Phase 02 — Stone, bone, wood and fibre toolkit / About year 1
02.18
Wattle hurdles and woven mats
walls, fences, drying trays
AWhat it needs
Needs 14 other products in all, 1 of them directly.
View
- 02.18 Wattle hurdles and woven matsMaking Year 1 needs 14 products
- 02.08 Hafted stone axe ⚠Making Year 1 needs 13 products
- 02.05 Pitch glueMaking Year 1 needs 6 products
- 01.08 First fire and stone hearthMaking Year 1 needs 5 products
- 01.06 Tinder and kindling storeMaking Year 1 raw materials only
- 01.07 Bow-drill fire setMaking Year 1 needs 3 products
- 01.03 Sharp stone flakeMaking Year 1 needs 1 product
- 01.02 HammerstoneMaking Year 1 raw materials only
- 01.05 Twisted plant-fibre cordMaking Year 1 needs 2 products
- 02.06 Sinew thread and rawhide lashingMaking Year 1 needs 9 products
- 01.15 Fire-hardened spear ⚠Making Year 1 needs 6 products
- 02.03 Stone knives, scrapers and engraving pointsMaking Year 1 needs 3 products
- 02.01 Knapping kitMaking Year 1 needs 2 products
- 02.07 Ground stone axe headMaking Year 1 needs 2 products
- 01.02 Hammerstoneshown above ↑← shown at left
- 02.04 Sandstone grinding slabMaking Year 1 needs 1 product
Open a box to see what it needs. A dashed box is a product already drawn in full: click it to jump there. In the org chart, drag to move around.
BWhy
A hurdle is a basket made flat: a light, strong woven panel as big as a door. Stood on edge it is a fence, a wall, a pen or a windbreak. Laid flat it is a drying rack, a bed base or a bridge over mud. Daubed with clay it becomes the wall of a house. Mats do the same work for floors, beds and roofs.
CYou need
- The hafted axe (02.08)
- Ten straight stakes of hazel or ash, thumb-thick and as long as from the ground to the chest
- Forty to fifty long flexible rods of hazel or willow, finger-thick, as long as can be found
- A straight log with ten holes burned in it a hand-span apart, as a mould. Or firm ground.
- For mats: long reeds, rushes or split bark
DSteps
- Stand the ten stakes in the holes of the mould log, or drive them into the ground in a straight line, a hand-span apart.
- Start at the bottom with the thick end of a rod behind the first stake. Weave it in front of the second, behind the third, and so on to the end.
- At the last stake, twist the rod like wringing a cloth so its fibres separate, bend it round the stake and weave back the other way. A rod bent without twisting snaps.
- Start the next rod on the other side, so that it passes in front where the last one passed behind.
- After every few rows, beat the weave down hard with a stick.
- Join a new rod by overlapping the old one across two stakes.
- Weave to the tops of the stakes. Finish with two rods twisted round each other along the top edge, to lock it.
- Lift the whole panel off the mould and trim the ends. One person can carry it.
- To fence, stand hurdles end to end and tie each to a post.
- Mat: lay reeds side by side on the ground. Weave pairs of split bark strips across them, every hand-span, one strip passing over each reed and the other under, crossing between reeds. Tie off at the edges.
EIt worked if
- A hurdle held by one corner does not sag or shed rods.
- A person can lie on one laid across two logs.
FWhat goes wrong
- Rods snap at the end stakes. They were bent without being twisted first.
- The panel is loose and rattles. Rods too thick or not beaten down. Use thinner rods and beat every third row.
- It leans like a parallelogram. The end stakes were too weak. Use the thickest stakes at the two ends.
- The mat falls apart. The cross-weaving is too far apart. Put the rows closer.
GIn the story
Bjorn burns the holes in the mould log and says nothing as Imani weaves the first hurdle on it, talking the whole time. When it lifts off in one piece he turns it over, sets it across two logs and sits on it. That evening he asks how many she could make in a week. It is the first question he has asked her, and she notices.
HFigures
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