In which we find that we almost have a bed

Spent some time this weekend working on mortises for the camp beds. I have to say that Chris is amazing. While I was downstairs working on Omar's esoforion (Byzantine under shirt) he knocked out the mortises in four bedposts. The results are that we almost have a bed! They do take some fitting to the tenons, but as the gentle reader can see by the picture of Evan, the queen bed is standing. We even balanced him on the rails, to test the flexibility, and they passed. Of course, he only weighs about 40 pounds. *shrug*

Evan had a lot of fun with the process, since the boards make perfect roads for tiny toy cars.

The other long peices of wood in the picture are the rails that will be screwed inside the side rails. These smaller rails will support the slats and ultimately the platform on which the mattress will rest. I've sized the bed so that I can use an air mattress or a foam mattress. I might play with period mattresses at some point, but being the headonist that I am, I suspect I'll choose comfort veiled in authenticity, rather than authenticity.

The bed posts are amazing in their simplicity. A couple of close-ups show how the tenons on the rails fit into the posts. The posts really do need finials, but they might have to wait until later - it's more important to get functional beds, I think. Once we get pegs through the tenons, the bed should be very stable.

Chris has been continuing to work on the mortices, and I tried to bang out a bedpost, but found the going to be very slow. I wonder if a sharpened chisel would work better.... In any case, he's loads faster at them than I am, but I should work on them too. Only 16 posts to go for our five planned beds. *sigh* Maybe I'd be more effective screwing in sub-rails.