Making my own tent

[brennivs - tony drake]

I would agree with you Brian my Furca is about the same size as our side tent poles, also it would mean all you kit is up a height out of the way, John Anstee made my Furca and that was his thought. This would keep up the Marivs tradition
Regards Brennivs
OW yes by the way Svtoris sxcellent tent and how too D

[Sutoris]

Very interesting the furca methode.
but in theory you only need the two uprights (without the forkends).
I added a ridge pole, it takes the stress of the tent/ stakes and looks better, no poles to support the walls.

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

Just how long do most people make their furca's? I have some wood I plan on making mine from, but just curious if everyone has the same length for theirs?

[Marcus Mummius]

Making the furca long enough can help a lot. It can be very handy during a march to lower yourself a bit and support the end of the furca pole on the ground (during a short rest stop). This can be a great relief and means you can have very short stops because you don't need to take the furca from your shoulders and put it back on again.

So I think the best length would be that the crossbar is about on shoulder height, or slightly lower.

But this is a bit off topic of course :wink:

Vale,

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

Just thinking about tent sides really :wink:

[Marcus Mummius]

Just thinking about tent sides really :wink:

I fear that a long forca would be too high for the tent sides...

[Neuraleanus]

Supporting a tent by furca poles might work to support the low side wall tent, as illustrated on Trajan's column, since no side wall support is required, but how to support the side walls of the high side wall tent, aka the Vindolanda tent, is a problem. The difficulty with the low side wall tent is that it isn't based upon much of any archeological evidence whereas there is much evidence for the high side wall variant.

[Marcus Mummius]

Supporting a tent by furca poles might work to support the low side wall tent, as illustrated on Trajan's column, since no side wall support is required, but how to support the side walls of the high side wall tent, aka the Vindolanda tent, is a problem. The difficulty with the low side wall tent is that it isn't based upon much of any archeological evidence whereas there is much evidence for the high side wall variant.

How high do you think, were the side walls of a 'high side wall' tent, Lee?

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

SAme question. My furca pole is actually quite long , along the lines opf what Jef was describing.

[Neuraleanus]

How high do you think, were the side walls of a 'high side wall' tent, Lee?

The tent dimensions are in the C.Van Driel Murray paper, "New light on old tents" and may be gleamed from Florentius's pattern:

[url:2tv3xza8]http://www.florentius.com/papilio85x11.pdf[/url]

giving a side wall height of about 1 meter. The center height is about 2 meters. I think you would want your furca pole to be longer than a meter. The need for side wall supports comes from the requirement to fit within the approximately 12 x 12 feet of space per tent in the camp.

[M. Demetrius]

Call me a pragmatist if you like, but I don't believe the furca pole was typically used for a tent pole. Legions frequently went on maneuvers for days at a time, leaving the camp set up for the day of their return. They would need their "baggage" on their shoulders for the nights they spent out of camp, so they would need their furcae, wouldn't they? Simply not true, or sensible. Equipment has purpose, and even though there were multiple functions for some things, if one use of a soldier's gear negates its primary purpose, you can pretty well rule out that theory.

There is a similar story that US Revolutionary soldiers used their fixed-bayonet muskets as tent poles. Sure would be easy to overcome a Rev War camp, wouldn't it? Just wait until bedtime and they're all disarmed. Nope.

[Sutoris]

Wouldn't there be enough timber around the camp site to set up the tents?
I think the mule would support that Idea

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

I would agree with the arguments against. The depiction on TC seem to point to very long furcas,which even if eggagerated, would still be an argument against shorter poles. sort of.
I'll be keeping mine long, I think, save bending too far down every time you set it down and pick it up.

Anyway, back to tents, I wonder if you can get a tent similar to yours, Sutoris, but in a slightly larger size,
in Europe or the UK?

[Sutoris]

Anyway, back to tents, I wonder if you can get a tent similar to yours, Sutoris, but in a slightly larger size,
in Europe or the UK?

You could ask this guy, thats where I bought my canvas
http://legertenten.com/
His site mention "Eigen ontwerp" this means own designe.
You could try to contact him he knows some tent makers.

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

Thanks Filip, hopefully his English will be better than my Dutch! :roll: