[Sca-cooks] Tuyeres, was a greedy wanna ;-)

Saint Phlip phlip at 99main.com
Thu Sep 4 19:57:57 PDT 2008


On Thu, Sep 4, 2008 at 7:47 PM, Dragon <dragon at crimson-dragon.com> wrote:
> On the 2006 series... the cookpot from Macedonia is very suspiciously
> glazed. That super shiny sort of glaze on earthenware says "potential lead
> poisoning" all over it to me. I'd be wary of using it for food, especially
> anything with any significant acid content. As far as I know, the only
> glazes that produce that sort of sheen are lead glazes. Yes, I did see that
> the pot was unglazed inside, but the pottery is porous and water will soak
> through the clay to the glaze.

Well, that's Michael's doings, but I'll pass along the message.

> Overall though, looks quite nice. I'd be happy to share an open fire and
> some good food with you (any of you) if we are ever at the same event. It is
> a goal of mine to eventually make it to Pennsic one of these years, though I
> don't know when that might be. I'm going to do my absolute best to be at
> Estrella in February next year.

Estrella's a bit far for me to go yet, since I live in CT. Expect I'll
get there, though, one of these years ;-)

>> At the moment, I'm interested in experimenting with the tuyeres Elaine
>> made me for my wooden forge- in fact the clay to set it in is almost
>> ready, and I'm sewing the shelter for the set up as we type.
>
> Tuyeres? Not familiar with the term... Care to enlighten me?

Basicly, the piping and what not directing the air from the blower
into the forge. If you look at the last picture in the 2007 pictures,
the tuyere is the pipe arrangement directly under the poker in Ben's
hand, under the table, to which the dryer hose is attached.

That particular tuyere's a bit of SCA history- the pipes it's made
from are from a defunct furnace, from the basement of Duke Andrew of
Seldomrest, who was King of the Middle Kingdom during Pennsic 1 ;-)
Cariadoc, who was at all of these cooking experiments (and in fact,
cooked the oatcakes he was discussing this year after the other foods
were cooked, as he barely managed to make it, due to other
commitments) was, of course, King of Pennsic 1 for the East Kingdom
;-) A little bit of history there for y'all ;-)

Anyway, the tuyeres that Elaine has made for me are of two types. One
is basicly a long pipe with an end (mostly ) shaped to my request, and
the other has holes spaced along its length, staggered. If they work
as I hope, the first one will cause a small, deep fire, suitable for
most smithing and available for quick, strong heat for forge welding.
The second should be useful for heating longer lengths, for, perhaps,
blades, or lengths I want to twist. I'll be setting them into a wooden
forge packed with a mixture of clay and horsemanure (should make a
Medieval fire brick as the organics burn out). This is step one in my
series of experiments towards developing a truly Medieval forge set
up- I can document all the elements to about 1200 CE. If this works as
I hope it will, I'll then be trying to regress into an even earlier
period set up. Some folks I know are playing with a Norse set up from
about 1000 CE, and I think I might be trying out some of the things
they've found out next.

But, one advantage to experimenting with a forge set up, is that each
major element can be replaced as I learn more about how things work
together. However, I KNOW that linen would have been used for any sort
of shelter, it being the cheapest fabric available through most of our
period, so first I need to finish the bloody sewing. Have gotten 20
feet of the 30 feet of center seam I need to do. As soon as I finish
the next 10 feet, I can hem the ends (another 18 feet), and then
stitch in the grommets, and I'll have myself a tarp suitable for a
lean-to. I've already had the saplings for the poles peeled and drying
in the barn for a year.

Have all my materials together, except the hemp rope I want to use, so
things are moving forward apace. For all my bitchin' about the
stitchin', I'm in the home stretch of a project I've been planning for
several years- now all I need to do is put things together ;-)

>> I HATE sewing...
>
> By hand? So do I, with a passion.
>
> However, if "cheating" with the machine, I'm OK with it.
>
>
> Dragon

I should correct that- I HATE sewing _fabric_ , although I can
cheerfully sew or lace leather for hours at a time ;-)  I DON'T use
machines- I dislike sewing my fingers together. And, I must admit,
this linen canvas I'm working with is actually rather non-obnoxious to
work with, considering it's fabric. I'm glad, however, that various
people had told me to use beeswax on the linen thread I'm using- I
suspect things are a lot easier than they could have been, because of
that.

But, back to the salt mines, or the sweat shop, or whatever. I'm going
to try to get another couple of feet done yet tonight.

Sewing, sewing....  (bleaugh)...


-- 
Saint Phlip

Heat it up
Hit it hard
Repent as necessary.

Priorities:

It's the smith who makes the tools, not the tools which make the smith.

.I never wanted to see anybody die, but there are a few obituary
notices I have read with pleasure. -Clarence Darrow


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