This is the home of Ragnar's Ragweed Forge. Here you'll find information about knives, both historical and modern, blacksmithing, Vikings, Buckskinners, living history, and the SCA. There's an on-line catalog of knives, ironwork, Viking and Celtic jewelry, and other historical items. The format is fairly simple. The page is, as they say, always under construction.

This is "Ragnar's" Ragweed Forge because I'm known as Ragnar of Elandris in the Society for Creative Anachronism. The SCA is a worldwide group of people with an interest in early history. I live in the Barony of the Rhydderich Hael, otherwise known as Western New York. The Hael is part of the newly-autonomous Kingdom of AEthelmearc, formerly part of the East Kingdom.

This is Ragnar's "Ragweed" Forge because in the American Fur Trade living history groups ("Buckskinners") I also belong to, one acquires a name according to some observed behavior or incident. You should be careful about sneezing!

It's a virtual "forge" because I'm a blacksmith and member of the American Bladesmith Society.

The page reflects some of my interests including:

• Knives and knifemaking,
• Historical blacksmithing, including the making of firestrikers,
• Vikings and Nordic Culture,
• Living history and reenacting, from the Viking through the American Colonial periods.
• Whatever else seems interesting at the time. I don't intend the page to be static.

The Store

The web page won't be entirely devoted to sales. I'd like to provide some information, and perhaps evoke (provoke?) some discussion. But I will be selling knives, Viking and Celtic jewelry, iron work, feast gear, and other items for the historically minded, as well as modern outdoors folks. I've got a lot of different things, and there will be small catalog changes more or less constantly. I believe everything in the catalog is actually on hand and ready to ship. At least that's the plan. I'm sorry there is no printed version at present. I've tried to arrange it to print out clearly if you need a hard copy.

The Catalog:

(Ordering information is at the bottom of each catalog page.)

• Knives and such:
• Knives from Norway:
  • Brusletto Knives
  • Helle Knives
  • Strömeng Knives (They're back!)
• Knives from Sweden:
• Mora knives from Eriksson and Frosts of Sweden
• Karesuando Knives
• EKA Knives
• Knives from Finland:
• Ahti Knives
• Järvenpää Knives
• Lapin Puukko Knives
• Roselli Knives
• Wood Jewel Knives
• Other Traditional Knives
• Knife Blades and Kits
• Throwing Axes
• Sharpening Supplies
• Viking and Celtic Jewelry:
• Thor's Hammers
• Viking Medallions and Pendants
• Runic Pendants
• Celtic Medallions and Pendants
• Other Medallions and Pendants
• Penanular Brooches
• Pins, fibulas, hair pieces, etc.
• Buckles and other belt fittings
• Crosses, Celtic and others
• Feastware and Fire Strikers.

If you're interested, here's my current bookmark file (links). It's fairly extensive, and always changing.

This page can be viewed with any browser, including text browsers like LYNX. It will not blink, bark at you, or layer frames. There are no scrolling banners, spinning heads, or pop-up ads that won't go away. You'll just have to read it!

But it will load quickly.

Why, you ask? Because it was originally put up with a 286. When I first got on the web, my main browser was the server based text browser LYNX. While I have upgraded several times now, I'm still considering the new stuff. I'm under whelmed by the possibilities. Just because you can do something doesn't mean that you should do so. The more I view pages with multiple frames, cluttered graphics, animated gifs and blinking icons, the more I appreciate clear, full screen pages.

Please send comments to ragnar@ragweedforge.com, and thanks for stopping by!

All contents copyright Ragweed Forge. I don't mind simple quotes, but I've been finding whole pages lifted onto my competitor’s commercial web sites. If in doubt, please ask.