How to make a chair in the woods?

[FrenchBen]

Good evening! :)


Tonight's subject : making a chair or rather a backrest in the woods.

Maybe opening such a thread in this section of the forum isn't relevant so moderators, feel free to move it as you like ;)

OK. I like to rest while at camp in the woods. But I found myself missing something to support my back several times.

I know simple solutions exist, like the hammock for example, but that's not my point here. What I aim to do is building a backrest out of (dead) wood only, without using any cloth or canvas or any textile.
I spent a few minutes thinking and one idea emerged.

Here's what it looks like :

755


Please be kind to my miserable skills at drawing...:p


It's just a plan for the moment, although I tried to make it real two days ago and failed.

Basically my idea was simply to build a heat reflector out of wood like I do when sleeping out : that's the sort of wall you can see on the bottom of the picture. It doesn't have to be very wide, say the width of my shoulders...
That's the easy part of the job and I could achieve it in no time. However, I couldn't test its ability to sustain my weight.
The more thoretical part is how to give it an angle that I could modify as I want and would be strong enough to bear my weight.

The top drawing shows one possibility... The problem is I wasn't able to find convenient dead logs with a fork the other day. Well, in my defence, it was raining persistently and I wasn't that keen on snooping around (is that word correct?) to find these.

Perhaps you'll notice the backrest on the top drawing isn't "sandwich-built" like the second drawing. Don't worry, I was just too lazy to repeat the tricky pen job... Shame on me...:ashamed:

If you have any idea or experience on that matter, post it here, I'm eager to read what you may have invented :D

Have a good night folks!

Ben

[MikeWilkinson]

Lash together a small tripod, arrange with two of the legs where you want your back rest, stack wood against legs, adjust by moving back leg further out. Quick, and simple. If you really want to make it 'organic' use a good willow/hazel withy for your lashing. :)

[FrenchBen]

Lash together a small tripod, arrange with two of the legs where you want your back rest, stack wood against legs, adjust by moving back leg further out. Quick, and simple. If you really want to make it 'organic' use a good willow/hazel withy for your lashing. :)

You know what? That's exactly the reason why communities like this one are so great.
Your solution is incredibly simple and excellent!

I had thougth about a tripod at a moment, but it finally became something else, and I stayed stuck to my initial idea. That's the main problem. Sometimes hard to tke a step back and give a new thought at things...

Thanks man, I'll give it a try in a couple of days!:happy-clapping:


EDIT : don't you think the top of the tripod is going to be a little too narrow for my shoulders?

[MikeWilkinson]

Your Idea would work, instead of looking for forked sticks though, try sticking some notches in your uprights so that it will just rest against your supports rather than slipping off them.

[CanadianMike]

I recall seeing a video by a guy that shows him making a shelter, then two types of tripod chairs. Will see if I can find and dig up.

Here it is, pretty cool to watch all the segments even if slow:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUL1NcFxfgs

[bigzee]

Do not underestimate the power of the mighty triangle. It is the strongest geometric shape (just look at electric pylons) Any square or rectangle can be improved and strengthened by the addition of a triangle or diagonal member. Many years ago I made an upholstered easy chair from basically 2 isosceles triangles (didn't have enough wood for original rectangular plan!) and I can vouch for the comfort of a triangle apex nestling nicely between the shoulder blades.
Go on youtube and search on coffee sack chair (4x sticks and a sack) looks pretty doody, and I'm keen to try it out.

[MikeWilkinson]

Hi ben, just make the tripod larger and only stack wood to the height of your shoulders/head, the logs can be wider than the tripod too, so you can always extend to the width of your shoulders.

[FrenchBen]

Hi guys,

Just back from the woods (I didn't have enough time there though)!
I tried to build a chair the way I had designed it, but with Mike's (clever) addition of two notches in the uprights.
Once all good dead strong wood gathered and cut at the right length, building is merely kid's stuff ;)

However, i was not completely satisfied with the result, cause it turned out to be too unstable.
The tripod idea would work much better I think, and I'll try it as soon as possible (possibly tomorrow).

My intention was to bring a video back for you, but I just had the time to film fire lighting and preparing a snack and my SDcard was full... Even worse, it seems I can't transfer my vids to my computer...must have been some trouble while recording... Sorry...

@ bigzee : I had seen that kind of chair on Youtube, but my aim was to avoid any manmade material. I didn't though as I used nylon rope to tie it all together.

[bigzee]

Keep trying mon petit freind. The best ideas are 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. You can always rely on a digital device to let you down. That's the kind of modern frustration that drives us into the timeless environment! You could substitute a cotton sack for a bit of nettle-fibre cord woven into a sheet? (no I've never tried that either, but it's a theory) Your Anglais c'est formidable by the way. Why can't we British learn languages properly?

[FrenchBen]

The coffee sack chair is great and it's now on my test list. The thing is I try to pack as light and small as possible. That sure is a challenge!

Can you guys think of any piece of textil (be it natural or synthetic) that could be used for the purpose, to replace the heavy-bulky coffee sack? Of course it needs to be really traction-resistant.

I thought my heavy-duty "space blanket" might do the job, but I'm not sure it's strong enough. Well I guess the only way to know is trying... ;)

And by the way bigzee, thanks for your complimenting me on my writing english. I do try do do my best. However it's always a pleasure for me to speak or write english cause I've been loving your language ever since I started learning it (when I was 10). But I'm much more comfortable at writing than speaking. Vids I made this afternoon were in english, and man I can tell you it's not as easy as writing. Words won't come out naturally so I have to think about what I'm gonna say before saying it (well maybe we all should do this :D)

Cheers

Ben

[MikeWilkinson]

If your interested in weaving a backrest from cordage, take a look at the ten books of bushcraft by richard greaves (google it, its free), excellent demonstration of the camp loom, for quick weaving results. Must say it is a little trickier than it looks, but works brilliantly with fantastic results.

[bigzee]

Oui Monsieur you've got that last part right. "It is better to keep your bouche ferme -and have people think you're a fool, than to ouvre your bouche -and have them know you're a fool". As for le textile, over here some shops have started selling naturale cotton shopping sacs (fairtrade things made in third world terres) to try and replace our plastic sac usage. I think these look like bon contenders for le chair role. They are tres light and roll up to about the size of un pomme. I was trying to meet you half-way with language, but as you can see I ended up with a sort of "Franglaise"

[Ramblin Tinker]

Something I've seen in a few of the museums near where I live, are some American Indian backrest or recliners. They were used by a plains tribe, Comanche, I think. It utilized a tripod to hold the back up and the back and the seat part were made of woven branches or reeds like japanese mats are. Here's a link that shows something similar. These would be really easy to make in a camp. http://www.assiniboinetipis.com/access.html