Making a backpack frame

[ncmtmike]

Can anyone help me with building a frame? any pictures? any instructions? diagrams? Would flat-out like to make one if possible. :v

 

[Black Hand]

Ben Hunt has instructions on how to build a pack-frame in one of his books.

 

[ncmtmike]

How would I find Mr. Hunt's book?

 

[Black Hand]

The local library may have it or you will need to order it.
A couple of sources: http://www.amazon.com/The-Complete-How-To-Book-Indiancraft/dp/002011690X
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/co...craft-w-ben-hunt/1103855139?ean=9780020116905

 

[ncmtmike]

Thanks :bow:

 

[ny griz]

Greenmountain boy on here made one.Great looking primitive frame.If he see's this he might show pics.Griz

 

[BillinOregon]

How fur back d'ye want to go?
Here's Oetzi's pack frame, from the Bronze Age.

http://www.iceman.it/kids/en/7-11/archenoah/backpack.html

 

[ncmtmike]

Bill, that's a lil' fur back fer what I had in mind :shake:

 

[BillinOregon]

Mike, the bow of the frame was made from hazel, and the two cross slats of larch, fitted into mortices in the bow and lashed, according to archaeological studies. Add a goatskin bag, a hafted flint knife and a bearskin hat and there you are.

:wink:

 

[Moose Guide]

I saw an original native backpack about 20 years ago, it looked like a very wide snowshoe and was carried by use of a tumpline(forehead strap), the webbing looked just like a traditional snowshoe.

 

[satx78247]

There is an 18th Century plan (with complete instructions) for a traditional pack-frame from New England in the OLD (1960s) EDITION of the BSA FIELDBOOK.
(Perhaps your local library has a copy to consult.)

yours, satx

 

[Claude Mathis]

Trapper Nelson (open in new window to enlarge)

 

[ncmtmike]

Thank You Claude :bow: much appreciated.

 

[Claude Mathis]

 

[crockett]

That looks a lot like the pattern Col. Townsend Whelan describes in his book, "On Your Own in the Wilderness".
I didn't know they were pre-1840.

 

[Claude Mathis]

That looks a lot like the pattern Col. Townsend Whelan describes in his book, "On Your Own in the Wilderness".
I didn't know they were pre-1840.

Oops, did someone ask about pre-1840 only?

 

[ncmtmike]

Now that one looks Good &Sturdy!!!

Thanks :grin:

 

[BillinOregon]

My father packed a lot of stuff on his Trapper Nelson, including a surplus WWII-era rubber life raft, with brass valves and pump, that had to weigh 70 pounds or more. I tried to use the thing and the straps ate my shoulders in the first mile.

 

[satx78247]

The packframe plan in the '60s BSA FIELDBOOK looks rather like a ladder with the sides "angled in" toward the center. - The 2 plans have:
1. one "boy-size frame" that is 24" tall, 12" wide at the top & 18" wide at the bottom
AND
2. An "adult-size frame" that's 36" tall, 18" wide at top & 22" wide at the bottom.
(In my "mis-spent youth", I "packed in" a 75+ pound, cast-iron, woodburning stove on the BIGGER model to a "sub-camp" in SE OK.)

BOTH sizes are NICE for packing "odd-shaped" & bulky loads.

yours, satx

 

[hobowonkanobe]

this is one I have tried, and it works. Doesn't seem to matter what wood you use, though, some tipe of hard(ish) wood wld be a good Idea I'd gather. I made my first out of maple sapling. I did it in 1/2 an hr and it worked just fine.
http://www.primitiveways.com/pack_frame.html