Medieval wood riving – An attempt to recreate craftsmanship
Medieval wood riving – An attempt to recreate craftsmanship
The movie describes an attempt to split a thirteen meter long log of pine tree. The riving was done by radial cuts. The original was founded in the spire of the church of Hardemo southwest of Örebro city in the province of Närke. The church was built approximately between 1180 – 1220. These rafts are produced from the log by a method which never been documented before. One side of the rafts is raw sapwood which is rare in churches from the Middle age. All woodworking are done with tools that are modelled on archaeological findings. The felling and riving of the tree are performed with a few axes and tools.
The movie Medieval wood riven describes an experiment grounded from the medieval roofing project. The project is financed by the Swedish church- Strängnäs.
The movie was recorded 29 March until 1 April 2016 in Ryfors, Mullsjö, Sweden.
Great video
This is amazing! Wonderful project and fascinating to use tools the original builders would also have used
Great video! Thank you for making and sharing it.
this very interesting that the wood structure is still standing this long .. I can see stone or something but wood ??
Cut down a 195 year old tree…for an educational video. This production company sees no value in something unless there is a price tag.
An illustration could have sufficed and he could have worked on a reclaimed tree that had to be cut due to illness or that was struck by a non-human natural occurrence.
Very labor intensive. Building a church must have been a very long process extending over many years.
With the advent of recent conflicts. This knowledge is highly valued
seriously this wood is 700 + yrs old ?? wood can last that long with rotting an wat not
Wonderful to see the old techniques are being retained, there is a fundamental need for such skills, particularly as we head towards a society that has become increasingly specialised.
Fint gjort, flera olika yxor och verktyg till jobbet också. Önskar att de var också visad mer
I’m curious about what will happen as the wood dries? Is warpage a problem?
What’s the debarking tool at 7:46?
Great job men, really amazing.
As you are craftsmen you might be interested in old techniques. I attach a film of an old carpenter in Mátra Hills, Hungary. The film was shot at 1955 by the Museum of Ethnography, Budapest.
The old craftsman and his wife made a beechwood crate, applying raw wood and pre-dried wooden nails.
The language is Hungarian but, I think you may find familiar techniques and tools just watching it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T35Mm5p4GHU
very good job, but I see the chain saw in 9:48
Here is how it was done in Australia, many years ago. The timber is hard wood as well. Its a great video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcoTnER4Efg&list=PLE25345CC43816E9E
How long does it have to dry before using in the construction?
What type of pine is this tree ?
Awesome.
X is recovering from her rape. People blame me. Shoot the guys, they probably want. In this case, govt people were involved.
use an adze, flatten the top of the log, while straddling it. MUCH safer for your legs than an axe.
Wow, have you really decided to cut out the heartwood? Usually, the sapwood is cut away, being more desirable than the heart by insects; so it lasts longer after construction! You guys probably know more than me…
How wasteful
Really enjoyed your efforts in discovering how the rafters were hewed
one word…….Stihl……..
Wonderful!
It is better to cut trees in winter, as they do not have as much sap. It will be dry in a few years.
Fantastisk video! Disse arbeiderene viser kunnskap og styrke og godt samarbeid.
it is best preserved by talking to each other, but that will soon be a forgotten craft im afraid…
I thoroughly enjoyed this.. very enlightening!
Your humble approach, your refined technique and sound knowledge are a splendid tribute to that majestic tree. The generations of foresters who dedicated their care to its growth would certainly approve your work.
Everything about this video is wonderful. The tree that was cut down for the project, was absolutely perfect. Excellent forest management. It was neat to watch him fell it with an axe.
What an honor it is to be able to connect with their ancestors in this way.
Even the English captioning is great in this video. Finding correct translations for old and specific terms like hewing and riving between Swedish and English is non-trivial.
Very educational and beautiful, now I realize how the Vikings made their ships they had steel for tools and trees to build and an intelligence and tenacity- patience to work with, the Swedes in this case are amazing the level of perfection to build goals!
One of the reasons it took hundreds of years to build medieval cathedrals.
I just want the axe home boy gots
This video shows a team of people going to great lengths to maintain a 800 year old church. The team shows considerable skill in rediscovering histroic building methods while aiming for economy of materials and labour. Very commendable.
All though history better methods were introduced to produce a better product. Many times, it is discovered that these improvements in one industry provided insight into another. Some were "before their time" but later found to be able to be incorporated. These techniques that are shown as to how it was done then, and it would be useless to use anything but the available tools of the day. Excellent.
Thank you for doing this. Very interesting.
Why is the sapwood stronger than the heartwood as he mentions at 20:30?
That log split was super informative! Thanks for sharing this?
My wife and our children are all academics and research doctors. As such we are invested in many forms of academia.
This form of experimental archaeology is so worthwhile, to understand our past achievements and the skills and insights lost. Plus it also shows how much information is lost relatively quickly, when information is passed on only by action and word of mouth, rather than being written down or written in a style which we still understand … These days we are dependent on video and electronics. Hopefully our own information will survive in EMP resistant vaults somewhere.
My next thought is the immense amount of physical labour. Labour which was being carried out by people without modern clothing, foods, modern medicine or lifestyles. 1300’s Europe on average saw life expectancies after 15yr old of around 40yr- 60 yr old, though the Black death soon dented that and from 1500 to 1800 that average dropped to between 30-40yr old.
Thank you for an interesting video and that Örebro läns museum is doing such fine work. Thanks again
This is a most important project. Largely, meaning has been devolved from life by everything being so easy and at the reach of ready-made products. The part at the end about saving labour, saving material, and creating a strong rafter, were most impressive. Many thanks for the hard work.
I have a funny theory. New York State had both Norway spruce and these same pines (Pinus Sylvestris) introduced centuries ago. The Norway spruce possibly grow here better than there. I suspect good genetic sources for those trees. I have seen them over 4 ft diameter in 100 years and as tall as our tallest white pines. But all our Scots pines as we call them are scraggly- none like those. I think new seed needs to be imported from there.
Quick easy access to many projects with Woodglut plans.
Are you sure the old guys didn’t use a saw to cut the base even? What a waste of gorgeous tree! The other thing is, how to counter the twisting of the tree as it grew? Certainly, in 195 years, it twisted while growing! So, how to keep your split straight?Sorry about all questions, but I’m curious, plus I might do this in the future. What is the woden hammer made of? How do you keep it from crushing and falling apart, even with the bands?
Impressive!. Genius! Brilliant!
누구든지 예수를 믿는 자는 멸망하지 않고 영생을 얻게 됩니다.
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is there any particular reason why they did not use chain saw?
Very nice. It would be valuable to each of the tools used close up. I had a broad axe from my great garandfather and it was flat on one side. I wasn’t sure if that was by design or if it was easier for him to make it that way. My feeling was it was for hewing a flat side. Some day maybe I will travel to Tving and look at the houses he built. Maybe there are lessons there for me.
This blew my mind. Thank you for sharing