Burt
The name ‘Burt’ came from my friend, Keelin.
I was looking for a name for my new invention and was asking around for ideas. On asking Keelin she said as I described it as between a Yurt and a Bender why not call it a Burt! Or maybe a Yender!
I had wanted a ‘nomadic’ dwelling for some time, years in fact.
I love the Tipi but the poles take up too much space and weigh too much. The Yurt I really like but again it takes up a lot of space and weighs too much, not to mention it takes an hour to put up!
My criteria was that it must be sturdy enough to live in all year round in our English weather. It must be able to accommodate an open fire and or log burner. It must have a tight canvas so it doesn’t flap around in the wind. I must be able to stand up in it with ease and it must be as light as possible and quick to erect!
So after many hours laying in bed in the morning, gallons of tea and many more hours in the workshop and woods I’ve ended up with this!
I was feeling quite pleased with myself until someone said that’s nice it’s just like a Chevan! (An Iranian tent I believe). So I didn’t invent it after all, just reinvented it!
A lot of people have shown interest in it and so I thought I would put some info’ on my web site for anyone interested in making one.
I think it’s fairly straight forwards to figure it out from the pictures but I will point out that for the canvas I had to make a jig for assembling the panels, which incidentally are glued together with Copydex not stitched. I glued them rather than stitching because the thought of hand stitching (as I don’t have an industrial sewing machine) was not nice and I didn’t want the cost of having it done for me.
The ribs are made from Ash. I felled the tree and cut the ribs to size and then bent them onto a jig immediately and then left them for a month, rather than steam bending.
The floor ends of the ribs have a nail in them. The head of this nail fits into a brass eyelet in the ground sheet.
The ground sheet is under tension as the ribs are trying to straighten up.
The dimensions are 12 feet in diameter and 6 feet 6 inches high.
Click on the images below to enlarge.
