SCA Camping Chair

This project started like most projects, as a request from the wife.  We just completed our first whole year of SCA camping; throwing together camping stuff as quickly as possible.  We've decided it was a lot of fun and now we get to refine everything.  It looks like first on the list is historically accurate chairs.  Our normal Walmart camping chairs are still going to be used around camp most of the time but she wants HA chairs for places more out in the open.  She had a design she liked that was common in the SCA and also seemed to be able to hold over 300 lbs.  I am a man of weight and substance so this was an important feature.  Most camp chairs get destroyed by me in the long run.

I looked around and didn't really find too many people with instructions on how to make the chair but the overall design is very simple and I figure it will not be hard to figure out.  I went around and looked at a few up close pictures and noticed a few potential flaws that I think can easily be worked out of the design.  Most of the pictures I found were of SCA people trying to sell the chair, often as cheap as possible so I noticed a lot of corners being cut.


Once I had a rough idea on what I wanted to do I started by comparing their design with extant pieces.  I was pleasantly surprised how easy it was to find examples.  The first one I found is in the Higgins Armory Museum dated at 1529.

In this example the chair "X" pieces are not completely straight.  The top section are trimmed down to make a slight curve.  Most of the modern chairs for sale skip this step and just use straight simple slats. 

 I also noticed on most of the modern examples the base pieces  were at an angle when the chair was in a sitting position.  This provides less of a foot print while the chairs are in use.  It's done this way because of the angle of the slats.  On the extant piece the bottom base pieces are decorative and significantly more sturdy, cut in a wedge shape which provides more contact with the ground.  I did find a couple of nicer modern ones that angled the bottom piece as well.  This is one of the first corners to cut in a cheap product.



I also noticed in the modern pieces the slats seem to go all the way over to the opposite side and rest on the main X pieces.  The extant piece all come up short of the X piece.  This seems like it would not be nearly as strong but the practical aspect of either way will come out in my test design so I'm not too worried about it now.

I was trying to figure out the best way to attach the back piece when I finally found this picture of the chair at Higgins.  Most of my original thoughts had the problem of the piece popping off when you lean into it a little.  I have not seen a close up on a modern chair to see how they  attach the back but I doubt it's like this.  This design is brilliant and I will use the idea in my chair.







The next step is to do a trial run and figure out any practical design flaws or issues to address.  The best approach I think for this is to make a chair for Anger Baby who will be absolutely thrilled to have her own chair.  It will be small and cheap to make but allow me to test a few things out without wasting a potentially good chair.  If it doesn't work on the first try, oh well. After that I have some Acacia set aside for the Mrs and I and since we are joining House Bloodguard I see Golden Acacia chairs with a maple inlay Maltese cross in my future this winter.