Advice on cutting Tent & Tipi Poles

[Woods Dweller]

Summer time is not the time to cut your tree or sapling. The sap in the tree will be running during the summer. When the tree dry’s it will be full of sap making it heaver. Also the wood will shrink as it dry’s and the sap does not shrink, this will cause cracks & splits in the poll.

It is best to cut tree or sapling during the late fall or winter when the sap stops running and the tree goes dormant. This will make the tree lighter when dried and will not split or crack.
:hatsoff:

 

[tenngun]

For smaller poles then a tipi pole, I like to cut juniper or sassafras and leave the bark on. Poles of about an inch and a half or less, an shorter then 10 feet. The pole dries slow, wont check and in use gives the look that you just cut the wood to use right in camp.
Of course you don't want bark on for tipies and if you have much weight sassafras is not real strong.

 

[Nativearizonan]

Actually the NDNs did sometimes leave the bark on, especially if they were in a hurry. I read an account of someone who visited the Big Hole battlefield site (Nez Perce) in Montana three years after the battle. He noted they had left their tipi poles behind and that the ones which were peeled were still good. Since he mentioned the ones that were peeled, it stands to reason there were others that were not peeled, which had rotted.

As far as tips for finding good tipi poles, look in the low spots. Trees grow taller and thinner where they have better soil, more water and more competition for sunlight which forces them to grow tall and thin with few side branches. The top of a hill is a poor place to look for decent poles.

 

[crockett]

On the tepee poles left behind, when I was a kid I read Angier/Whelan's "On Your Own in the Wilderness". He said poles were left in certain locations traditionally but modern day Sportsman sawed them up for their sheet metal stoves.

 

[tenngun]

I'm afraid a bigger pole would rot if you left the bark on :idunno: I bet they could replace pole easier then most of us can :wink: looking at photos it looks like a lot of poles were just a foot Or two above the tie. And that more then one had less then the fifteen pluse two set common today.

 

[sidelock]

Not reused cut pols in several years now,(no camping anymore) but used to use same poles over and over for years in the same spot if left off the ground on rocks.

 

[Bear Rider]

Cut your uprights a little bit longer than you think they should be, then pitch your tent. After it's set for a bit to get the wrinkles out, look at it closely. Check the bottom of the tent for length. If it's a wall tent and you are using side poles, check the side walls to be sure that they are all the way to the ground, and then step back and look at the line of the roof as it runs down to the eaves. If that line flares up at the bottom, water can collect there and you will have a leak. The roof should run in one straight line from the ridge to the eave. If you shorten your ridge uprights, you should check the line of the roof again.

 

[Kanu]

I've cut two sets of tipi poles . Both time I cut lodgepole pine , in the month of May when the sap was running . The bark peels off easy . I dried the poles in the shade out of the sun , there were some drying splits but not many .

A friend of mine liked to use douglas fir they looked a tad small diameter to me but they did not sag . going by memory they were no more than 2 1/2 " at the butt and maybe 1 1/4 " top diam . This was interior doug fir in southern BC and all sapwood so they were pretty light once dry and stiff enough for his 16 ft tipi , poles were around 19 - 20 ft long .

 

[zimmerstutzen]

I have been trying to get some bottle brush pine seedlings to plant to grow some poles. Native to the se us coast. They are incredibly straight.

 

[Woods Dweller]

Do a test and just cut one pole in the winter and compare.