Tresoor of castle hernen Part 11: The tresoor at the castle

 

On 18 September 2022 the finished tresoor officially moved to its final place in castle Hernen to be revealed to the general public.

 

But first ...

Whereas the tresoor was ready, there was still one thing to be added to it: our signature. We did not want it to be easily seen, but it should be visible without moving the tresoor. So the backside was not an option, and of course all the front parts as well. We decided on the frame, underneath the lower plateau of the tresoor. on your knees, using a lamp from your mobile phone you would be able to spot 'St. Thomasgilde MMXXII' written (or burned) with a pyrographic pen. 

Our signature on the tresoor.

To the castle ...

The tresoor just fitted into our car, so the travel to the castle proved to be no problem. This time we drove our car into the small courtyard, so that we had a smaller distance to carry. Hoisting the tresoor on the stairs and moving it to the kemenade was a bit more work. We first thought the tresoor would fit well againt the (otherside of the) wall of the main hall, but it appeared a bit lonely there. We then moved it to its current place on the opposite wall, next to a large window and a candle stand.

The tresoor is now fully integrated in the tour of the castle. It is especially satisfying that visiting schoolchildren with a visual handicap also had much fun with the tresoor, as they could feel the carving of the knight and the dragon, and the working of the lock.

Providing the curator of the Stichting Gelders Landschap en Kastelen with the key of the tresoor.

 Bram and Marijn telling the secret story of the Tresoor of Castle Hernen: of how Reyner van Wijhe was tricked by the St. Thomasguild to be a member of the pro-Guelders faction (see blogpost 6 of the tresoor).

Two photos of the tresoor at the incorrect spot in the kemenade of castle Hernen.

Tresoor of Castle Hernen Part 10: the lock and hinges

The lock with key, and hinges in place. Note the red leather under the hinge.

One of the last things to complete the tresoor for castle Hernen were the metal fittings: the hinges and the lock. As creating elaborate medieval metal fittings is not our focus as the St. Thomasguild, we asked a very good historical blacksmith - Klaas Kloosterhuis - to make them for us. (He also made the fittings to the scapradekijn and our toolbox, among other things.)

 

Designing the metalwork

Medieval fittings ranges from simple curled hinges and lockplates to very decorative ones. The latter are often found on dressoir-like furniture like our tresoor. We took some examples from existing dressoirs and based on that drew our own design.

 

Dressoir in the Musee des Arts Decoratifs, Paris, France dating from the late 15th century.

 

The lock of the same door. The sliding bar is on top of the lock and locks into a separate U clamp.

Details from the hinges, which are fixed to the door with many small nails. The decoration of the hinges is open, showing the woodwork underneath.

 

Tresoor with German style late medieval hinges. Often with openwork hinges there is a reddish coloured layer underneath, either a coloured thin metal sheet or a thin piece of coloured of leather.

 

We first created several designs on paper and tried it out on the wooden door of the tresoor, so we could judge what looked best.

 

The 'winning' design, based on the one in the Musee des Arts Decoratifs.

This one did not make it. We found our tresoor too French in style and too decorative to fit this (a bit0 simpler design.

 

Details of the design for the lockplate and the hinge.

 

The attachment plans for the hinges showing the 112 degree angle at the short end of the hinge. 

Note that in the end no pins or nails were long enough to be folded back.

Creating the metalwork

 

As our blacksmith Klaas Kllosterhuis also is a re-enactor (16th century) and was visiting castle Hernen with his company, we took the opportunity to bring the tresoor to the castle, so he would see it firsthand and we could communicate easier on our expectations for the lock and hinges.  

Some of the 16th century re-enactment members with Bram and the tresoor in the courtyard of castle Hernen.

Some steps in the crafting process of the lock and hinges. Photos taken by Klaas Kloosterhuis.

 

Attaching the metalwork

Now that the finished hinges and lock had arrived (with two keys, i.e. one spare one! This is important to have), we needed to attach them to the tresoor. We started with the lock, as this required additional carving work on the door, and this is more stable and easily done on a flat surface (workbench).

The lock and hinges that had just arrived by post on top of the door.

A space needed to be cut in the door to fit the actual lock hidden behind the lockplate. This cut-out space is often seen on medieval dressoir doors without their metalwork. See the blogpost on the making of the tresoor part 6 for some examples.

The next step was to attach the hinges to the door. This was a bit more tricky. At the actual hingepoint, where most of the forces would occur, there were only a few options for attaching the nails. We thought that it would be better to reinforce this point by drilling two additional nail holes (and have two extra nails per hinge supporting the door). We also added a strip of red leather underneath the hinge. This has a dual purpose of being decorative and protecting the metal from rusting by the acids of the oak.

(Top hinge) The original hinge showing few nailholes at the hingepoint. (Botom hinge) The red dots indicate where new nailholes were made. One of the nailholes at the short end already has been drilled (a black "dot"). 

 

You can see the red leather underneath the hinge. 

 

Now that the metal was attached to the wooden door, the door (or the other part of the hinges) needed to be attached to the frame. Some material from the frame needed to be removed to fit the curved short end of the hinge. Removing was a bit complicated as the tresoor was already assembled. Luckily the crown was not fixed at that time, allowing us a bit more moving space and better lighting possibilities. We had to test the fitting of the hinges several times, removing some extra wood where necessary, in order to have the correct depth of the door inside the frame (i.e. the same depth as the panels in the frame). When this was correct, the hinges were nailed to the frame with 2 flat nails, and a 'normal' one per hinge.

The inside of the tresoor. The short end of the hinge needs to follow the curvature.

 

Bram creating some saw cuts to define the edges for the recess for the hinge. Doing this by chisel is not possible, due to the six-sidedness of the tresoor. There is no support underneath and hammering a chisel would make the tresoor to wobble.

 

From the inside, cutting the recess for the hinge with a chisel.

Checking the depth of the door to the frame.

Using a small Stanley router plane (No. 271), and sliding sharp flat chisels 

to smooth the surface of the recess for the hinge.

 

 

The hinge inside the recess, seen from the front. Ideally, the hingepin would fit perfectly within the wooden rounding of the frame, thereby preventing the removal of the pin for unauthorized opening of the door. It would also be more pleasing to the eye. Most surviving dressoirs however are just like ours, having a non perfect fit.

The final step was to cut out the recess for the metal U in the frame. After that, some holes were predrilled in the frame for the pins at both ends of the U and the U was hammered in place. This proved to be a strong fix, and there was no need to fold the pins inside the tresoor to secure the U. (in fact, the pins were not long enough anyway.) 

 

Hinges and lock fitted, open door.

 

With this last step done, the tresoor was complete and the crown could be fixed on the top as well. The final tresoor looked like .....

 

The tresoor at the castle will be shown in the next blogpost.

Medieval fir-niture

Most of the surviving medieval furniture in central Europe has been made from oak. This does not mean that all medieval furniture consists of oak; oak is just a wood type that can withstand the test of time easily. Most of the medieval furniture from the Alpine and Scandinavian regions on the other hand is made from softwood like pine and fir - these are the common wood types from these areas. In northern Italy, walnut is a common wood found in medieval furniture. There have been surviving examples of medieval furniture made from softwood, like some chests in the convent of Isenhagen in Germany. 

A 15th centrury archive cupboard from Hagenau, France made from fir wood.

This year we found another example in the Historic Museum in Hagenau, France. It is a small fifteenth century archive cupboard made of fir wood that used to belong to the Saint George church in this city. The cupboard is painted with black motives on the front and sides. Most interestingly, the centraL motive appears to be a medieval turned chair! 

The side of the Hagenau cupboard. Boards continue on to the floor.

The central motive is a medieval turned chair.

Most boards are nailed, but the top of the cupboard is fastened with dovetails. It is unclear how many shelves the cupboard had, as no nails indicating them are recognisable from the outside. The cupboard has 2 doors.

The top board is fastened with dovetails.

The bottom front board is nailed. The black motives continue from the doors to the bottom board.

A thin rail reinforces the boards of the doors. The hinges are placed over these rails. The cupboard has two similar looking primitive sliding locks.  The bottom lock was placed too low, and some parts of the thin rail had to be cut out to accomodate the decoration (and fastening nails) of the lock. Some of the wood near the upper lock has been gone; this enables us to see the the bolt hole for the sliding bar of the lock.

The top sliding lock.

The corresponding bolt in the other door for the sliding bar can easily be seen.

The lower lock, with the cut out pieces of the supporting rail.

The medieval toolchest: the plane (part 7): another ship-like form plane

Recently I could borrow the book 'Antique woodworking tools' by David Russell, a photobook lavishly illustrated with all kinds of antique tools from his collection (but mainly, too modern Norris planes to be interesting for this blog). A few medieval woodworking tools were depicted, among them an early medieval plane I had not seen before.

The 'Russell' plane, dating between 250-400 AD. Probable origin Scandinavia. Photo scanned from the book 'Antique woodworking tools', ISBN 978-1898565055. 

The problem with archeological find at collectors is that the finding location is obscure. The same here: probable origin Scandinavia. The origin is likely based on the finds of similar looking planes from bogs in Denmark (see the plane part 5). This one however is much larger in size. Its length is 50.1 cm (the sole measures 45.7 cm), and the gap for the blade is 3.2 cm. The angle for the blade stands at 50 degrees. The sole of the plane is flat. The iron was secured with a wedge (of which a part remains) against the iron pin.

Compared to the Vimose and Nydam planes (I do not have the actual sizes of the Nydam plane, but a replica was shown along a ruler of 10 inch) this plane is about double their size.  Also the function is different, as the Vimose planes are moulding planes with a hollow sole, contrary to the flat sole of this plane. 

A medieval pump drill

The 'Russell' pump drill dating from the 15th century or earlier. Photo scanned from the book 'Antique woodworking tools', ISBN 978-1898565055. 

The book also contained a pump drill of medieval origin. These kind of drills were used for woodworking, but also for boneworking (see the Libro the Juegos of Alphonso X the wise) and surgery (trepanning). This drill measures 58,2 cm by 54.6 cm and has a granite flying wheel. The shaft is adze cut and passes through a carved crosspiece before it is fitted into the flywheel. A (modern) thong passes through the V-shaped notch in the end of the shaft and is knotted though each end of the cross-piece. The thong is would round the shaft and pressing down the crosspiece starts the motion. The flywheel action rewinds the thong, and pumping continues the motion.

Tresoor of castle Hernen Part 9: The crown

This blogpost continues the story of the making of the dressoir or tresoor for Castle Hernen and concerns the top or crown of the tresoor. We were presented with new challenges with regards to the construction. For our tressor, we wanted to have a similar look and feel like the crown of the tresoor at chateau Langeais, however, photos from the outside do not provide much information of how this look is actually achieved. Demolishing a medieval dressoir would likely solve this, but of course nobody would allow us to do that - we also would be very reluctant to such a thing. 

Left: The top view of the Langeais tresoor. The top consists of three joined boards, whereby the top planks are integrated in the side decoration of the crown. Right: The side view of the crown with the decoration. Wooden pins are visible that fix the crown to the frame of the tresoor.

Our crown has a slightly different construction, as the top boards fit inside the decorative rails (For thee langeais tresoor the top boards are part of the decoration). The decorative parts of our crown consist of 5 pieces with a decorative profile and one flat one without decoration. The latter is at the backside of the tresoor. All these six parts have a rabbet on top on which the top boards rest, and a rabbet below to fir over the frame of the tresoor. First, some square oak stock was prepared, after which the rabbets were made with a router table. The rabbits had a similar depth, but a different height. Thus, we only needed to adjust the height of the router, while the guiding rails could stay at the same place.

The back rail had no decoration, and only the two rabbets.

Next the decorative profile needed to be created. This was more challenging as also stability of the oak stock when moving it across the router bit had to be taken into account. It is important to consider which part of the profile has to be routed first. We used a round bit as well as a V-bit for routing the profile, and finished it by hand using a scraper.

Left: The first rounds of routing have been finished. Right: the middle part has been rounded with a scraper.

The small decorative groove in the (round) middle was made with a V-bit. The stock was securely fixed between 2 guiding rails on the router table.

The finished profile of the crown.

We borrowed a crosscut saw to make exact 45 degree cuts. A fake multiplex frame was made onto which the parts of the crown could be temporarily fixed with screws. The holes made for the screw were later used for wooden pins to fix it to the real frame of the tresoor. 

Left: The fake multiplex frame. Right: the size of each part of the crown was measured and tried on the real tresoor as well.

Testing the pieces on the tresoor frame.

The fake frame with all the front parts screwed and clamped with diamond shaped pressing blocks (left), and with the back rail and a middle supporting rail added (right). 

We used two doublesided dovetails to fix the crown parts of the 45 degree angles together. At the backrail a normal single dovetail joint was used. An additional rail was added in the middle to stabilize the crown and support the top boards. This was fixed with dovetail joint on the one side and a mortise joint at the other side. 

(Left) A paper dovetail was used to mark the place for joining. (Right) The plan for the two doublesided dovetails. Due to the 22.5 degree angle of the joint, the doublesided dovetails also have different angles. Also the second dovetail is much smaller.

The angle ready for cutting. Some wooden blocks and an underboard were used to clamp the crown pieces and stabilize them for cutting with a chisel.

The fixed crown pieces from the side. The dovetail marking can be seen on the top.

A thin strip of oak was used to make the doublesided dovetails. These were sawn out and then cleaned up with a chisel. The doublesided dovetails were glued with hideglue to the crown.

The strip with the small dovetails (4 + one spare).

(Left) Sawing the doublesided dovetails. (Right) The 'raw' small dovetails.

Fitting the doublesided dovetail in the joint.

The crown with a mdf top board on the tresoor.

Next, the top boards needed to be added. The top consisted of three boards that were connceted to each other with a tongue and groove joint. The boards are not fixed and provide an alternative way to open the tresoor (for instance if the key is lost). If necessary they can be fixed with some pins. 

The top with a mock mdf top.

Two of the three oak top boards are ready.


The complete top boards of the crown.

The crown was fixed to the tresoor with pins using the same the holes (inside the frame of the crown) that were used for the screws earlier. On the outside of the crown, some extra pins were added to fix it vertically . 

The finished crown of the tresoor.