Starting to Assemble a Dwarven Toolkit

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Iodo
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Starting to Assemble a Dwarven Toolkit

Post by Iodo »

I think I've mentioned the possibility of putting together a dwarven tool set before, I'm aiming for something similar to the ones in the WETA books and have been collecting things for a while, this is what I have so far:

Image
(The steel rule is 12'' and just for scale, not part of the collection)

Some of the stuff is modern in make but I'm not to bothered about that, my aim is to end up with something functional that looks the part and can still be used easily

Other stuff I could add:

- Leather strop
- Some kind of oil?
- Scissors
- Small metal plate to use as an anvil for small non-ferrous metal work
- Metal punches of some kind for use on metal and leather
- Rule/square or straight edge (I have no idea what measuring units would be used?)
- Some different shapes of needle files
- Sand paper (or some kind of equivalent, if there is one?)
- Scribe
- Folding camp saw
- Wood chisel
- Screwdriver (If any kind of screw thread even exists in middle earth?)
- Some workable materials (leather, non-ferrous metal wire, nails, rivets etc...)
- Carpenters Axe
- Pry-bar
- Mallet
- Jewelers saw
- stump anvil

obviously this list needs work and I don't intend to add everything, it's just Ideas for a very early stage project :P

Any input or ideas of any kind would be welcome
Last edited by Iodo on Fri Sep 13, 2019 3:13 pm, edited 3 times in total.
Gimli: It's true you don't see many Dwarf-women. And in fact, they are so alike in voice and appearance, that they are often mistaken for Dwarf-men.
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Harper
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Re: Starting to Assemble a Dwarven Toolkit

Post by Harper »

That is a cool idea for a Dwarf.

Perhaps a small Carpenter's Axe? I imagine it is a good way to carry one (put a fork next to a knife and it looks inocuous). A small pry bar?

It looks like the kit is going to be heavy, what are you going to carry it in? A tool roll, dedicated leather pack, etc.?

Can you expand a little on the top hammer?
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Iodo
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Re: Starting to Assemble a Dwarven Toolkit

Post by Iodo »

Harper wrote:That is a cool idea for a Dwarf.

Perhaps a small Carpenter's Axe? I imagine it is a good way to carry one (put a fork next to a knife and it looks inocuous). A small pry bar?

It looks like the kit is going to be heavy, what are you going to carry it in? A tool roll, dedicated leather pack, etc.?
It'll be in a leather tool roll similar, but larger than this fossil hunting set that I made for my aunt last year, it seems to work well:

Image

I'm not intending to carry this on treks often, I don't think it's the sort of thing a fells-ward would need on the road, however I would take it to medieval fairs and such, even so, I like the idea of a small axe and a pry bar, the list's amended :mrgreen:

Harper wrote:Can you expand a little on the top hammer?
I picked up all three hammers as a set in a sale about half a year ago, because they looked like, with a bit of wood stain and maybe a tiny bit of decoration, they would fit in well in a dwarven tool kit, they're nothing special but quite useful for leather work, even if there intended for jewelery use:
https://www.hobbycraft.co.uk/modelcraft ... 14738-1000
https://www.hobbycraft.co.uk/jewel-tool ... 70407-1000
https://www.hobbycraft.co.uk/jewel-tool ... 60611-1000
I'm still not sure if I'll include them all
Gimli: It's true you don't see many Dwarf-women. And in fact, they are so alike in voice and appearance, that they are often mistaken for Dwarf-men.
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Peter Remling
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Re: Starting to Assemble a Dwarven Toolkit

Post by Peter Remling »

You don't really need a leather strop. Just use the inside of your belt. You can hang your belt by it's buckle and just use the inside (rough side closest to your body). It works the same and will save excess cost and weight.

Instead of a hack saw take a look at jewelers' saws. They are better for fine work and are fairly cheap. A small folding camp saw would work for wood and they are also inexpensive.

This is a quick list of tools from a page from Colonial Williamsburg's site:

Common carpentry tools included:
saw
broadax
hammer
awl
mallet
plane
scribe
drawknife
gimlet
froe

As far as sandpaper goes, they just used sand, water and a stiff brush.
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Re: Starting to Assemble a Dwarven Toolkit

Post by Elleth »

Oh very cool! I love the idea of that leather roll!

Regarding what goes in it though - wouldn't that be somewhat of a function of what your persona does?
I imagine a toy carver would carry different tools from a tinker, for instance.

(Now that I think on it, I *love* the idea of a dwarven toymaker as a "faire persona." I think the kiddos would love it. :mrgreen: )
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Iodo
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Re: Starting to Assemble a Dwarven Toolkit

Post by Iodo »

Peter Remling wrote:You don't really need a leather strop. Just use the inside of your belt. You can hang your belt by it's buckle and just use the inside (rough side closest to your body). It works the same and will save excess cost and weight.
Nice idea :P although I might stick some leather to the back of the sharpening stone
Peter Remling wrote: Instead of a hack saw take a look at jewelers' saws. They are better for fine work and are fairly cheap. A small folding camp saw would work for wood and they are also inexpensive.
Folding camp saws look like a good option, maybe I should have a small jewelers saw as well, in case I wanted to cut metal wire or something?

Brush, water and sand instead of sand paper, fascinating, I've always wondered how that was done, I guess that would also work on a wood lathe, I'll have to try it some time
Elleth wrote: Oh very cool! I love the idea of that leather roll!

Regarding what goes in it though - wouldn't that be somewhat of a function of what your persona does?
I imagine a toy carver would carry different tools from a tinker, for instance.
I gave that some thought and I imagined Iodo Ionite as one of those people who tried lots of trades, was master of none and didn't like any one of them enough to spend a whole life time working in it, so her tool kit would probably be a little bit mixed up and more tailored towards the trades she liked the most (I'm not sure what those are yet, leather-work is one of them)
Gimli: It's true you don't see many Dwarf-women. And in fact, they are so alike in voice and appearance, that they are often mistaken for Dwarf-men.
Aragorn: It's the beards.
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Re: Starting to Assemble a Dwarven Toolkit

Post by Harper »

Going into surrounding villages as a Dwarven tinker or a smith would be a good way for a Fells-Ward to gather intel surreptitiously (like a Harper/Bard).
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Iodo
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Re: Starting to Assemble a Dwarven Toolkit

Post by Iodo »

Harper wrote:Going into surrounding villages as a Dwarven tinker or a smith would be a good way for a Fells-Ward to gather intel surreptitiously (like a Harper/Bard).
I love that idea! an in character disguise, awesome, thanks :P

Changing the subject a bit, I found this mixed up with much random stuff in my room:

Image

it's tiny, very simple but useful for fine work like jewelry making and such, i'm probably going to add it, unless there's a specific case against screw threads in middle earth?
Gimli: It's true you don't see many Dwarf-women. And in fact, they are so alike in voice and appearance, that they are often mistaken for Dwarf-men.
Aragorn: It's the beards.
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Re: Starting to Assemble a Dwarven Toolkit

Post by Harper »

A screw is just an inclined plane wrapped around a cylinder.

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Re: Starting to Assemble a Dwarven Toolkit

Post by Taurinor »

I agree that a travelling craftsdwarf would be a very cool "in universe" disguise, and would add some fun kit to show folks for non-trekking outings, like Faires and Cons and the like. Folks do like looking at "stuff", it seems!
Iodo wrote:it's tiny, very simple but useful for fine work like jewelry making and such, i'm probably going to add it, unless there's a specific case against screw threads in middle earth?
I have a few answers to this question, based on what you're looking to do with your kit!

1. This is all for fun! If it looks dwarvish to your eye and you think it would be useful to have, use it!

2. My understanding is that WOODEN screw presses and the like go back quite a long ways, for pressing grapes and olives and the like, and wooden screw vices show up on medieval woodworking benches. Metal screws seem to not be well documented in Europe until the 15th century (but I’m in no way an expert!), and didn’t really take off until a lathe to make them was popularized in the 18th century (before that they were cut by hand). That’s our world, though, not Middle-earth. Dwarves are clever with metal, and for all that hobbits “do not and did not understand or like machines more complicated than a forge-bellows, a water-mill, or a hand-loom,” they have mantle clocks and what seem to be friction matches, which makes it hard to get a good grasp on their level of technology. So maybe they were cutting screw threads into metal, and maybe they weren’t. Linguistically, Sam refers to Frodo “screw[ing] himself up to go” (FotR, Chapter 10), but that’s not terribly illuminating.

3. It’s sometimes worth it to reverse that question; instead of asking “Is there a case against screw threads?”, ask “Is there a case FOR screw threads?” Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, so just because there’s no mention of metal screw threads doesn’t necessarily mean they aren’t there. On the other hand, I try to not resort to the “Uzi Rule”, personally, but depending on your personal preferences, see responses 1 and 2!
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Iodo
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Re: Starting to Assemble a Dwarven Toolkit

Post by Iodo »

Thanks for all that info and the link, that wooden thread bench vice is fascinating, it looks like a similar design to my carpentry bench at work, just with wooden thread instead of metal, it's funny how hundreds of years pass and were still using something almost exactly the same
Taurinor wrote:That’s our world, though, not Middle-earth. Dwarves are clever with metal, and for all that hobbits “do not and did not understand or like machines more complicated than a forge-bellows, a water-mill, or a hand-loom,” they have mantle clocks and what seem to be friction matches, which makes it hard to get a good grasp on their level of technology
mantle clocks would be very hard to make without screw threads in metal
Taurinor wrote: 1. This is all for fun! If it looks dwarvish to your eye and you think it would be useful to have, use it!
I couldn't agree more, I think I'll include it :P and if I ever change my mind I'll just take it out
Gimli: It's true you don't see many Dwarf-women. And in fact, they are so alike in voice and appearance, that they are often mistaken for Dwarf-men.
Aragorn: It's the beards.
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Iodo
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Re: Starting to Assemble a Dwarven Toolkit

Post by Iodo »

A little bit of modification:

Image

all I did was add some decoration and stain the wood a tiny bit darker, I didn't want to go for the massive aging WETA do because, with Iodo being young and in a line of work that doesn't really need this kind of thing, her stuff probably wouldn't have seen masses of use
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Aragorn: It's the beards.
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Re: Starting to Assemble a Dwarven Toolkit

Post by Taylor Steiner »

Beautiful!
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Iodo
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Re: Starting to Assemble a Dwarven Toolkit

Post by Iodo »

TaylorSteiner wrote:Beautiful!
Thank you :P
Gimli: It's true you don't see many Dwarf-women. And in fact, they are so alike in voice and appearance, that they are often mistaken for Dwarf-men.
Aragorn: It's the beards.
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Re: Starting to Assemble a Dwarven Toolkit

Post by Udwin »

The idea of a dwarf tool roll is very exciting! While I understand the appeal of being a jack-of-all-trades, I kindof want you to pick one trade just to see how nitty-gritty your toolkit could get. (I agree that toymaker would be fascinating)

Even knowing the crafting skill of dwarves, looking at that hammer handle, I have a hard time seeing it as anything but modern. Maybe its the lack of patina, but the fine polish and lack of any turning imperfections could do with 'improving' to my eye ; )
A natural wooden handle, split along growth rings and spokeshaved to shape (instead of turned) would look incredible. Or maybe you could find a local turner with a springpole lathe who could turn you a new handle to decorate?
Your kit is so great already, it deserves a handmade hammer!
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