Young Knights of the Empire Part 37

This, again, is best done by cutting it out in newspapers pasted together and spread out on the floor. These paper cuttings then serve as "patterns," on which you can cut your canvas without wasting any of it.

THE MATERIAL.

The kind of stuff to use for tent making depends a good deal on how much you can afford for material, and what work you want the tent for.

Thus, if you want a very light tent for carrying on your back or bicycle, and have plenty of money, a silk tent at 4s. a yard is very nice; but probably you would like one of cheaper material, and fairly light and strong.

Lawn, made of Egyptian cotton, calico sheeting, or brown calico makes a very satisfactory tent at an outlay of 10s. or so for the whole thing complete.

SEWING.

After having purchased your stuff, and cut it out according to the paper pattern, pin it, or tack it, all together, and see how it fits.

Then st.i.tch the seams together, using cotton, not thick thread.

[Ill.u.s.tration: STEEP SIDES TOO WIDE.]

Seams should be double-st.i.tched-that is, the edges of the two pieces of canvas should overlap, and each be st.i.tched to the other piece. At all points where a strain is likely to come on the canvas-namely, at the corners and at places where eyelets for ropes have to come, it is best to have a strengthening patch of canvas sewn over the other canvas.

Then wide, stout tape should be sewn along the edge of the canvas wherever there is to be any strain on it, such as eyelet holes for ropes, or hooks and eyes, or strings for closing the ends of the tent, etc.

Often in woods you can find two trees standing, say, eight feet apart.

If you have a six-foot tent, you can use these for tent poles by tying ("lashing" is the word used by sailors and Scouts) each end of the ridge of the tent to a tree.

This can be more easily done if your ridge is strengthened with a tape sewn inside it, and made into a loop at each end. It is always as well to make these loops on your tents, as they come in useful in other ways.

A strip of canvas is often st.i.tched on to the foot of the tent, as shown in the picture, either to hold it down with pegs or stones, or to be turned inwards underneath your ground sheet to prevent draughts coming in under the wall.

A tent should not be made wider than its height, because the roof will not be steep enough to run the rain off quickly, and so will let it through more easily.

TENT POLES.

The poles should not be made of any weak wood liable to split or break, but of tough elm, hickory, ash, or bamboo.

For small tents of about five feet high they need be only one to one-and-a-half inches thick.

For heavy tents of over ten feet long and over six feet high, they have to be at least two inches thick. Bamboos are generally tougher than wood, so need not be quite so stout.

TENT PEGS.

Tent pegs may be easily made of wood, but should be of a tough kind that does not split easily. They are generally made in the shape shown below, about ten inches long.

You can also get them of iron, but these, though they do not break, do not hold quite so well in the ground, and are heavy to carry.

Aluminium ones are lighter, expensive, and inclined to bend.

Then you can use stones or logs instead of pegs, and what I like best of all is half a dozen canvas bags filled with earth or stones and buried in the ground as anchors. These can be used equally well in sandy, muddy, or stony ground, where ordinary pegs would never hold.

These bags are easily made during your winter evenings, and can be used for carrying your kit from camp to camp. They also make useful buckets and washing basins. They should be made of stout duck or canvas.

The top edge of this canvas should be folded over and st.i.tched in order to give strength.

The handles are made of half-inch rope, pa.s.sed through bra.s.s eyelets, let into the canvas below the st.i.tching? the ends of the rope being knotted inside.

In cutting out you must allow an extra inch for turning in at the edges and joining to the other pieces.

Supposing that you have not the time or means for getting tents and that you are going into camp where there are plenty of trees, and you have got the right to use them, then some of the following tips may be of use to you.

[Ill.u.s.tration: CORRECT TENT PEGS.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: A HANDY BAG.]

A bivouac shelter, as described in _Scouting for Boys_, is the simplest and best form of hut, and is easily made in an hour. Two upright stakes are driven firmly into the ground, with a ridge pole placed in position along the tops. Against this a number of poles should be made to lean from the windward aide, with cross-bars to support the branches, reeds, sods, or twigs, or whatever is to form your roofing material.

For a single man this shelter can be made quite small, _i.e._, about 3 ft. high in front, and 3 ft. wide and 6 ft. long.

FRAMEWORK.

You build your fire about 4 ft. in front of this, and lie in it alongside your fire.

If the "shack" is for more than one man, you build it 5 ft. or 6 ft.

high in front, and 5 ft. deep, so that several fellows can lie alongside each other, feet to the fire.

When you start to thatch your framework, begin at the bottom and lay your roofing material on in layers, one above the other in the way that slates are put on a roof. In this way you may make it watertight.

THATCHING.

For thatching you can use thick spruce branches, or gra.s.s, reeds, sods, slabs of wood or bark (called "shingles"), or small twigs of heather closely woven in.

It is generally advisable to lay a few branches and stout poles over the thatch when finished in order to keep it on if a gale springs up.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FRAMEWORK.]

If you want to build a complete hut, you can make a lean-to from each side on the same ridge-pole; but the single lean-to, with its fire in front of it, is quite good enough for most people.

Another way to build a shelter hut is to lean a ridge-pole or backbone from the ground into the fork of a small tree about 5 ft. above the ground, the b.u.t.t of the pole being about 4 ft. to windward of the tree. Then put up a few side poles leaning against this, and roof over in the same way as for a lean-to. Build your fire just in front of this, and you will have a very safe and cosy little house.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THATCHING.]