Friarjacques' Wiki Page

This is one of my favorite activities.  The little groups with which I associate demonstrate various aspects of life in the medieval era, generally from the 11th to the 15th century.  We concentrate on the Battle of Hastings and the Wars of the Roses periods.  My sister and brother-in-law have the Squire's Camp with the really nice tent.  My hovel is to the left.

 

 

Most of the groups focus on military history, but my role is a carpenter.  So I try to show what a carpenter would be doing in a company of soldiers' encampment.  Here is a typical display, in which I have a workbench, some of my furniture and tools on display beneath a 15th-century merchants' shelter, and I am using a drawknife to shape a piece of wood. 

 

 

I am holding the wood using a shaving horse (called schnitzelbank [carving bench] by the Pennsylvania Dutch).  This remarkably simple device holds the wood very firmly with a foot-operated clamp, leaving the hands free to work the tool.  To shift the wood to a different position, the foot pressure is released and the wood can be quickly repositioned to cut on another surface.

In the center foreground is my toolbox.  This one is based on a 1930's find from Sweden that dates to roughly AD 1000.  In that box were an assortment of tools, scrap metal, and locks that showed that the Vikings had very advanced knowledge of metalcraft.  My tool collection includes a saw, some chisels, sharpening stones, a wooden square, and an assortment of 15th-century cordless drills.

 

 

Atop the toolbox is a knockdown stool.  People didn't have space for a lot of possesions  in their houses - those who had houses - so collapsable furniture was in demand.  The pegs (in the board that protrudes through the sides) pull out, and the stool becomes a set of stackable boards.