Skills
Skills & Crafts
Want to learn to sew? Perhaps in a paricular manner in which they would have done it in the
Medieval period. Learn glassblowing? Woodworking? Firearm skills? But in the way that only
the soldiers of the Civil War era learned how to shoot. Musical skills? Learn to fight with
a real sword?
Just about any skill you can think of from the past that brought us to the modern day world
can be learned as a renactor.
In reenactments (especially historical) learning a skill that proves to be rather practical
can be quite beneficial to understanding the period or era in which you as a reenactor would
portray and in turn for learning a skill you would add depth and an absolute sense of reality
to those that may be observing you.
Just as in current times, a person had to have certain skills and abilities to be a productive member of society and thus a good member of the community. It was important for a person to apprentice under someone to learn a particular trade, so that when the master could no longer perform their duties that skill would not be lacking in the community.
Learning one or many of these skills not only is enjoyable, but allows the re-enactor to better portray a person from a particular time period who would’ve known these skills.
Common skills for men in previous times are things such as carpentry, blacksmithing, leatherworking, etc.
Most if not all women would know skills such as sewing, mending, cooking, cleaning, vegetable and herb gardening, spinning, soap making, and household management. More...
Skills Sites
There are a lot of resouces available to you when it comes to learning a particular skill or craft.
Below you will find a few site with a plethora skill sets.
Although some of the sites below are taking place in a particular era, many of the skills date
back hundreds to thousands of years.