A-frame improvised back pack

[nomadbushcraft]

I spent an hour in the woods and amongst other things, I ended up making this as a demonstration piece, if you ever lose or damage your pack beyond repair or you need to pack out a quartered deer (hunters take note!) or need a pack for any other reason this is a great and quick way to do it without getting your normal gear covered in Lord knows what.

I learnt this method in africa from the Samburu tribe.

First you need to cut a few saplings to make your basic frame, I used Hazel (corylus) the Saburu use Marula wood, but Willow (Salix Sp) Chestnut (castanea sativa) or other woods that produce long straight shoots are also good.

Firstly you need to cut 3 peices of wood two as long as your armpit to your fingertips, and one as long as your elbow to your finger tips. NB if you are making the pack for someone else please use THEIR measurements!

next arrange the sticks to form an triangle with the short stick at the base the overlap at each corner should be about 2&1/2 to 3 inches. and tie at each corner with string , bark strips (willow) or as in the piicture wythes made from split and twisted sapling shoots. (stripping the bark at the join and carving a notch on each peice will help the bindings to stay tight. Test the A frame for comfort at this stage before you go further incase it needs adjustment. (these packs have a funny way of finding your prominent vertebrae on a long walk).

To make the straps, choose a sapling about thumb thickness and at least as tall as you are, split this along its length to make two half roundle wythes, these can be softened and flattened by bracing and abrading them against a tree trunk take one of these wythes and tie a clove hitch knot around the top of the a frame in the mibbdle of the wythe , pass the straps down over your arms and pass the free ends through the base of the A frame (adjust for length at this point but leave at least 12 inches more than you think you're going to need.

Lash these straps in place with cord, bark , spruce roots or wythes( the straps themselves can be made from cord, wythes or platted spruce roots depedant upon what is available( I have even used Bull kelp before).

The remaining wythe can be used to lash the load to the pack by weaving it around the load secured in a blanket, tarp, large leaves etc (more wythes or cords are recommended if travelling over rough ground or if the load is heavy or wet with blood etc.)

And there you have it, one pack made simply in 25 mins from start to finish, but id you need it, and it has been made with care, it'll last weeks without needing to be adjusted and it can be made with no tools.

Although these are strong and robust packs, accidents can happen so always remember to take extra wythes, roots or straps with you from the area you made the pack as you may not have the materials in the area that they decide to break.


There are lots of variations on this design I have shown, including the Otzi iceman pack found with his pre-historic gear. They really do work excellently well, Please let me know what you think........


Nomad

 

[Justin Time]

Excellent... I'll be trying that today

 

[Stuart]

I was recently taught this method by Mors Kochanksi whilst out in canada, there it is known as the Roycroft pack frame after the survival instuctor Thomas Roycroft.

do you have any photographs of your time with the Samburu tribe you could show us, as it is not a group I know anything about?

 

[Viking]

This pack is included in the swedish army survival training and is very popular on civilian survival courses. As straps socks is very good to use since they are more comfortable then rope.

There is a good drawing of how the frame is made in the swedish army survival handbook wich can be downloaded from the internet.

 

[nomadbushcraft]

Every cuture seems to have a variation of this pack which shows it's versitilty and ease of construction,

The style shown has various names, Yes, Mors ( I have had the pleasure of learning from him also) would call it a roycroft, I call it an A frame (easy to see why) , Ron Hood calls it a Woodsmaster pack frame the samburu would call it something else (can't remember off hand).

Bottom line, it is simple to make, it works well, and if you make it out of willow and leave the bark intact, you can replant the a frame into wet soil after a few hours and it should take root! that way you can give something back rather than just discarding it or burning it.

In the Gambia, I packed most of a 40 kg bushpig and two 1kg mud crabs taken with a self made flint tipped atlatl dart 12km out of mangrove back to camp on a frame like this without any problems to save getting "claret" on my daypack.

It is an excellent design and there are many useful variations I didn't show the mitred join version that I normally make where the corners are recessed so that they fit together with a clever join, nor the version with a wythe basket that can also be made to sit on the frame. this is purely the basic model.

interestingly when packing cuts of meat the Samburu would skin out the animal and use the foreleg bones and rawhide cut from the back legs to sew the hide with the choice cuts of meat onto the frame.

Andrew

 

[scruff]

cool thanks

i think i remember RM making a slightly more 'ornate' version of one of these on an old episode of Tracks (ahh those where the days)

i'll dig out the factsheets wen i get home an av a butchers

think he used roots from pine trees to braid shoulder straps.....

....hmmm ur method is far less time consuming!

 

[Not Bob]

See

http://www.primitiveways.com/pack_frame.html

for a bit more about this very useful pack.

 

[scruff]

i love this community