First let me say that I believe that the most common structure for holding up a double belled wedge pavilion (in period) was very likely two poles, one at each end of the center section.
That being said, I'm pretty invested in making a "swing set" style structure because I like the flexibility of having all that open space. I'm also pretty sure I want to go with bamboo for my support poles. Mostly for the "green" characteristics of bamboo, but also for their strength, lightness, non-conductivity (in case of lightning!) and proportions similar to a classic pavilion pole.
I see lots of indications that bamboo tent poles are(or were) common in India, and I've seen some very interesting sites about the use of thinner bamboo poles in place of the shock-corded fiberglass poles common in modern tentage, but unfortunately I've yet to find any suppliers of *just* the bamboo poles for a pavilion, or any pictures of the connectors used for larger dimension bamboo tent poles, or anything which compares the strength of bamboo to a wood I am more familiar with (like say, pine) etc, etc.
I'm just a flood of questions.
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Thank you your Excellency!
ReplyDeleteIt is lovely to hear from someone who has actual experience working with bamboo--you've already opened my mind to some of the charecteristics of bamboo which I hadn't even considered:
- I could cut the ends of my poles just past the solid section so that I don't have to make plugs to close them up!
- I could use a larger diameter section of pole as a connecter!
{I know that you are probably thinking "well duh!" but it had never occured to me.)
I am planning to buy my bamboo online in the spring. In the meantime I will start reading-up on lashing things together. Thank you for your offer of further advice, I hope to be taking you up on it soon.
With deepest gratitude,
Aurora