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Riving, a Viking-age woodworking technique

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Re: Riving, a Viking-age woodworking technique

#41

Post by kevin_thibedeau »

jdietrich wrote: post #17
GlenTheMachine wrote: post #4

This is an interesting article, but riving is not specifically Viking. It was the primary method of producing workable wood blanks from tree trunks in every civilization that used wood blanks. Which is to say, it was used all over Europe and Asia (at least), for at least the last 2000-plus years. I'm not as familiar with the woodworking traditions of Africa or pre-European-contact North or South America, so I don't k…

Riving is still used for producing timber that needs to have perfectly straight grain with minimal runout, most notably the tops of acoustic guitars. The difference in stiffness between a rived and sawn top can be drastic, with commensurate benefits in tone. http://www.lutherie.net/frankford.runout.html https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5EpVIEyYiSs

Wood roofing shakes are riven.

Re: Riving, a Viking-age woodworking technique

#43

Post by bacon_waffle »

scoggs wrote: post #31
321yawaworht wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where do you guys come from? How do you know all this stuff? It's so interesting and I'm often surprised at the diversity of knowledge, experience and backgrounds on HN. For even the most esoteric of subjects folks here will have interesting input. I love to try and experiment, and like people who are passionate about things. Just wanted to get it off my chest. I love this place and it makes me appreciate life and it…

I'm not OP but if (s)he's / they're my age or older (young 30's) we grew up in a time where, depending on where you lived and how much money your family had growing up, knowing these non-technical (in a computer / digital sense) skills was more of the norm. Think "handyman" skills. I grew up in a household where my father worked in the cement industry. He made nearly all of our furniture, made a full deck in the back…

Excellent post!

I'm similar age and had a similar sounding childhood, but maybe a bit less to do with concrete, and more to do with the woods and the peripheral mechanical stuff that seems to go alongside. Some of my fondest memories are around fall arriving; the sap going down in the trees meant it was time for sawing - mainly for heating, and a bit for cooking. Nicer pieces of hardwood would go to dry for a year or so, then to our little sawmill and be turned in to all sorts of things. Dad was particularly known for the shaker-style spinning wheels he made occasionally, and bits to help with Mom's weaving.

Fast forward to a few months ago - my partner and I bought a house in a town that we moved to ~3 years ago, far from where I grew up. I guess I'm known here as a guy who works from home writing code and doing stuff with electronics, not as much someone who might be comfortable handling a chainsaw or a tractor. It raised a few eyebrows when one weekend, a station-wagon load of timber, box of screws, case of beer (to incentivise helpers, of course), and some old roofing steel from a friend's place turned in to a decent little firewood shed, to go with our new fireplace. I didn't shop around first, but would be shocked if the cost of that shed was anywhere near to what a commercial job would've been, and there wasn't much compromise in the fit either. All this with no youtube video nor real plan, beyond basic dimensions of the finished structure.

Not to disparage youtube of course - I use it all the time to gain short term expertise, especially for car problems. My point is more to share the value in a sort of "muscle memory" that comes from long term exposure to doing this sort of stuff.

How to share/learn these skills? Hard to say, but I remember that my Christmas/birthday gifts started coming from the hardware store (or Computer Shopper) instead of the toy store when I was pretty young, maybe 10, and that materially enabled a lot of learning for me. So, when I have the opportunity to get gifts for friends' kids, I usually look for things like soldering irons or good screwdrivers. When something breaks, I like to think about how much worse it could get if I were to fail at fixing it - usually there's minimal real risk. If you make it worse, you're not likely to repeat the same mistake; you've learned something, and there will always be another broken thing to apply that knowledge to.

Re: Riving, a Viking-age woodworking technique

#45

Post by cosmon0t »

bacon_waffle wrote: post #43
scoggs wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not OP but if (s)he's / they're my age or older (young 30's) we grew up in a time where, depending on where you lived and how much money your family had growing up, knowing these non-technical (in a computer / digital sense) skills was more of the norm. Think "handyman" skills. I grew up in a household where my father worked in the cement industry. He made nearly all of our furniture, made a full deck in the back…

Excellent post! I'm similar age and had a similar sounding childhood, but maybe a bit less to do with concrete, and more to do with the woods and the peripheral mechanical stuff that seems to go alongside. Some of my fondest memories are around fall arriving; the sap going down in the trees meant it was time for sawing - mainly for heating, and a bit for cooking. Nicer pieces of hardwood would go to dry for a year or…

Great Post! I'm probably a similar age. I grew up learning how to use a bandsaw, compound miter saw and generally learning how to do woodwork that could hold it's own. I grew up with computers and electronics and turned that into a professional career. But after helping my Dad build a wooden spiral staircase with nothing more than his experience/intuition, I have immense respect for people who don't need a reference like Youtube to make something remarkable. As a side note, it really pays to sit down sometimes and assess what I can do personally without the safety net of a reference or guidelines.

Re: Riving, a Viking-age woodworking technique

#46

Post by dfc »

scoggs wrote: post #31
321yawaworht wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where do you guys come from? How do you know all this stuff? It's so interesting and I'm often surprised at the diversity of knowledge, experience and backgrounds on HN. For even the most esoteric of subjects folks here will have interesting input. I love to try and experiment, and like people who are passionate about things. Just wanted to get it off my chest. I love this place and it makes me appreciate life and it…

I'm not OP but if (s)he's / they're my age or older (young 30's) we grew up in a time where, depending on where you lived and how much money your family had growing up, knowing these non-technical (in a computer / digital sense) skills was more of the norm. Think "handyman" skills. I grew up in a household where my father worked in the cement industry. He made nearly all of our furniture, made a full deck in the back…

> The VERY BEST wood working / handy man show NO CONTEST

TOH was the best handyman show for sure. But he woodworking content was negligible. The Woodright Shop is the best woodworking show.

Re: Riving, a Viking-age woodworking technique

#47

Post by kbenson »

321yawaworht wrote: post #23
GlenTheMachine wrote: post #4

This is an interesting article, but riving is not specifically Viking. It was the primary method of producing workable wood blanks from tree trunks in every civilization that used wood blanks. Which is to say, it was used all over Europe and Asia (at least), for at least the last 2000-plus years. I'm not as familiar with the woodworking traditions of Africa or pre-European-contact North or South America, so I don't k…

Where do you guys come from? How do you know all this stuff? It's so interesting and I'm often surprised at the diversity of knowledge, experience and backgrounds on HN. For even the most esoteric of subjects folks here will have interesting input. I love to try and experiment, and like people who are passionate about things. Just wanted to get it off my chest. I love this place and it makes me appreciate life and it…

I think people in general have diverse hobbies, and when combined with what's usually more than a passing knowledge of a lot of their parents' careers and hobbies, you end up with a very wide well of knowledge in any sizable group.

What makes HN special in my view is that people like to share that knowledge, and this is a very welcoming place to do so. I think the average HN user may be more open to learning new things (or at a minimum learning about new things). It's a great place to share that random trivia you know with a good chance someone will be appreciative.

Re: Riving, a Viking-age woodworking technique

#48

Post by samstave »

analog31 wrote: post #34
321yawaworht wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where do you guys come from? How do you know all this stuff? It's so interesting and I'm often surprised at the diversity of knowledge, experience and backgrounds on HN. For even the most esoteric of subjects folks here will have interesting input. I love to try and experiment, and like people who are passionate about things. Just wanted to get it off my chest. I love this place and it makes me appreciate life and it…

Well, I'm far from being as knowledgeable as some folks on HN, but have a lot of factual knowledge about odd things. My only advice is curiosity and reading, notably about "real" subjects. That could include well written fiction. I don't plan to read about specific things, just let my brain be filled with lots of stuff. Also when you see old people doing interesting work, talk to them if they don't mind it. At my cur…

I'm ready to hear about some of your odd areas of interest that otherwise I may never think of... Please post something for pique my interest, thanks.

Re: Riving, a Viking-age woodworking technique

#49

Post by samstave »

NightlyDev wrote: post #38

Riving(rive) means tearing or splitting in Norwegian and English. The word comes from Old Norse and is commonly used in Norwegian, but I didn't know it also was an english word. To me "I couldn't open it, so I had to rive it." sounds like Petter Solberg(known to mix norwegian and english) trying to speak english. "It's not the fart that kills, it's the smell" (fart meaning speed in norwegian, and smell meaning crash)

so would "rivendell" mean to "split a forest" or something along those lines?

Re: Riving, a Viking-age woodworking technique

#50

Post by lstodd »

You need wood that'd fit into your stove but only have (maybe fallen) trees around?

Well, duh. That's what you do. You cut it to the convinient length, take an ax and split 'em.

The crafts and stuff grow from that. How do you think boards were made before sawmills?

I mean, really, people were building log cabins for thousands of years before vikings. How do you think the logs were cleaned of bark and brought to more or less uniform diameter for that? This same technique and instruments.

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