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Saint Nicholas
Tokens
a project by
Lord Dunstan
LeHeryngmongere (Keith Nealson)
Materials/Tools
Closet rod (fir)
Radial Arm saw
sandpaper
Dremel hand tool with numerous attachments
Acrylic paints
‘Olde Maple’ Satin polyurethane stain
Methods/Comments
These tokens were made in such a flagrantly non-period method that
commenting on their manufacture is vaguely embarrassing for me. I
first went to Lowe’s home improvement warehouse and bought a piece of
closet rod. Lowes is very different than a period building supply store
would have been, in that it is much bigger, much louder and no one there
knows the first thing about building anything. I took the piece of
thick closet rod and cut it into slices using a brand spankin’ new
radial arm saw (a tool which was NEVER used in 12th century England).
I used a sanding attachment on a dremel tool to sand them. (Here I could
comment on the possible 16th century use of shark skin as an abrasive
material to smooth wood, but since the shark skin at the time was not
rotating on a small steel shank at 2,000 rpms I won’t).
I then used a wood etching attachment on the dremel (which is sort of
like 11th century viking ship-builders tools, except that it really
isn’t at all) to carve out the outline of a shoe and some circles. I
used an incredibly contemporary wood polyurethane to seal the entire
token ( BUT the stain WAS named ‘Olde Maple’, with an ‘e’ after ‘old’
for real, so I think I should get points for that).
To add insult to injury I painted the front face with acrylic paints
even though I had paints that would have been more period but not looked
as nice. I sealed the front face using an aerosol can of ‘dull cote’
sealer. Aerosol was not well documented before the year 1600. In fact,
it was never documented before the year 1600. I doubt it was even
recognized as a word before the 1800s, but I may be wrong about that.
THINGS I WOULD HAVE DONE DIFFERENTLY
During the sanding process I failed to wear a face mask and inhaled a
little wood dust, which made me have to spit frequently. In the future,
I will inhale even deeper and spit even more, because spitting was
period.
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