DK Eyewitness Books - Viking

43

HAMMERS

Hammers came in various

weights. The heaviest

were used for welding

and forging swords, the

lightest for delicate work

such as shaping wire.

Larger detachable

bit, for boring

bigger holes

SHIPBUILDING

The Bayeux Tapestry (p. 10) shows how

the Normans made ships. In the detail on

the left, a man fells a tree. Above, a man

trims a tree while another shapes the split

trunks into planks with a T-shaped ax.

Below, the planks are overlapped and nailed

together (foreground), while one carpenter

smooths the planks and another makes

holes with a drill, or auger (background).

Small

detachable

bit

AXES AND ADZES

The carpenter used an ax to fell (cut down)

trees and chop off their branches. He then

used a T-shaped ax (p. 15) to shape and

smooth the planks. An adze has its blade at

right angles to the handle. The carpenter

could shape a log by chipping away at its

surface with an adze.

Hole for a wooden

haft (handle)

Felling a tree with

an ax

Adze head

Wood is modern, as t he original

wood had rotted away

SIGURD’S SWORD
This carving is part of a
12th-century doorway
from the church in
Hyllestad, Norway. It
shows the hero Sigurd
breaking a sword that the smith
Regin has made for him. In another
scene (p. 51), Regin holds the hot
iron with a pair of tongs and
hits it against the anvil with a
hammer. A helper works the
bellows to keep the fire in
the forge burning.

Back gives extra strengt h

A BORING TOOL

This drill, or auger, was used to

make holes in planks, including the

holes for the nails that held ships’

planks together. It had five

drill bits of different sizes.

Tang, a spike

t hat used to fit

into a wooden

handle

BONE CUTTER

A small hacksaw could cut through

bone and metal. The craftsman could

also use its narrow blade for fine work.

WOOD SAW

The small lengths of wood

needed to make buckets, boxes,

and furniture were cut with

this large saw.

Iron-toot hed blade Shaped end for t he

carpenter to lean on Wooden handle

A smith’s tools

The carpenter turned t his

T-shaped handle to bore t he hole

Light hammerhead

Heavy
hammerhead

The tools on these two pages are part of a

large hoard found in a chest at Mästermyr on

the island of Gotland, Sweden. Their owner was

a cratfsman. He was a smith and was able to

work with sheet metal to make cauldrons and

locks, but he could also cast, weld, and decorate

bronze. He was also a shipbuilder, carpenter,

and wheelwright, and he probably made the

wooden tool chest as well!

Drill

bits