Cellar Hoard

Made some more pewter amulets based off my reproduction of the Trendgarden mold.

The original mold was made in 10th century Denmark and is well known for its molds for a Thor’s hammer, two style of crosses and ingots.

However, I modified some of the Thor’s hammers to recreate the “anchor” pendants found in the Jorvik and Hedeby sites.

We’ve been asked a few time for heavier spinning whorls.

Behold some chonky whorls, each approximately over 30grams.

We’ve been pretty busy in the workshop, preparing for spring and summer markets.

Heavier whorls 20+ grams, replacement replica antler whorls, soapstone laps, bone folders, reproduction card weaving tablets and Anglo-Saxon lucet.

Currently working on more naal binding needles, bone sewing needles, bone lucets, ear spoons, needle cases and perhaps some reproduction pewter amulets. Stay tuned for our progress!!

We’ve made some sets of wooden tablets for card weaving, based on the Oseberg finds and measurements.

The Oseberg ship was a Viking longship burial from the 9th century in Norway. It contained the remains of two women and a lot of well preserved artifacts from daily life.

The lighter wood is maple, the cards between 4.3 and 4.5 cm. The darker wood is walnut, that, while not Viking period, is pretty.

I felt the need to make another soapstone oil lamp. This is based on a find from Iceland, 1000AD.

I’m using olive oil here, as fish oil seems prohibitively expensive here.

The wick is Hoof tree fungus ( Fomes fomentarius ) carved into a cone shape and soaked in oil. This process allows for a stable and tall flame creating more light than the traditional linen wick draped over the lamp edge.

Hoof fungus has a long history of being used as tinder for fire making. There is evidence that hoof fungus was used in the Viking age town Hedeby (Haithabu on German). I find that it has a long burn time as a wick, but can producers black smoke - great for longhouses and outside -not as great in a modern room.

Have we been busy restocking since the summer, yes.

Looking forward to the Feast of the Hare event in Ottawa on November 22nd. See you there with some favourites and new things reproduced.

We’ve been excited for this recent project, and happy to offer Viking age reproduction whetstones.

Also known as honestones, and honing stones, whetstones were valuable and essential tools across the angloscandenavian world, for keeping blades, points and axes sharp.

The coloured and banded stone shapes are known as touchstones/trying stones and they are used for determining valuable metal.

Made from slates and jasper, they have been found in countless burial and urban sites - Poland, England and Sweden.

Look for us at the Feast of the Hare event, in Ottawa on November 22nd, 2025. https://ealdormere.ca/feast-of-the-hare/

And lastly, I added a blunt arrowhead to my collection. The originals were found in the Viking age Greenland settlements and are made of antler.

I had a lot of fun recreating these Viking age English lucets.

Lucets are used to make cordage as trim or strong cord for tying.

A few clay pottery making friends had asked about Viking age stamps.

Inspired by finds, and the incredible work of Farolfus at https://farolfus.com/ we’ve made a stock from deer antler tips for our next merchanting.

A little bit more for the Viking tables at the Fergus Medieval Faire