could recall, she had never even taken it out of its scabbard.  

but that all changed one night when three men broke into the couple's home while they were there and ordered them to hand over the keys to their £40,000 ($54,090.00) Audi. Martin ordered his wife to run to the bedroom and lock the door as the three men pressed in, shouting threatened and repeated orders to hand over the keys. 

Miriam, however, had a different idea. 

"‘I suppose I just went into crazy mode." She explained to the paper After running to the bedroom, she grabbed the weapon, held it, and ran back to confront the three men. "I held the blade towards him to stop him moving and then the silly idiot, who was wearing gloves, grabbed the blade with both hands. I then pulled it back towards me and that is when it has sliced through his hands."

The damage to the man's hand was so severe that a doctor later said that he was close to death from blood loss by the time he and his two co-conspirators got him to help. His attorney would later state that the man had completely lost feeling in several fingers, and that the cut was through several tendons and into the bones. 

Miriam and Martin were exonerated of any wrong doing, and the intruders have been charged with multiple counts of criminal conduct for their attack that night. 

See the full article in the Daily Mail.

The situation in Australia for actor  Blake Davis, however, is less clear. 

What is known is that an intruder broke into the actor's home while Blake's girlfriend was with him. In the ensuing confrontation, Blake delivered a single blow with a Katana that struck the intruder on the head. The single hit, delivered with an blade that was also razor sharp, would prove fatal, and the home intruder would later die of the resulting injury. 

This is where the facts stop and the disputes begin. 

Davis said that the attacked pointed a weapon at him, and then his girlfriend, a statement that the police said they were not able to cooperate with other people in the home.

Also, Davis admitted to chasing the fleeing attacker after the fatal blow was delivered, for almost 80 yards  

For the prosecutors, this was evidence of criminal intent. Final arguments for the case were heard this week. Davis' defense attorneys have leaned hard on the emotions of the situation, pointing Blake's fear for the safety of his girlfriend, and the fact that he only delivered one blow with the weapon. 

Prosecutors, however have argued that the Davis understood the weapon's capabilities, and that his aggressive actions, including chasing the attacker for three quarters the length of a soccer field constitutes and attack, and is not self defense. 

A Judge has already ruled that the Murder accusation against Davis could not go forward, leaving the remaining charges as the Australian equivalent to manslaughter. 

None the less, the Jury is still considering if Davi's actions rise to the level of criminal assault, or are, in fact truly self defense. 

Se the full article in the Islander.

Analysis.

One of the interesting aspects of these two stories is the name of the weapon. Both article, written for different publications, literally half the globe apart, describe the weapon as "Samurai Swords". The reality is that the actual Samurai class used a number of weapons during their nearly millennium long existence, including multiple blades ranging from 8 inches, all the way to 50 or more. 

However, no blade has more come to personify Japan than the katana sword. This is due to a number of factors, some external, some internal.   After the second world war, stories of Japanese officers with katanas leading infantry charges were some of the most vivid tales to come out of the pacific theater, and were part of the reason that sword ownership, or instruction were banned outright by the american occupational government on the island for multiple years after the war.

The Second aspect of this is a cultural one that started during feudal japan, but shaped the modern nation and some of its art. To varying degrees, Japanese marshal arts have taught that the weapon was an extension of the person holding it, and that part of its purpose was to express the warrior spirit of the person. This philosophy extended into world war two, and included the institutional practice of some models of machine guns being fitted with bayonets as it was 'appropriate' for the weapon to properly express the role of the man holding it. This was the same philosophy that encouraged and reinforced the idea that officers had to hold  swords (and pistols) rather than rifles for most of the war. 

Following the war, however, as the shattered entertainment industry worked to rebuild itself under a newly pacified national government, the national pride and history would find a safe venue tof expression in movies, manga (comic books) and later on, TV shows. As the Japanese culture already gravitated towards more fantastical expressions of cinema than western audiences preferred, Japnese media, both live action and animated (and manga) would leave a dramatic (and somewhat inflated) impression of the classic Katana on non-Japanese consumers.

In Japan, traditionally, the swords were used as a way to express the prowess and power of the character. The weapon was capable of its many feats because of the skill of the person holding it. 

However, for American, British and Canadian audiences, with a more secular worldview at the time, the message was that the characters were made powerful because of the strength and sharpness of the blade. 

In this cultural mistranslation sits the roots of the Katana's near mythical status with western audiences, and why it is now almost exclusively associated with the Samurai, and why a Katana (often called a Samurai  sword) is one of the first things casual students of Japanese history go for when they pull out their wallet. 

His Lordship Ivo Blackhawk
Kingdom of Ansteorra
"Long Live the King!"