Mary Ostler

Years ago at Clinton war (I forget which year) I entered the A&S war point challenge. That years challenge was to build period lighting. I decided to build a peirce work lantern using scrap duct work I had lying around my shop.

I can no longer find the original image of the period lantern I was basing my work on. I did find these two illustrations on-line.

http://www.companie-of-st-george.ch/cms/sitefiles/dragon-9.pdf pg16 (#26)

http://www.currentmiddleages.org/tents/article6lantern.pdf

Starting with 4″ aluminum duct, I cut the piece down to a 12″ tube. I had a end cap so the bottom was already made. I made a paper template sized for the cone, then added rays off the bottom so I had somewhere to pop rivet the cone to the body. Cut out the flat cone with simple tin snips and rolled it to shape by hand. Fit it all together and started to pop rivet like mad. I then cut out the doorway and rolled the edges back. Cut up another piece of dusting to make a door, and with the left over scrap made hinges for it. To keep the door closed I made a catch that lines up with a rivet I forced to sit clear of the lantern. I then added the back handle.

To do the peirce work, I cut down a piece of wood so that it fit inside the lanterns body, then hammered holes into the aluminum. The door designs are a cross and the populas badge for Tir Righ.

Neat little project that cost me nothing. I didn’t win the war point that year as a fine Master made a wonderful forged iron reed stand, complete with different kinds of waxed reeds. Awesome!