My main focus is on arming sword. I've done a little bit of German longsword, but longswords are hard to come by in my neck of the woods, and arming swords (for me, at least) are small enough to use effectively in CQC without sacrificing the benefits of a full-size sword.

So, update: it worked. All I had to do was boil the meat and it was good to eat!

Thanks, Elleth. It is unseasonably warm for February, even in Arkansas, so I think you're right with the refrigerator making sense. I don't think anything's going to get into my tupperware container, so I think it should be okay. I'll give it a few more days and fill y'all in on the final result.

Anyone here have any experience preserving meat in salt? I'm running an experiment with the last of the New Year's venison and have put it in a container with about an inch of salt above, below, and around it. Do you think this will be enough to preserve it? And should I keep the closed salting cont...

Gosh, I wish I could make stuff like that. Teach me your ways!

Man, I'd be there if I could. I will just be returning from Ireland that day.

I feel like that would go best under "other human cultures," yeah. Good question.

Welcome to the forum!

Eru only knows how long Orcrist and Glamdring had been lost before Gandalf and Thorin picked them up out of that troll hoard, but I certainly don't think the trolls were just lugging their cache of treasure around with them everywhere they went (though come to think of it, that might explain the sac...

Happy Birthday, Cimrandir!

Merry Christmas, everyone. The shortest days of the year are behind us, and we shall see more of the sun before long!

So historically, there were multiple different ways of sealing your oven. The clay plug you mention is definitely one of them, but one I found out about more recently is to make a kind of flour-and-water paste and chink the gaps in the oven door with that. I suppose that would be useful in less clay...

Not to be a necromancer and resurrect a dead thread, but check out this article on home heating throughout the Middle Ages! https://www.medieval.eu/open-hearths-ovens-fireplaces/ Forgive my tardiness to this topic, but I'm stuck inside and already have all the work done that needs done for the day. ...

Here’s a question: the trolls in the Hobbit are noticeably different from the trolls in Lord of the Rings, right? Obviously, the main reason for this is that Professor Tolkien wrote the Hobbit as a fairy tale for his son, and that Lord of the Rings was something of an expansion on the themes laid ou...

True. What I wonder is what it would take to change an Orcish heart. Obviously, some hearts are incapable of change, whether by the will of the being themselves or by the will of the one who holds them in thralldom, and a change of heart would not counteract or excuse a lifetime of wickedness. But w...