How to make rungs for ladder bridges

Cedar is the best wood to use for building because is splits easily and it is rot resistant. Here are some guidlines for making rungs. Please note, do not cut down live cedars for making rungs, try and find some deadfall to use. You can split cedar using an axe, hammer and wedges or a hammer and froe. I just prefer using an axe and wedges as the wedges give you more control over difficult pieces of cedar.

1. Start with the best wood. This means using cedar deadfall at least 2ft in diameter and with what appears to be fairly straight growth. If you use narrow (younger) trees, there greater chance of having the wood warp as most of the wood you are using is heartwood. This heartwood (centre of the tree) is also not as durable as the outer growth.

2. Cut your blocks or rounds into the desired length for your rungs.

3. Score a line across the top of the block with your axe. The lines should be about 2 inches apart so you end up with relatively thick rungs.

4. Then hammer your wedges into the line you've scored across the top of the block. As you hammer the wedges further into the block a slab of cedar should split off the side of the round till you are left with something like this:

5. This slab can the be split into rungs.

Sometimes difficulties will occur and the cedar will not split squarely. This usually happens if there are knots in the wood or the grain is slightly twisted. There are basically two ways to get around this:

1. If you are making longer rungs there is a grerater likeliehood that the rung will twist on you. by scoring lines at both ends of the block and splitting from both ends you reduce the risk of getting a rung that is not square.

2. If you notice the split is starting to go off-line (not straight) you can correct it by scoring a line along the length (side) of the block and hamering in your wedges along the side.

Sometimes there is nothing you can do tho and you just end up with useless rungs.

nice tutorial on one of my fav topics!

the only thing I would add is that near the base of the tree(near the ground dumass!) is where the best wood is,ie free of knots and what not. so try and get that section, it will split way better. also if its hanging ion the air it will be less likely to have begun decomposing/rotting.

happy splitting.

I was splitting some fat blocks w lew for a yet to be announced top secret film project( I have already said too much)..we had such nice wicked wood I was doing one handed look backs while popping shakes, they came off so clean it sounded like pop corn popping.beauty cedar looks like cooked salmon, all pink and excellnt..thats it works canceled grab the froe.

Thats great info. Thanks Syncro!

thanks duke. i plan to add a few more pics in a day or two as well.

Great tutorial Synchro. Thanks! Should help me get my laddre project in squamish done quicker. Guess I'll just discard those thin sticks (5-8" diameter) and just try to find some large pieces of dead wood like in your picture.

-m

really informal, i have always kinda wonderd how to do that. but i have a cuple questions.

1st- after u get done w/ step 4 (4. Then hammer your wedges into the line you've scored across the top of the block. As you hammer the wedges further into the block a slab of cedar should split off the side of the round till you are left with something like this:) and u had that big peice of ceder, how exactly did u cut that up in2 the smaller peaces that u used for ur rungs?

2nd- also what are some other types of wood that are good to use, i ask this because here in Illinois we dont get Cedars, all we have is Maple, Locus, Hickory, Oak, and Pine?

thanks, Flat Lander

mark -

i stuck this for you…i think it is a great topic to have readily available to everyone.

Thanks!

really informal, i have always kinda wonderd how to do that. but i have a cuple questions.

1st- after u get done w/ step 4 (4. Then hammer your wedges into the line you've scored across the top of the block. As you hammer the wedges further into the block a slab of cedar should split off the side of the round till you are left with something like this:) and u had that big peice of ceder, how exactly did u cut that up in2 the smaller peaces that u used for ur rungs?

2nd- also what are some other types of wood that are good to use, i ask this because here in Illinois we dont get Cedars, all we have is Maple, Locus, Hickory, Oak, and Pine?

thanks, Flat Lander

after you split the slab off, simply split the wood again, this time perpendicular to your first split - like this

out of the wood you have i would suggest trying the pine. hickory, oak and maple are all hardwooda=s and will be difficult to split. with the pine, make sure you are using knot free wood for splitting rungs, so pick wood near the base of the tree.

ok thanks for the clarification

has there been any instances where the wedges are hammered INSIDE the wood and it's still not splitting… what do u do then?

Put another wedge into the side of the split. I've seen a 20 foot long log split right down the middle by putting 6 wedges in from the side.

Or use a hatchet to hammer the wedge through. The hatchet is narrower than a hammer.

good stuff to know if i can ever get off my lazy ass and start to build some stungs lol

the key is building trails without chainsaws..looks so much more natural

the key is building trails without chainsaws..looks so much more natural

chainsaw or bowsaw, things look pretty much the same