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| What materials would be used to make... |
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| message from Alain Homsy on 1999/04/07 |
Hey all
I am doing a design project, and would appreciate some help. Has anyone
got any ideas on suitable materials for the following? Also, the names
of materials which are normally used would help
1) Heavy wooden door of a cathedral
2)heavy metal door of a medieval jail
3) Stone used in tomb or cathedral for a) walls
b)
arches and vaults
4)stone used in making sarcophagi
5) wood used in making spear shafts and dart shafts
6)metal used in maing spear and dart heads and dagger blades
Thanks,
Oli
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| J Prescott replied to Alain Homsy on 1999/04/07 |
Surely, the choice of materials would depend on what is locally
available.
If you take Cathedral walls in England, as an example, you only have to
look at York Minster, Hereford and Westminster Abbey to see this.
Trimmings might be imported e.g. marble for floors, but you are talking
about basic infrastructure.
Have you visited your local Cathedrals and museums to see what was used?
Joanna
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| CG Luxford replied to J Prescott on 1999/04/08 |
I haven't seen the original, so I'm piggy backing on Joanna's reply
Whichever good sturdy wood was most plentiful in the area, oak was the
standard in England, don't know about anywhere else.
All the medieval jail doors I've seen have been heavy wood, identical in
construction to those of the cathedral above, but on a smaller scale.
Both doors would have been held together by large doornails.
Whatever was most easily available usually. In an area where the
underlying bedrock is mostly sandstone, then stone buildings would be
sandstone, if the local rock was limestone, then buildings would be
limestone. etc. In chalk areas knapped flint was common.
This applies to all uses of stone in most times and places. Local stone
is cheaper, and therefore more likely to be used for basic building
(walls etc.) imported stone of one sort or another might be brought in
for dressings, marble, monumental alabaster etc. But your basic building
material was the local stone, whatever that might have been.
As with the doors, whatever was locally available, and suitable for the
job.
Iron, later steel.
Chris,
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| Alain Homsy replied to Alain Homsy on 1999/04/09 |
Ok, I guess I left out a few details.
Consider that
a) Any material required is found in abundance around my chosen location,
so availability is not a question; rather quality, durability is
b) So it doesnt really matter what year it is set in, as I will have the
best of any era.
But as far as technology is concerned, I'd say around 1000 AD
OLi
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| Paul J Gans replied to Alain Homsy on 1999/04/09 |
Well, steel is out then, except for the quite expensive
blade or two. And if you want to build authentically
you'll have to forego wheelbarrows. Not yet invented
in 1000 AD.
And most tools would use iron sparingly--i.e. edged with
iron. In other words a shovel would be wood with an
iron edge.
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| Halstein Sjølie replied to Paul J Gans on 1999/04/12 |
Well, the Chinese had wheelbarrows at that time. I think they had them
before 500 AD. But for Europe you are right.
Halstein.
Halstein Sjølie
Exchange XX with no to get correct e-mail adress.
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| Paul J Gans replied to Alain Homsy on 1999/04/07 |
You'll have to name both a period and a region. For example
for (1) oak might have been used in some areas, but not in
others. Don't forget that you are dealing with a thousand
year period. A lot happens in a thousand years.
I doubt many jails had metal doors until quite late in the
medieval period. Iron was just too darned expensive and
until the mid 14th century or so it was almost impossible to
smelt a large quantity at once. Thus I'd think that such
doors were likely stout wood with metal bracing--but I'm
not an authority on it.
Good solid stone capable of bearing a load. Probably the
same sorts of stone we'd use now.
When? Bronze in the early classical period, iron later, and
steel still later.
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| "Mary Gentle" replied to Alain Homsy on 1999/04/08 |
Ash wood is traditionally good for spear shafts.
This is a complicated question. For this one, we really need
to know the dates you're interested in. (The production of
steel, as opposed to iron, is quite late in the period - but
that does depend on where you are and what culture you're
in...)
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