Viking Age Bone Threadworking Implements

That's a fun title, isn't it?
Viking Age Bone Threadworking Implements
^^pdf^^

This was a deceptively simple project.  Hunting down hard information took some doing, and I made a few substitutions and guesses.  Fortunately I did find out how big the needles & pins were, but only after I had cut all of the blanks and made several items. 

I do not actually know if the bone needles and pins pictured were made from pig fibula.  I know they were found in the Anglo-Scandinavian layers of York, at the Coppergate dig site, where other pig fibula bone implements were found in various states of finish, similar to the Lloyd's bank finds.  There are other implements made from horn, cow bone, antler and other animal bones from the same era and area.  It is an educated guess based on extant material and incomplete archeological information., and I'm mostly happy with the end product. 

The hard thing about this type of archeological find from a reenactors perspective is that we have to accept "we don't know" as a valid answer, and no one likes that.  We can make educated guesses based on the evidence before us, and then try stuff out and see how it works, and get to 'maybe' or even 'probably,' but we still have to have the space and the courage to be wrong.  I am leaving a large margin open for both of those things.