Handmade Wax Tablets

In my last post I talked about the bulk lot of wax tablets Bjorn and I made as site tokens for Canterbury Faire. A nice exercise in mass production but not hugely fulfilling from the point of view of making really nice period pieces using period processes and tools.
We decided to make twenty or so using period equipment and some lovely english oak that happened to be lying around the workshop.
Since we'd put the effort in to research the correct methods and appearance and found some nice examples online we decided to experiment a bit.
We figured the Steward and Their Excellencies could use these tablets as both gifts and largesse so we made some specifically for some people and others we made a bit more generic.
We made a pair of arched tablets for Their Majesties. They were hand cut and gouged and filled with a vibrant red wax. I bound them with leather and Bjorn made brass styli to go with them. They were finished with a little beeswax polish.








I also made some oak tablets of about the same dimensions as the bulk lot but made by hand this time to try to get the techniques down pat. I found with a truly sharp chisel I could get the oak, which was very well seasoned to peel away like butter so I simply had to mark the boundaries of the cavity with a 50mm chisel and push out the 5mm or so of wood inside. These were also given the red wax and leather treatment.

The most satisfying part of the project was the discovery of sets of small tablets in leather cases, mostly from fairly late in period. My leather work was not spectacular so my first thought was to make the small sets but put them in little hardwood boxes.
The tablets are double sided and are only about matchbox size so they are very fiddly but again a very sharp chisel produces a satisfying result.




However it was sets like this that had impressed me so I went ahead and tried to make leather cases for a dozen or so sets.
I used 2-3mm vege tanned leather whic I wet and stitched around the set of tablets and left to dry. This formed the inner layer which was then covered with a second layer, also wet and stitched. I cut oak ends for the sets and when the leather was dry glued them in place, flush with the ends.
While they were drying I inserted rods into the sides of the cases to make channels for the cords and the stylus at the front of the case.


All that remained from the cases point of view was to dye the case, seal it with leather sealer and fit the cords to hold it together and hang from a belt.

I made a couple of tooled leather cases for a couple of friends but I haven't got pics of them at the moment so that's for another day.
Big thanks are due in the wax tablets project to Bjorn Svartsson who was an excellent partner to work with and taught me a lot, particularly about the waxing process and bored himself silly making styli and to Lowrens Williamson who made the lovely brand for the site tokens.

       

Mass Wax Tablets

Two years ago I had a word with my flatmate, Bjorn Svartsson, and hatched a plan to create a site token for Canterbury Faire, the largest event our Barony hosts each year. We wanted to try to stretch ourselves to create something a little special and despite having to put together nearly 300 of them decided wax tablets would be a good idea. After getting the OK from the event steward we got going on research and preparing a plan.
We selected a design from a variety of period examples and made a couple of prototypes to make sure the design and materials would work. Then we set about the production phase.

 We selected beech timber because Bjorn had a good supply of it in a suitable size and its a good stable wood. Given that we were making 300 we rejected the idea of doing them all by traditional methods and  settled on making about 20 from oak using period methods and using modern methods and tools for the bulk of them. We were aware that doing 480 sides means that every minute spent on each one is equal to 480 minutes or a full work day. We needed to be very efficient to make the best use of our time.
We thicknessed the beech and cut the tablet sides to length.
 I made a jig from MDF and bolted it to my router. I'm a woodwork teacher in mundane life so I left the router set up in my workshop so I could do some when I had time spare. That sure beat spending a weekend doing 500 or so single sides at once. After each was routed I cleaned them up with a chisel and used the belt sander to tidy them up before putting them in a jig on the drill press to drill the two holes in each one.
While I was doing the woodwork Bjorn was bringing his expertise with wax into play and came up with a couple of recipes for the wax, one a black wax mix for the mass produced tablets and the other a red mix we were using for some of the hand made one. He was also making styli  by forging a flat head on nails and grinding a point for writing. Once again doing 300 meant working smarter not harder.
The wax was a mixture of beeswax, olive oil and lamp black for colour. We poured the wax in large batches and got quite efficient with one of us ladling out the wax and the other laying out the tablets and gently tilting them to ensure the liquid wax filled right up to the corners of the tablet. Not many needed to be repoured but it was easy to scrape them out and do them again.
The tablets were tied up in pairs, some with leather and some linen string and ended up with a box load of tablets.
In the meantime Lord Lowrens had been busy making a brand featuring the Lochac Badge from steel. We tested it on a piece of delicious bacon then branded about half the tablets

Finally off they went to the Stewards house and we never wanted to see them again. : )
They seemed to be pretty well received and despite having had quite enough of them enjoyed the project and the learning we did.
Next edition I'll look at the handmade tablets we made.