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Jomsborg |
I needed to weigh out materials for niello, and I've always wanted a set of folding scales... and here they are!
In every case I have found, this style of folding scale was made of bronze. The closest alternative might be the Mästermyr tool box's steelyard, which was iron. I chose to make bronze scales.
I took the size from some eyewitness reports; fortunately these were later verified. The Ellesmere fragment below is described as "15cm," which I took to mean 15cm long when straight. Assuming the diameter of the dishes were about the same as the length of the remaining folding arm, the bowls on the Ellesmere scales were originally about three inches in diameter. The Ellesmere fragment:
The scales from Birka grave 644 were approximately 2.5 inches in diameter:
I chose to make my scales approximately 3 inches in diameter.
The chains are made of bronze butt-jointed links like this example (also from Birka):
The chain distributors above (where the single chain turns into three chains) appear to be sheet bronze like the bowls. I haven't gotten around to the cast bits between the arms and the dish suspenders. Note also the bits of metal dangling from the chain distributors; these may be decorative, but I interprete them as being balancers, with the small cuts at their bottom allowing the maker to "fudge" the scale construction and still have it balance. I got the last bit of my imbalance out with two extra rings (visible in the first photo on the right side).
In every case the pivot point is above the line of the arms- contrary to the drawing below, which shows the pivot point too low and in line with the arms (note also it is unlikely the arms in this drawing could fold out flat as there is not enough clearance in the top side of the slot). Although it is not completely clear, it appears the pivot part of the Ellesmere Island fragment might be made of two pieces rivited together- there's a small lump that looks like a rivet head on its underside.
I chose to make the hinged arm assembly in three cast parts. First I dished the bronze from sheet and then
cast a single pewter arm prototype and
a pivot-indicator thingie prototype:
I made some modifications and cast the bronze parts, then patiently fit them
together with hand files. For chain, jump rings, the handle, and rivits, I used
bronze brazing rod. Unfortunately the thinnest brazing rod is still a little
too thick to make a nice-looking chain.
Most of the scales I've seen are quite plain. A notable exception is the Gigha scales shown below. They are tinned, the chain distributors are fancy cast parts and the arm terminals are three-lobed. My scales are relatively undecorated, like most of the scales I have seen.
Pieces of the Gigha scales:
