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Wednesday, October 28, 2015

Fascinating Survival Skills Shared

 I built this tiled roof hut in the bush using only primitive tools and materials. 


The tools I used have been made in my previous videos. It should be pointed out that I do not live in the wild and that this is just a hobby.

It should be obvious to most that this is not a survival shelter but an experiment in primitive building technology.

To cut and carve wood I used the celt stone axe and stone chisel made in this video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BN-34...).

To carry water and make fire I used pots and fire sticks made in this video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCKkH...).

Finally, to store fire wood and dry, unfired tiles, I used the wood shed built in this video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zajpk...).


The wooden frame was built with a 2X2m floor plan and a 2m tall ridge line with 1m tall side walls.

6 posts were put into the ground 0.25 m deep.

The 3 horizontal roof beams were attached to these using mortise and tenon joints carved with a stone chisel.

 The rest of the frame was lashed together with lawyer cane strips.

 The frame swayed a little when pushed so later triangular bracing was added to stop this.

Also when the mud wall was built, it enveloped the posts and stopped them moving altogether.

A small kiln was built of mud from the ground and a perforated floor of clay from the creek bank.

 Tiles were made from clay pressed into rectangular moulds made from strips of lawyer cane.

 20 tiles were fired at a time.

450 flat tiles and 15 curved ridge tiles were made with only a few breakages.

26 firings were done in all and the average firing took about 4 hours.
 
 The fired tiles were then hooked over the horizontal roof battens.

An underfloor heating system was built into one side of the hut to act as a sitting/sleeping platform in cold weather.

This was inspired by the Korean Ondol or “hot stone”.

 A trench was dug and covered with flat stones with a firebox at one end and a chimney at the other for draft.

 The flames travelled beneath the floor heating it.

After firing it for a while the stones stay warm all night with heat conducted directly to the sleeping occupant and radiating into the room.

The wall was made of clayey mud and stone.

 A stone footing was laid down and over this a wall of mud was built.

 To save on mud, stones were included into later wall courses.

 The mud was dug from a pit in front of the hut and left a large hole with a volume of about 2.5 cubic metres.

The finished hut has a swinging door made of sticks.

The inside is dark so I made a torch from tree resin.

 A broken tile with resin on it acts as a small lamp producing a lot of light and little smoke.

 The end product was a solid little hut, that should be fire and rot resistant.

The whole project took 102 days but would have taken 66 days were it not for unseasonal rain.

 For a more in depth description see my blog (https://primitivetechnology.wordpress...).

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAL3JXZSzSm8AlZyD3nQdBA/videos

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