VIKING SEAMAN’S IRON CALKING TOOL C.850-1050 AD

Used in boat/ship construction. 5 3/8” length with spatulate blade on offset tapered tang. Viking boats and ships were made with clinker construction in which the hull planks overlapped (lapstrake). To seal the joints, calk in the form of pine pitch, bees wax and animal hair were force between the planks. This tool, mounted to a wood handle was used for that purpose. It would have been forced by hand or lightly tapped with a wood mallet. Very rare.