Joke of All Trades

As you all know, in preparation for our event last month I made a bunch of camp gear. One of those things was my first attempt at a chest! The original chest, documented as Oseberg 178, was found mostly intact at Oseberg and dates to the 9th century. It is one of a few interestingly similar "sea chest" examples we have of the era. The original was made using mortise and tenon joints, with iron hinges and an iron locking latch.    The plan from the very beginning here was to make a "practice chest" so that I know the angles and sizes I need in order to make a much more authentic chest in the future. As such, I took some liberal shortcuts on this one which allowed me to crank it out in one day and have it ready and complete for the event.  Another member of the group who was also producing camp gear suggested a 5-degree angle for the sides. His cuts looked good to me, so I did the same, making angled cuts on all upward-facing edges on both side pieces.  Rather than us...

Return of the Sun 2022 at Ravensborg was an event that will stand in memory for many years. We had prepared for a cold, rainy weekend; instead, we got 80 degree sunny weather, 40mph winds, and ground the consistency of cottage cheese. 😂 The mud, wind, and sun caught us by surprise and made camping very challenging. Thankfully, all of the tents and camp gear in our group survived, more or less! I was so busy with camp duties and so exhausted from setup (as well as dealing with an aggravated old injury) that, for the very first time in my event-going career in this community and others, I did not participate in combat. But doing so gave me more time to spend with companions and allowed me to day-drink, so I can't complain! But primarily, I want to speak about the surreal experience I had as a vendor. I made an unusually large number of items to sell and sold almost all of them; I thus spent much of the event noticing other people wearing my work. I had half a dozen people, strangers...