While out in the woods, it would be nice to be able to make bushcraft chairs for your own comfort by just using materials from your surroundings. Here’s how you can do that.
How to DIY Bushcraft Chairs
It’s hard to discount a good chair at the camp. The crackle and pop of a fire at the end of a long day of hiking is like magic. To watch straying sparks, spit up in the air and disappear into the darkness above is something that puts us in touch with people who have long past but were responsible for us getting this far.
If you can have this experience in a nice comfortable chair that you built from the forest around you, well, now you are just adding levels of awesome.
There are essentially two kinds of chairs that you can fashion from the world around you. Well, you also have limitless options because of the simple tweaks and ingenuity that you can apply to basic techniques like square lashing.
We are going to focus on two designs that are easy to make and highly effective. They both built on a couple of techniques. You are going to need to have lashing and knot skills and if you can make a simple tripod that will help.
1. The Two V All Wood Bushcraft Chair
For this chair, you are going to need some tools
- A good knife or woodsman’s axe
- A folding saw
- A roll of Bankline or paracord
- A strong tarp with grommets
- Square lashing techniques
Of course, a simple chair made from harvested wood is the pride and joy of a bushcrafter. We want to be able to take our woodsman’s axe, a small amount of cordage, and create a chair from it.
- Begin by finding a couple of sturdy and strong branches. These should be at least 6 inches in diameter.
- Depending on the weight you plan on seating in that chair they might even need to be thicker. You will need 5 of these that are at least 5 feet long.
- Lash two of these together at the point where the two meets to create a V.
- Be thorough with this lashing as it will decide the strength of your chair.
- Once you have two Vs you are ready to source 5 or so branches that are a little smaller in diameter but to about 2 – 2 ½ feet long. These will become the seat of your chair.
- To assemble the chair, you are going to lay one V down on the ground and then use the other V pointing upward and standing upright.
- The standing V is used to straddle the V that is laying and then you can lift the legs of the V on the floor up a bit and angle the standing V backwards a few degrees.
The bottom V becomes your seat and the standing V becomes the back of your chair. Now they can be lashed together with cordage and adjusted before tightening the lashing down. Now you can lash your smaller cuts of wood to the seat portion. To add stability, use your 5th pole to support the back of the seat. You can lash this to the point of each V in the chair’s design.
Or
You can affix this to the V on the back of the chair and then drive the other end of the stick into the ground.
Many people also affix a small tarp to the back of the chair as a means of adding support to the chair. Depending on how you like to sit you will want this tarp tighter for more support or loose for less support. There will be limits to how much weight your tarp and chair can handle so be careful using this chair at first.
This is also a great chair design for kids.
2. The Tripod and Tarp Chair
For this tripod chair, you are going to need some tools
- A good knife or woodsman’s axe
- Folding saw
- A roll of Bankline or paracord
- A strong tarp with grommets
- Tripod lashing technique
A less complicated chair can be made by simply building a large, sturdy tripod. You will have to understand the basics of tripod lashing, and then find three 5-6-foot poles that can be used to create this.
- Once you have your tall, sturdy tripod, you are going to find another branch, stick, pole, that is about 4 feet long. Lash this between two of the sticks on your tripod, horizontally.
- Then you can wrap a tarp several times on this stick and pull that tarp tightly towards the top of your tripod and then affix that to your top lashing.
- You now have a type of hammock style tripod seat that is wonderfully comfortable.
Live Comfortably in the Wilderness
Whether you are hiking, hunting or out for a bushcraft adventure, having a sturdy seat after a long day makes a big difference. Both are great designs and easy to execute, even if you have basic skills with your bushcraft knife or woodsman’s axe.
When you think about your perfectly crafted bushcraft camp, what are the things that you see? Maybe a tripod over the fire with a chain hanging, a simple A-frame shelter and a square lashed bed to top with a sleeping pad and a sleeping bag.
Add to that camp a set of bushcraft chairs and you will be living large in the wilderness!
Have you ever tried making your own bushcraft chairs? Let us know how it went in the comments section!
Up Next:
- How To Make A Spear | DIY Survival Spear
- The Original Weapon: The Kylie/Rabbit/Throwing Stick
- How To Prepare For and Evacuate From A Wildfire
Feature Image via amazingwildernessproducts.com
