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In the first yurt blog post there were photos and video of some steam bending action. I am glad that attempt was captured on video as that was the only successful session, the previous four were quite disappointing. However we are now above-average skilled steam benders and the next time, if ever we get inspired again, will be quite amazing indeed.
The result is a four foot diameter circle called a crown or in Mongolian, a ‘tono’. Once the two semi-circle pieces set in place around the former, which took over a week, we glued and drilled holes for dowels to secure the joint.
Since this will form the top of the yurt where all the roof poles connect into, I drilled and chiseled 46 mortises around the tono, using modest hand tools.
Then we harvested some willow from a friend’s farm to weave a simple dome shape.
Voila, a yurt tono.