Subject: "Viking beds"
Poster: rmhowe (magnusm@ncsu.edu)
> For the life of me I can't find a single picture on the WWW of a
> slat bed... Magnus? Anyone?
>
> Thanks in advance,
> Hrothgar
(Since I often get asked this I am going to cross post.)
I have pictures of two Viking slat beds, both are from the Viking ship excavations. One is the large one with the very wide side, post, and head boards carved with the beasts, the other is a smaller (and more practical) bed with shaped posts at the corners and looks more like a single bed. There are some on a very expensive "World of the Vikings" CD ROM ($110) from England too. Some of the Viking books show them quite often. But there are only a couple of survivals. One good book to look in is From Viking to Crusader.
One of the existing beds, the small one, has this approximate structure. It took me a while looking at it to figure out the reason the slats were the way they are. Kind of ingenious actually. Primitive springs. The pegged tenon center slat keeps the stretchers from pushing too far apart yet allow it to depress with the others. Make the slat tenon holes a little loose to allow for movement and tilt. You could substitute a tapered dowel for the tusk tenon in the center slat ends and drill the holes (It might even work better that way.).
Vikings had rather peculiar wood joints and did not know dovetails. Where the stretchers intersected each other at the corner posts of beds, chests, and chairs each tenon was a half tenon (in height) passing over or under the tenon perpendicular to it. Then there was a dowel that passed through the post and the tenon and reached into the end of the other stretcher above or below its own tenon.
_____/Upper tenon end seen on end.
_______________________| _ /|
_ _|_|_|_|
|__|_|_|_|- dowels through cross
side stretcher |_|_|_| tenons top and bottom lock joints.
________ | |
|_|__|_| slat | O |- dowel through leg and lower tenon
_______________________|_____| and into the other stretcher
| |
| | leg or corner post
Tenons passed all the way through the legs or corner posts. For a nicer looking joint let them extend a little and bevel the ends at a 45 degree angle. Makes for easier insertion too. The dowels passing through them locked them in place and reinforced the other stretcher by extending into its end.Center slats are tusk tenoned or pegged at the outside of the stretchers and the shoulders go full width. The rest of the slats are cut a little short on the length of the shoulders where they lie between the bed's stretchers. This gives them spring when weight is applied to the center stretcher and they are depressed. It allows them to move in the holes they pass through. Looking at them from the top you get:
exagerated space at shoulders.
| | no space ctr. slat |_ _|/ _|__|_
__| _ _|/____ ______________| |____________| |
____| _ |________ _____________| |____________| | leg
||_|| side stretcher | | |______|
|___| |___| Tenon end.
Pegged tusk tenon Free floating slats
only in center slat every few inches allow "spring".
holds stretchers
together in the middle. It pulls in and depresses with weight and
allows the others to spring because of their shorter shoulders. The
space between the shoulders and the stretchers allows movement and
the tenons slide through the larger mortise holes freely. Trim the
sharp corners for your shin's sake. Maybe carving small animal
heads on them would be creative.
The bed legs are squarish at the top and bottom and in the middle but taper toward the middle from the top and bottom.
_________
|_________|
\ / I'd trim the upper corners a bit.
\_____/ (Less painful that way.)
/_____\
___________| _ |
| | | | Upper stretcher passing through leg
___ | |_| |
|___| | |
___________| O | Dowell through lower tenon into stretcher
|_______|
\_____/
/ \
/_______\
| |
|_________| Bottom length to suit. Bevel base edges.
This is actually a fairly good explanation of a Viking Bed. Most Probably made of hardwood. Personally I would put screws up through the solid wood between the holes (mortises) for the tenons to keep them from spitting the side stretchers. Ash has excellent spring qualities to it and strength.If I wanted to take it apart for travel I would make the bed's side stretcher tenons longer and tusk tenon them or make their locking dowells longer and looser for removal. Maybe turn some headed pegs to make them easier to pull.
A tusk tenon actually goes rather like this:
__
| |
| |____
_______________|__|___/__ Tenon angle not quite as sharp.
_______________|__|__/___| This is a "tusked" tenon seen
| |_/ from the side. Removable for
|__| easy disassembly. Angles of the
mortise must match that of angled
peg. The mortise is the hole.
| |
_______________| |
|__|______
| |___ | View from above stretcher
| |___| | (or side of leg) showing a tenon's
|__|______| mortise hole, locked by inserting
_______________| | angled peg or tapered dowel if a
| | drilled hole is used instead.
| |
M. Magnus Malleus, Atlantia and the GDHorde
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(From: Wayne Precht (wayne@polaris.umuc.edu))Subject: Re: "Viking beds"
Poster: Wayne Precht (wayne@polaris.umuc.edu)
There is an excellent resource for all things viking (from an SCA prespective) on the WWW at: http://www.ravensgard.org/gerekr/norse.html (link tested 01/17/08).
Specifically, the bed segement is at: http://www.ravensgard.org/gerekr/bed.html. (Link tested 01/17/08)
Duke Galmr.