After a 4 years test:

The axle in the hub - wood in wood - is amazingly easy running. Important is grease. A mash from olives works well, modern technicalgrease works better. There are only little signs of wear and tear. The middle section of the disc wheel proved wrong, so the battens that hold the hub had to be replaced by stronger ones.

The beginning of an early chariot. These discwheels made from three parts are found all over Europe, the latest findings date in the forth century.

...reducing oxygen by heating in a covered fire pit ...

 .... leads to that nice black colour ...

Yet the shards in the background do also proove a reduction by numbers. This might be a result of a lack of sand put in the clay, besides my wild hopping on the fire. Next time ...

Test: very usable vessels. Important is thorough cleansing after use, the unvarnished surface is quite good for growing mildew. Ceramics, that had been only once fired, tendet to return to clay after a night in the rain. So it looked like ceramic, but had not been fired hot enough.

The waiver of trampling through the fire with the dug-in ware has improved the profits a lot.

Test: This ferry has transported approx. 5000 persons across Neckar River during the last years. 15 persons is the ultimate point of sinking, we have retried it several times.

The tonnage has been more than doubled by putting a set of boards atop the dugouts.

The dugouts lie floating in the water when not in use, after 4 years their condition is still perfect, despite being made of simple fur trees.

The publicated purpose of the original, which was model for our raft, the “Heilbronner Einbaumfähre” is claimed to be a cattle-ferry. We say: no. Wouldn’t work. If the dugouts were closed, so that no water got inside, maybe. The problem is not the tonnage itself, but the process of getting on and off board.

Tents: why not dare to build a tent of suitable size ? The picture on the left is out of a miniature of about 830 A.D. , the Utrecht Psalter.