This is the first in a series where i will explore some of the different WOODWORK tools I need to build a Viking House. Keep posing tool suggestions....... Enjoy the video
Another interesting and thoughtful video! I think your conclusions are sound. I remember reading (in "Fine Woodworking" magazine, I think) of a man who was doing community development work in Central America. He came across a violin maker in a remote area. The photos showed very nice violins. The maker had no saws whatsoever. So, they are not necessary - but they are kind of nice. It really isn't particularly hard to draw out the metal for the blade. As someone mentioned, the worn- out blade would likely be re-used for something (mine become card scrapers). There is also the fact that there is not a lot of iron in a saw blade, so a saw might not even leave much of a rust stain in the ground. I would guess that Viking craftsmen had wood stashed away to dry for things that required dry wood, much as I can build you a chair or chest from green wood but keep pieces of Hickory tucked away for dry tool handles. I have a Viking anvil nearly complete, would like to make a tool that I have seen pictures of to see if it will easily cut the groove to take the spline in the vertical staves in house walls. Maybe I will be able to figure out how to upload photos?
hello my friend. Thanks a million for your input. The saws being repurposed or simply rusting and dissapearing in the ground faster than a more bulky tool like an axe seems like a very plausible reason for the lack of evidence. I would love to see your work and you are always welcome to email me the photos:) thanks for your interest in my videos and for taking the time to share your thought. Its much appreciated.
Good video, sharing great insights. The fact that fewer saws have been found is quite easy to explain for me. In the graves, which are still the main places where objects are found, tools for the afterlife were rarely given. Axes, on the other hand, were still the main armament, along with the sax or a spear. Tools were also more likely to be "recycled" than weapons, which greatly reduces the amount of finds. The amount of tools found in this "one" Mastermyr chest suggests to me that these tools were more common than we think.
I have that book, it's a great reference. The analysis of the saw blade showed it was mild steel (no carbon content) so it would require frequent sharpening. I suspect that a lot of saws simply got used up because a small piece of sheet metal is quite useful. So once a saw was past it's useful life it would get reused. Maybe? One tool from the Mastermyr find that intrigues me is the 'partial drawknife' #55 on Plate 28. I've been doing some wood turning on a pole lathe using hook tools and this item might be a hook tool. Maybe? -- Darrell
Hello:) I think thats a good point that the saws slowly dissapeared by them selfs due to excessive sharpening and hence lived a fairly short life. If thats the case then the mästermyr saws could be relatively new saws from the viking age. I have to check with plate 28 and look at it again:) thank you
Excellent video! I love the deep dive into Viking Age saws. I believe they would have seasoned their timber. Green wood changes so much after being cut to use for such intricate things like chests and furniture. Seasoning timber would not have been difficult, just cut the trees, delimb, and store under cover for about a year. I do find it interesting that there are so few saw finds. More interesting to me is the lack of bucksaw evidence. There is evidence of bucksaws from the Roman age, as you stated, and on into the late medieval age as well as contemporary proximity cultures, but somehow the evidence chain skips the Viking Age. I think you're on to something regarding the expense and skill required to make as well as maintain a saw, in that era. I also like to note how two of the Mastermyr saws are very knife-like in their profile. Maybe they started as large knives/saxs? Additionally, I see there aren't many contemporary saws that share the same profile, unlike the hacksaw. The closest I've seen is a simple drywall jab saw (my understanding is that drywall isn't common in Europe, this may not be a tool you'd commonly see). I suppose the common handsaw could be a more evolved version, but I wonder if there was a more specific purpose for the point on those 2 saws.
Hello:) thanks for very intersting input. I have wondered about the bucksaw as well. At some point i was wondering if there was a way that the saw blade with coarse teeth with its other end broken off in some way could have been a buck saw blade. But its very much guesswork. maybe the pointed tang coulc have been pinned in or riveted in place. And i think you might have a point on the saws being possible earlier repurposed knife blades. It does indeed account for the shape. Its easy to image a few dents in a good blade and then realizing that many "dents" can perform things that the knife cant. and slowly you get the saw
Hello again my friend! Excellent points here, thank you for sharing your observations and hands-on experience with the various saws. I think that the vast difference in numbers of axes vs saws found speaks to the axe being significantly more common. Probably every free man, or at least every household would need to own an axe for processing firewood. And as you describe, you can achieve a lot with an axe. And while not "easy" to forge, an axe would be easier to forge than a saw from period iron. So then who would need a saw? The smaller hacksaw I can see specialised craftsmen working in more brittle materials like bone and antler, comb makers, etc. Although the bigger saws stump me; they seem to be surely intended for cutting wood, so there must have been some specialised carpentry work that benefitted from them? Interesting to contemplate the differences in performance in green vs dry wood, as well as different species of tree. I guess a saw also produces less waste? A saw could cut a 2 metre plank into two 1 metre planks, an axe would require more material to start with. Perhaps precision, less waste, and better cuts on older wood suggests they were used more for repair work? While a ship may be made from green wood with axes over a period of many months, perhaps quick repairs in hostile territory might benefit from a saw? Pure speculation of course, but you've given us all a lot to contemplate!
Hello my friend. Thats some very interesting thoughts you share here. I really like the perspective of less waste when cutting with the saw. there might have been situations where the material was so rare or valuable of the option of wasting maybe 5-10cm for the axes was not a possibillity. I appreciate yout input alot Ingvar. Thanks for engaging with the videos in the way you do
Great video thank you for this. There is a lot of open questions for sure. Which makes these videos and how you are completing tasks in your projects, so close to how it could have been done in the Viking Age. But the period itself is so long, Since some surggest first raids from 700 to 750 then ending in 1050. (Please don’t quote me on that) But if the Scandinavian farmer whom later became or ventured out to become these Viking explorers aiders. They must have picked up the technology apon a raid took it home. Since iron itself was produced from Bog iron in scandernavia since 500. If Scandernavians never ventured out or came into contact with Romans for example the knowledge and use of saw could then been a foreign adopted concept. Since the Viking would not leave any type of good metal or ore resources behind/later trade. Take and rework metal to what they saw from a raid. ( a huge maybe but that’s the fun with living history. It is open to a bit of sensible interpretation 😊) Hils fra Oslo
To help understand saws vs axes you can try contacting Rex Krueger (he is a fellow youtuber) who uses axes in his woodworking. Mainly he uses the ax to remove large amounts of materiel. My guess is the saws were used for cross cutting, precision work, and on wood that is not straight grained.
Glad I found your channel. And a great video. I even ordered the book. I have to start making my tool box. Thank you for the video. Another reason besides the ones you listed and others suggested is that although axes may be found more in the historical record that maybe because they weren't as "valuable" as saws. My brother and I have not only some of fathers saws but also some of my grandfathers saws. And now that I think about it I didn't take any axes, they just weren't as valuable and I already had a good axe and hatchet. Now I have to go and binge watch some more of your videos. I also wonder what tools you will do next? Have you done drills?..
Im glad you found it too. The mindset with which you view and value and think of tools definately is a strong factor as your explanation shows. its a very good point. This is the first video in the series. Next I plan for axes and drills to start with. and then later more will come.
I just recently bought that book because of a video that I watched about these saws. Since the long saw blade is shaped quite similar to a seax, I wonder if a few finds of supposed seaxes were actually saws with the teeth corroded away...
Hi Ramuni, an other great video, made me take out my copy of the mästermyr finds book. The saw teeth in groups right and left makes me think of old fwlling saws (like 1900 hundreds ) I beleve these also had groups of teeth left and right filed. Suggesting these saws might therefore be better in green woud? Saws have historically been a lot more expensive till the industrial revolution. Files are hard to make by hand and this makes the saw extra expensive as the smithy has to make a flat pease of steel first as even is you would be buying steel they would be rods at best. Then needing the expensive file to file all these teeth, as wel as it having to be maintained.
Something else I was thinking, a saw is fealy nothing else as a row of tiny chissels. Ps. Have you heard about the discovery in england of an early saw. Found by x-raying a museum pease clasified as something other then a saw, but there where doupts as to what it actually was.
Hi, just a point about only little evidence about saws in early medieval period. I am from Slovakia, and from 833 to cca 907, we had a "state" called "Great Moravia" here. There are multiple archaeological finds of a variety of saws from this period and region. I am afraid that there is not a lot of material or papers to this topic in English, but if you are interested, let me know and I´ll try to find some pictures (or information) for you.
Another very interesting video, thank you! Would axes be more readily available over a saw in those days? Axes last longer? I certainly prefer to use a sharp hand saw to coppice with, an axe might be a bit dangerous to swing in an enclosed area. Of course modern tools are hardened plus I suspect that those who used axes in the Viking age were much more skillful than me!
Hello Rasmus Thanks for your interesting and clear video. Your question, why there are so few saws from the Viking period, remains a guess. I think they did not find it that useful, the way they built certainly also met a cost item. For less work you could also make a knife, which was useful. For us the saw is indispensable, because our way of building originated around the saw. Which carpenter has an axe in his toolbox? I think you are right, that the use of the saw increased, as people could produce better and cheaper iron and that the need to be able to build faster increased enormously after the Viking period. Anyway; it remains a guess, but certainly fun to think about.
Hello my friend. Thanks alot for your input. Its always interesting yo guess and have your frame of guesswork expanded by the help of others perspectives:)
@RAMUNI-Viking Hello Rasmus, The Toolbox raises the question for me; from which period does it originate and is possibly Frankish. What I understand is that an exact date cannot be given because of the variety of tools. Gotland was also a trading hub in that period and had connections with Slavic and Frankish peoples, could the toolbox have come from across the sea. Couldn't the saws have been used to saw soapstone? The only thing that is certain is the location and not where the toolbox comes from. The guessing remains fun
Saws are such a small thing, compared to the mass of an axe or a hammer. They simply don't survive hundreds of years in the ground. That is what makes the Mastermyr Find so exciting.
I think your saws you made would work great for cutting up Moose Caribou Deer and Cow and make the job much faster than a knife and the knife for the fine cutting of the meat I also look forward to you making a new saw with the 4 teeth pattern and how it will cut both wood and animals (bone,flesh,antler)
We can see how a saw must be able to do work better than an axe or knife by the fact that flint was used to make saws and performs work well on antler and bone. Needs frequent re edging but it is not a terribly skilled task and can make use of simple large flakes, suitably edged with small notches.
This is the first in a series where i will explore some of the different WOODWORK tools I need to build a Viking House. Keep posing tool suggestions....... Enjoy the video
Another interesting and thoughtful video! I think your conclusions are sound. I remember reading (in "Fine Woodworking" magazine, I think) of a man who was doing community development work in Central America. He came across a violin maker in a remote area. The photos showed very nice violins. The maker had no saws whatsoever. So, they are not necessary - but they are kind of nice. It really isn't particularly hard to draw out the metal for the blade. As someone mentioned, the worn- out blade would likely be re-used for something (mine become card scrapers). There is also the fact that there is not a lot of iron in a saw blade, so a saw might not even leave much of a rust stain in the ground. I would guess that Viking craftsmen had wood stashed away to dry for things that required dry wood, much as I can build you a chair or chest from green wood but keep pieces of Hickory tucked away for dry tool handles. I have a Viking anvil nearly complete, would like to make a tool that I have seen pictures of to see if it will easily cut the groove to take the spline in the vertical staves in house walls. Maybe I will be able to figure out how to upload photos?
hello my friend. Thanks a million for your input. The saws being repurposed or simply rusting and dissapearing in the ground faster than a more bulky tool like an axe seems like a very plausible reason for the lack of evidence. I would love to see your work and you are always welcome to email me the photos:) thanks for your interest in my videos and for taking the time to share your thought. Its much appreciated.
Great video, i like this style of narrated video. Keep up the good work
Thank you for this positive feedback:) there Will be more
I'm really enjoying your channel. I know nothing about tools, but I find them very interesting and like learning about their specific uses.
Hello Penelope:) Im really glad you enjoy the channel-. thanks alot for taking the time watch and write
Good video, sharing great insights. The fact that fewer saws have been found is quite easy to explain for me. In the graves, which are still the main places where objects are found, tools for the afterlife were rarely given. Axes, on the other hand, were still the main armament, along with the sax or a spear. Tools were also more likely to be "recycled" than weapons, which greatly reduces the amount of finds. The amount of tools found in this "one" Mastermyr chest suggests to me that these tools were more common than we think.
Great video as always! Very interesting to hear you talk about the saws!
Keep up the good work!
Thank you. Im happy you find it interesting:) i appreciate your interest in the channel
@@RAMUNI-Viking your channel is one of the most inspiring one I have ever found :)
I have that book, it's a great reference. The analysis of the saw blade showed it was mild steel (no carbon content) so it would require frequent sharpening. I suspect that a lot of saws simply got used up because a small piece of sheet metal is quite useful. So once a saw was past it's useful life it would get reused. Maybe?
One tool from the Mastermyr find that intrigues me is the 'partial drawknife' #55 on Plate 28. I've been doing some wood turning on a pole lathe using hook tools and this item might be a hook tool. Maybe? -- Darrell
Hello:) I think thats a good point that the saws slowly dissapeared by them selfs due to excessive sharpening and hence lived a fairly short life. If thats the case then the mästermyr saws could be relatively new saws from the viking age. I have to check with plate 28 and look at it again:) thank you
Wonderful video! Greetings from Brazil!
Very interessting. I ordered the book today. So i try to make the tools by myself.
thats fantastic:) I hope you will enjoy the books. Thanks for writing
Excellent video! I love the deep dive into Viking Age saws.
I believe they would have seasoned their timber. Green wood changes so much after being cut to use for such intricate things like chests and furniture. Seasoning timber would not have been difficult, just cut the trees, delimb, and store under cover for about a year.
I do find it interesting that there are so few saw finds. More interesting to me is the lack of bucksaw evidence. There is evidence of bucksaws from the Roman age, as you stated, and on into the late medieval age as well as contemporary proximity cultures, but somehow the evidence chain skips the Viking Age. I think you're on to something regarding the expense and skill required to make as well as maintain a saw, in that era.
I also like to note how two of the Mastermyr saws are very knife-like in their profile. Maybe they started as large knives/saxs? Additionally, I see there aren't many contemporary saws that share the same profile, unlike the hacksaw. The closest I've seen is a simple drywall jab saw (my understanding is that drywall isn't common in Europe, this may not be a tool you'd commonly see). I suppose the common handsaw could be a more evolved version, but I wonder if there was a more specific purpose for the point on those 2 saws.
Hello:) thanks for very intersting input. I have wondered about the bucksaw as well. At some point i was wondering if there was a way that the saw blade with coarse teeth with its other end broken off in some way could have been a buck saw blade. But its very much guesswork. maybe the pointed tang coulc have been pinned in or riveted in place. And i think you might have a point on the saws being possible earlier repurposed knife blades. It does indeed account for the shape. Its easy to image a few dents in a good blade and then realizing that many "dents" can perform things that the knife cant. and slowly you get the saw
Very interesting thank you for all of your information and videos. Looking very much forwards to the next.
thanks alot:) Im glad you liked it and that you are taking an interest in the channel. all the best
Fantastic!
thank you:)
great find . more to think abought .thank you
you are most welcome:)
Hello again my friend! Excellent points here, thank you for sharing your observations and hands-on experience with the various saws.
I think that the vast difference in numbers of axes vs saws found speaks to the axe being significantly more common. Probably every free man, or at least every household would need to own an axe for processing firewood. And as you describe, you can achieve a lot with an axe. And while not "easy" to forge, an axe would be easier to forge than a saw from period iron.
So then who would need a saw? The smaller hacksaw I can see specialised craftsmen working in more brittle materials like bone and antler, comb makers, etc. Although the bigger saws stump me; they seem to be surely intended for cutting wood, so there must have been some specialised carpentry work that benefitted from them?
Interesting to contemplate the differences in performance in green vs dry wood, as well as different species of tree. I guess a saw also produces less waste? A saw could cut a 2 metre plank into two 1 metre planks, an axe would require more material to start with.
Perhaps precision, less waste, and better cuts on older wood suggests they were used more for repair work? While a ship may be made from green wood with axes over a period of many months, perhaps quick repairs in hostile territory might benefit from a saw? Pure speculation of course, but you've given us all a lot to contemplate!
Hello my friend. Thats some very interesting thoughts you share here. I really like the perspective of less waste when cutting with the saw. there might have been situations where the material was so rare or valuable of the option of wasting maybe 5-10cm for the axes was not a possibillity. I appreciate yout input alot Ingvar. Thanks for engaging with the videos in the way you do
Great video thank you for this. There is a lot of open questions for sure. Which makes these videos and how you are completing tasks in your projects, so close to how it could have been done in the Viking Age. But the period itself is so long, Since some surggest first raids from 700 to 750 then ending in 1050. (Please don’t quote me on that) But if the Scandinavian farmer whom later became or ventured out to become these Viking explorers
aiders. They must have picked up the technology apon a raid took it home. Since iron itself was produced from Bog iron in scandernavia since 500. If Scandernavians never ventured out or came into contact with Romans for example the knowledge and use of saw could then been a foreign adopted concept. Since the Viking would not leave any type of good metal or ore resources behind/later trade. Take and rework metal to what they saw from a raid. ( a huge maybe but that’s the fun with living history. It is open to a bit of sensible interpretation 😊) Hils fra Oslo
thanks for this. thats an interesting perspective as well. Never waste material:) thanks for taking the time to watch and write this inspiring comment
To help understand saws vs axes you can try contacting Rex Krueger (he is a fellow youtuber) who uses axes in his woodworking. Mainly he uses the ax to remove large amounts of materiel.
My guess is the saws were used for cross cutting, precision work, and on wood that is not straight grained.
Glad I found your channel. And a great video. I even ordered the book. I have to start making my tool box. Thank you for the video.
Another reason besides the ones you listed and others suggested is that although axes may be found more in the historical record that maybe because they weren't as "valuable" as saws. My brother and I have not only some of fathers saws but also some of my grandfathers saws. And now that I think about it I didn't take any axes, they just weren't as valuable and I already had a good axe and hatchet. Now I have to go and binge watch some more of your videos. I also wonder what tools you will do next? Have you done drills?..
Im glad you found it too. The mindset with which you view and value and think of tools definately is a strong factor as your explanation shows. its a very good point. This is the first video in the series. Next I plan for axes and drills to start with. and then later more will come.
I just recently bought that book because of a video that I watched about these saws.
Since the long saw blade is shaped quite similar to a seax, I wonder if a few finds of supposed seaxes were actually saws with the teeth corroded away...
I dont know if archaeology can back that up but that is a really cool idea. Thanks for this input:)
Hi Ramuni, an other great video, made me take out my copy of the mästermyr finds book. The saw teeth in groups right and left makes me think of old fwlling saws (like 1900 hundreds ) I beleve these also had groups of teeth left and right filed. Suggesting these saws might therefore be better in green woud? Saws have historically been a lot more expensive till the industrial revolution. Files are hard to make by hand and this makes the saw extra expensive as the smithy has to make a flat pease of steel first as even is you would be buying steel they would be rods at best. Then needing the expensive file to file all these teeth, as wel as it having to be maintained.
Something else I was thinking, a saw is fealy nothing else as a row of tiny chissels. Ps. Have you heard about the discovery in england of an early saw. Found by x-raying a museum pease clasified as something other then a saw, but there where doupts as to what it actually was.
Hi, just a point about only little evidence about saws in early medieval period. I am from Slovakia, and from 833 to cca 907, we had a "state" called "Great Moravia" here. There are multiple archaeological finds of a variety of saws from this period and region. I am afraid that there is not a lot of material or papers to this topic in English, but if you are interested, let me know and I´ll try to find some pictures (or information) for you.
Hello. Yes i would love that. Thanks for taking the time to watch and write.
@@RAMUNI-Viking My pleasure! :) May I write you via your FB page, or do you prefer e-mail? If e-mail, please, send me your adress :)
Got the book. Now I want to make the whole chest of tools.
Fantastic:) I strongly encourage you:)
Another very interesting video, thank you! Would axes be more readily available over a saw in those days? Axes last longer? I certainly prefer to use a sharp hand saw to coppice with, an axe might be a bit dangerous to swing in an enclosed area. Of course modern tools are hardened plus I suspect that those who used axes in the Viking age were much more skillful than me!
Hello Rasmus Thanks for your interesting and clear video.
Your question, why there are so few saws from the Viking period, remains a guess.
I think they did not find it that useful, the way they built certainly also met a cost item. For less work you could also make a knife, which was useful. For us the saw is indispensable, because our way of building originated around the saw. Which carpenter has an axe in his toolbox?
I think you are right, that the use of the saw increased, as people could produce better and cheaper iron and that the need to be able to build faster increased enormously after the Viking period.
Anyway; it remains a guess, but certainly fun to think about.
Hello my friend. Thanks alot for your input. Its always interesting yo guess and have your frame of guesswork expanded by the help of others perspectives:)
@RAMUNI-Viking Hello Rasmus,
The Toolbox raises the question for me; from which period does it originate and is possibly Frankish. What I understand is that an exact date cannot be given because of the variety of tools. Gotland was also a trading hub in that period and had connections with Slavic and Frankish peoples, could the toolbox have come from across the sea. Couldn't the saws have been used to saw soapstone?
The only thing that is certain is the location and not where the toolbox comes from.
The guessing remains fun
Saws are such a small thing, compared to the mass of an axe or a hammer. They simply don't survive hundreds of years in the ground. That is what makes the Mastermyr Find so exciting.
thats a very good point:) that makes sense. the mästermyr is indeed fascinating. and even more so in the context of your theory
I think your saws you made would work great for cutting up Moose Caribou Deer and Cow and make the job much faster than a knife and the knife for the fine cutting of the meat I also look forward to you making a new saw with the 4 teeth pattern and how it will cut both wood and animals (bone,flesh,antler)
I think so too. I suspect that could be one of their main uses. Thanks for watching and for taking the time to comment
We can see how a saw must be able to do work better than an axe or knife by the fact that flint was used to make saws and performs work well on antler and bone. Needs frequent re edging but it is not a terribly skilled task and can make use of simple large flakes, suitably edged with small notches.
🎩Hi. You just reminded me to sharpen my saw.
There is always a tool in need of sharpening:)
I know for sure saw was known in ancient sumeria and Egypt
Surprising lack of demons . . .
they lurk in the shados