camp chair

Frank Fusco

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Mountain Home, Arkansas
Here is a small camp chair I just finished. It is a Civil War style. Now, some of you may wonder what I am doing with a CW style anything when my reenactment is limited to pre-1830. Well, fact is, even us really old time reenactors get old backs that need resting. This style is pretty well accepted at earlier type rendezvous and events because it does not clash visually with the era and everyone realizes that folks do need to sit down. Not many people of that time lived to my age, and those that did were very unlikely to be found in wilderness camps with little, or no, amenities. Anyhow, the chair slides into itself for ease of carrying. I have a larger, heavier version also but this one is light for ease of carrying around camp. The frame is ash. I don't know what the cross-pieces are. The wood was given to me and I have forgotten what I was told. It is either mahogany or teak.
 

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Frank, I've seen some similar to this before and always wanted to make one. Would you care to lend out the approximate size of each piece?:)
 
Frank, I've seen some similar to this before and always wanted to make one. Would you care to lend out the approximate size of each piece?:)

I'll copy the specs and send to you. The plans call for some pretty heavy slats on the seat and back. I used my small strips of mystery wood instead. Plenty strong and much lighter. The widest part is 16".
 
Nice (almost)period piece... I have a plan around here somwhere that has a little more work to it, with curved sides and back but yours is closer to realistic.
 
Frank,

I made myself a pair of those a few years ago, but I called them "Beach Chairs".

Mine were partly based on these plans for a scout camp chair.

42-outside-2chairs-fence-sm.jpg01-chairs-sm.jpg

Anyone who wants to build these, I have one suggestion: forego most of the slats for the back, and instead staple in place some canvas. (On I found that sitting on these for a while hurts my backbone -- a back isn't flat after all. I added a small pillow to the lower back of my chair this summer, and I'm now liking them a lot better.
 
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Frank,

I made myself a pair of those a few years ago, but I called them "Beach Chairs".

Mine were partly based on these plans for a scout camp chair.

View attachment 11572View attachment 11573

Anyone who wants to build these, I have one suggestion: forego most of the slats for the back, and instead staple in place some canvas. (On I found that sitting on these for a while hurts my backbone -- a back isn't flat after all. I added a small pillow to the lower back of my chair this summer, and I'm now liking them a lot better.


Yours seem to have very upright backs. Strikes me that could be what is making it uncomfortable. Leaning more to the rear might help. Although, by the end of the day at a primitive camp, after walking around, carrying firewood, shooting, throwing tomahawks and knives, visiting while squatting on our haunches, and all in soft sole moccasins, anything with a back for rest would feel comfortable.
 
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