The Mastermyr Chest - A story of an unlucky Viking Craftsman and their tools!
A glimpse into how one very unlucky Viking age craftsman showed a looking glass on what their tools and abilities were like and also how poor the Vikings Steel actually was!
The Mastermyr Find History:
During the Viking age Mästermyr on the Island of Gotland in Sweden had a lake, this lake over time degenerated into a bog. Then in 1936, as farmers drained the marshlands an astonishing relic of the Viking Age appeared.
From the muddy depths emerged a weathered wooden sea chest surrounded by an array of rusted metal tools. This fairly unremarkable find had no gold or silver, no swords or weapons but still became one of the most extraordinary treasures ever found! A collection of over 200 tools and artifacts, offering a rare glimpse into the life and skill of a Viking craftsman.
Even the Sea Chest was a great piece of engineering, luggage, toolbox, stool, workbench and rowing bench all in one! You can even own your own version here Mastermyr Sea Chest
Why was this Viking Tool box find so important?
Most Viking age finds are from burial sites and typically they represent a person of power and wealth that could afford such a prestigious burial. This chest though represents an every day craftsman with an ability to work wood and steel. This find is actually what I base my Living History re-enactment character after :)
The find contained over 200 pieces! Everything needed for the trade. Axes, hammers, tongs, chisels, saw blades, hand drills, padlocks and chains and much more. The locks are a piece of engineering in themselves with them being used up to around the 18th Century like the Mastermyr Lock.
An amazing look at the tools that were not only functional but also deeply connected to the Viking way of life. Tool designs that show that modern hand tools haven't changed in design since the early Roman age all to the way to what you can buy today!
OK, but why is this craftsman so unlucky?
Metal at the time came at a huge cost! A sword during the period would cost up to 4 years wages to the average man. When the Anglo-Saxon armies were called together 2/3 of them turned up with little more than an axe or spear because they couldn't afford the steel for armour or helmets.
Whoever had owned the chest, they had likely journeyed across countries and seas, their skills valued wherever they went. The items showed an immense amount of wealth amassed over a lifetime of perfecting their craft. All lost within a moment and ending up at the bottom of the lake, either from being lost in transit or abandoned during a raid. Unlucky for them but it has provided historians and archaeologists with one of the richest collections of Viking-era tools ever found in Europe.
What do the tools themselves tell us?
More than just tools for crafting, the chest held personal items—locks, keys, a frying pan, bells. Showing a mirror on the daily life and the importance of trade, survival, and the craftsmanship that allowed Viking society to thrive. Whoever had owned the chest, they had likely journeyed across seas, their skills valued wherever they went.
It also shows us that their steel was really bad, I mean shit. The way steel works is percentages of carbon which dictate its 'strength'. Look at the last 2 digits of a steel such as 1095, the 95 is equal to 0.95%.
Low carbon has up to 0.3% carbon - sheet steel.
Medium Carbon from 0.3% to 0.6% - spring steel (5160) and most tools, hammers axes etc.
High Carbon - 0.6% to 1% - knives like 1095 steel
Even the best of these tools from this chest only came in at 0.4% with the lower end as low as 0.02% which barely spring steel by todays standards. Many of the Poems and Eddas of the time discuss swords shattering in combat and later on discuss how the dealings with the Franks started to show how comparatively weak their steel was. So they started to trade for iron ore, steel and weapons before heading back and taking what is now Normandy :)
Conclusion
The lost Viking tool chest of Mästermyr isn't just a relic, its a time capsule, showing off the ingenuity, artistry, and resilience of a Viking craftsman who's bad luck left behind a piece of his world for ours to discover centuries later. One very unlucky incident for its previous owner has allowed us to really look into what tools were in use, how developed their metallurgy was and how skilled their tradesmen were.
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