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+--- Thread: How to make a Furca (/showthread.php?tid=20553)
How to make a Furca - Leon - 03-25-2012
I have been attempting to make a good looking and usable furca, anyone out there have some words of wisdom for me?
Re: How to make a Furca - jvrjenivs - 03-25-2012
Well, there are different views on how a 'furca' did look like. But the easiest way is to get two ash-shafts and a wooden dovel and put them together, securing the joint with wrapping some leather. See Larp.com/legioxx legionairys handbook by Matt:
Quote:The pack items are carried on the furca, a T-shaped pole about 4 feet tall with a crossbar c. 20" long. Construction details are unclear, but the crossbar is best secured 3" to 4" from the top of the pole with a bolt or big nail, cleverly filed or hammered to keep it from looking too modern. Wrap the joint with a leather or rawhide thong to steady it. A dolabra or other digging tool was probably lashed to the furca on the march, and maybe one or two pila as well. Palisade stakes do not seem to have been a normal part of a man's load, but one or two of them could also be tied on.
Another solution is to go to a nearby forest and find yourself a 'forky'/Y-shaped piece of wood, which can form the perfect basis for a furca.
Re: How to make a Furca - Cavok - 03-25-2012
Quote:Another solution is to go to a nearby forest and find yourself a 'forky'/Y-shaped piece of wood, which can form the perfect basis for a furca.
Preferably Ash.
But the time is nearly up for that.....you should cut it in winter preferably while still frosty. Then hang it with a weight underneath to stop it distorting while drying out.
Oh and a fun way to look at it:
Furca load.
Re: How to make a Furca - M. Demetrius - 03-26-2012
I have argued for a very long time that at least the earlier furcae were simply a forked stick. The word furca means fork. They had a perfectly good word for cross, and several words for "pole" or "stick". Why, if the object was to be called a furca, would they make it look like a crux?
Now the hitch. Forked sticks with a straight pole are not dreadfully uncommon, but they are not on every tree, either. In the US, we have a pest tree called a "Chinaberry", which has many forks. I have a furca made from one of them. Interestingly, when you cut a Chinaberry branch, in a few days it turns red. The bark is smooth and needs little sanding.
Melia azedarach
http://library.thinkquest.org/03oct/00240/chinab.htm