If you read the link in the ortiginal post the knife is described as 8 x 15 cm. The Swiss army knife has been photoshopped into the picture and the two items are not shown ar a common scale Awesome, thank you. I must have missed the dimensions in the original description. Medicus' two word reply wa...

Medicus Matt wrote:It isn't.

And the actual size is? You know this how?

Does anyone know the actual size of original? It seem that everyone assumes that it's hand sized, but the if the modern swiss army knife in the pic is an accurate comparison the Roman Army Knife may be more of an all purpose kitchen cooking tool rather than an eating tool.

Awesome! Thank you very much, I can't wait to start reading.

Thank you very much for your replies. I must admit, I'm rather surprised that there are so few re-enactor/ment blogs out there. (At least when googling for such things). It's good to hear there are more.

I've recently started a blog on my thoughts and experiences on Re-enactment/Living History called "Re: Living History"

But I was wondering if anyone else here has a history related blog, or has a favorite one they like to read?

I'd have to dig through my books, but I'm near 100% certain I've seen froe blades cataloged at the Navan (Ireland) dig circa 100BCE-300CE as well as at the Manching Oppidum dig in Bavaria (circa 400BCE-100BCE) That said, even if an area has no direct evidence for a froe (or other woodworking tool), ...

I started blacksmithing because I wanted a sword and couldn't afford one, but that was 10 years before I started re-enacting. But once I started down that path I discovered not only that I had a natural talent for it, but I really enjoyed it.

The Hallstatt Celts made this clearly showing the women probably wore earrings. http://celticclans.oakandacorn.com/celticgallery/d/45-1/chalicewagon.jpg http://celticclans.oakandacorn.com/celticgallery/d/43-1/celticring2.jpg http://celticclans.oakandacorn.com/celticgallery/d/39-1/celticring1.jpg

Down hill grass slope skirmishers

Ah! Combine that with a "Salmon Leap" to finish the attack and you could defeat any Roman shield wall!

When faced with a lack of specific contextual evidence then going with a reconstruction of something that was known to be in use elsewhere within reasonable geographical proximity is reasonable enough. Ah, yes, thank you. Both Medicus and Fox said what I was trying to much more elegantly than I did...

Bad Gobae, go sit on the naughty step.

Yes, very true. Guilty as charged. You know I think a lot of things can be justified that way.

Yes, that's correct. Since AD stands for "Anno Domini" or "the year of our Lord" and since not everyone believes he is Lord that causes them angst.

Personally, I don't much care either way.

speak English please this is and English forum none of your colonial nonsense here

If that sentence is an example of the English you want used, I'm not sure I can follow suit.

Additionally, I really had no idea two little letters would cause such distress. Are American spellings an issue too?

Very true. But with no evidence for any bellows of any sort it didn't seem a big jump.

In fact, IIRC, when I was originally doing research for this, the only instances of bag bellows discovered were African in origin. Which was another reason I went the direction I did.

I should add that single chamber valved bellows were chosen for a couple of reasons. 1) They were already in use on the continent (at least that's what the images look like they are) 2) There's no evidence to contradict their use (which I realize isn't a great argument to do/use something). 3) They ...

CE (Common Era) = AD

400CE Ireland/Dal Riada.

We bring in stone slabs and bury them. Here's a couple of shots of this year's setup. http://www.celticclans.org/images/demos/coc08-3.jpg http://www.celticclans.org/images/demos/coc08-2.jpg http://www.celticclans.org/images/demos/coc08-4.jpg http://www.celticclans.org/images/demos/coc08-8.jpg As you...

This year Celebration of Celts took place at the Columbia County Fairgrounds in Chatham, NY on May 3rd &4th. This was the third year Ancient Celtic Clans has participated in the Celtic Timeline. (Complete photos can be found here: http://www.celticclans.org/demos/coc2008.html ) Building on the s...

Not sure if you mean loose rambling storytelling or actually doing what bards did. And there's a HUGE difference between them! Since I originally started this topic I guess I've come to the same conclusion you have. (See if I'm summarizing this right). You can't do a truly Iron Age Celtic Bardic li...

While we were sitting around the evening fire at the last summer solstice enjoying the immersion, we noticed something distinctly missing. Stories. As it turns out, while we were busy making all the material items that the Celts used, we were forgetting an integral part of their lives. The ancient C...

Recently, I was going over old and new photos of our group's events and it seems as though our biggest anachronism is food containers. How many people use only period food containers and storage when reenacting? If so, what are your storage vessels of choice for hard to store things like: flour, hon...

Cat - Thank you very much. You're very correct about not really understanding how things work until you do them. That's one of the big reasons our group exists. Steve - Yeah, tell me about it. We've got fantastic forests but no "Celtic" sites. (Unless you want to believe some far fetched q...

Let me preface this by saying, I know some of our clothing is not 100% accurate for our time/location and that is something we will be addressing this winter. However, I thought I'd like to show what we've been up to as far as "Period Trekking" goes. We got back from our Primitive Trek in ...

As promised here are some additional closeups of the loom. Here's where we left off with the weaving. Both the warp and the weft are wool. http://www.oakandacorn.com/hostedimages/loom1.jpg The heddles in the relaxed position. They're simply loops of linen thread. http://www.oakandacorn.com/hostedima...

Oh! Thank you for reviving this thread (no pun intended). Here are some up to date photos of the loom in action. We used it during a local Celtic festival (Celebration of Celts) The complete page of that even can be found here: http://www.celticclans.org/demos/coc2007.html http://www.celticclans.org...

Its usually harvested in winter in traditional English willow beds - willow coppices Hmmm.... I'm starting to wonder if we're talking about the same type of willow. I'm talking about "Weeping Willow", which doesn't grow in what I think of as a "coppice". http://www.truthzone.net...

Excellent info; that's good to know. I'll pass that info along to the basket maker (currently she's making baskets from kits).

Oh, one other question. Is there one time during the year vs another (spring, fall, winter, etc) when it's better to harvest the willow?

Basket making was one of the skills we were going to demo at our event in May. Although we had a source of willow, the demo never ended up happening.

Anyway, how is the willow prepped before usage? Is it allowed to dry or are the baskets woven green?