[Ansteorra] OT: Bedding dilemma
Stefan li Rous
StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
Wed May 16 19:35:58 PDT 2007
On May 16, 2007, at 11:58 AM, Morgan Blackdragon wrote: .
>
> My lady and I are sick of air mattresses and would like to move to
> something a bit more dependable. What is the best bedding in terms of
> set up / break down, amount of truck space it would take up, etc.
Air Mattresses can last. In almost eighteen years in the SCA, I'm
only on my second. But then I buy the rubberized cloth ones rather
than just the vinyl ones, although sometimes these do have one or
more sides of vinyl. Part of the trick is to put the air mattress on
something like a rope or platform bed where it is less likely to get
punctured than when put down on the ground.
>
> I have heard suggestions on rope beds but I've also heard that the
> ropes will stretch and take a lot of maintenance. I have been looking
> at platform beds but I am trying to work out an easy (and cheaper) way
> to make one myself instead of buying it from a store.
Both can be made. Master Cariadoc did find a late period diagram of a
rope bed which solves most of the problems of the rope beds. The
ropes are strung diagonally and the rope frame is held inside the
larger bed frame and a rope is wound round both frames allowing you
to pull the rope to tighten the bed, using the multiple windings as a
pulley to greatly reduce the force required. You can find diagrams
and sources for this bed in the beds-msg file in the Florilegium.
Also it is strung in such a way that it only has to be loosened to
take the bed apart. You don't have to restring the bed each time.
>
> We'll most likely be using a futon mattress so I am mainly looking for
> bed frame ideas. What do you use currently, what have you used in the
> past, what sort of problems or praises have you come across? Do you
> make or have have a good bed frame that you'd like to sell? Any
> information, either on the list or directly to me, would be greatly
> appreciated.
The problem with the futon mattress is that they don't compress and
therefor take up a LOT of room in the car or truck.
I started out with a double rope bed and eventually moved to a
platform bed using bed hardware which I bought from a mundane
woodworking shop in Austin.
For lots of more details and descriptions of beds, both period and
SCA, check out this file in the HOME, SWEET HOME section of the
Florilegium:
beds-msg (143K) 1/10/01 Medieval and SCA beds. rope and
slat beds.
Stefan
--------
THLord Stefan li Rous Barony of Bryn Gwlad Kingdom of Ansteorra
Mark S. Harris Austin, Texas
StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at: http://www.florilegium.org ****
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