Timber Framing

[treesmith]

That was my first thought too, Bud. The main frame looks older and rougher.

 

[Dave Shepard]

They are probably original braces. Many times you will see the large members of the frame are hewn, and the scantlings, or anything smaller than a 5"x5", are sash sawn. A sash saw is usually water power, and is kind of like a pit saw and moves up and down. Sash sawn saw marks look a lot like band sawn timbers. The reason for this was that most sash mills were limited to the length they cut, and were most useful for sawing boards. It was much easier to hew a 9"x9" post than to have it sawn out. The last old barn left on my farm is a combination of hewn and sash sawn. The posts are less than 16' long, and are sawn. The plates are 40', and hand hewn, as there wouldn't have been a sawmill to cut that long. The braces and rafters are also sash sawn. Also the floor joists are 2"x8" planks that were sawn. It would have been hell to pit saw all those boards. In some barns that would have been built in an area without a sawmill, the rafters would be hewn, or made from whole logs, and the braces would have been riven from a straight, clear section of log. I've done this, and the clearer, the better! Riving (splitting with steel wedges and wooden "gluts", which were basically just wooden wedges ) would have been much faster than pit sawing.

To answer the question about the gap, that is a square rule frame, which means all the mortises were cut to the same size, probably to accommodate the largest piece of brace stock. It looks like they were cut for a much larger brace, and they ended up with smaller stock. Unless you want to custom fit each mortise, then you will have the same, although typically smaller, gap at the top of the mortise. If you had all of your brace stock cut, and it was all very accurately milled, say 1/16" variation, you could measure across at a 45 degree angle from the point of the brace, and get the length of mortise that you need.

Yes, Jay, French scribe is pretty amazing. One of my instructors worked on the new roof for the Cabildo in New Orleans after it burned. They hired a French timber framer named Frederic Brillant to oversee the project, as the Cabildo, as well as the Presbytere, were built by the French.

 

[woodworkingboy]

I was thinking that standardization, so to speak, might be the cause of those gaps as you explained, Dave. The locking pin also seems about where you would want it to be, given the size of the braces. Getting up a structure quickly in those days seems to have been a priority, and when you had people coming over to help, no doubt you wanted it to go together efficiently and asap....get the roof on! Having to match cuts to individual pieces of wood is a somewhat tedious woodworking nightmare, unless that approach is incorporated into the design from the beginning, like with curved beams and such. Doing very refined woodworking in some ways can be a struggle against some practicality, and takes a different mental approach. In furniture making, you can about kill yourself over a fit, and most people will never understand. The "old world charm" of a gap might speak louder to them. "Folk craft" society people really dig on it....some religious thing about purity of mind..

 

[brendonv]

Bump.

Got my big al last week Dave. Long wait

Hauled this load of pine today. Mills coming Sunday. Get me started at least on posts and brace stock. I need five more logs, two 18' and two 24'. I bought those Gibson timber frame plans. Is it normal to have 1" housings? I always thought they reduce down to the next 1/2" size.

 

[brendonv]

Woops

 

[woodworkingboy]

Those are some good looking logs, Brendon. I don't think that I have ever worked with totally green lumber except in a few cases. I can see some advantages, but all in all, I would think that drier wood might be more pleasant. The general rule here for timber frame homes, is to get the framing and roof on, then let the place sit for a minimum of three months open to the breeze., before proceeding. You would see places in the dry it out phase all of the time. Much of that has been replaced by 2x4 or other types of construction, simply because the independent carpenters doing timber frame, can't market their methods like the bigger outfits can that do the quicker construction. It's really a shame with a public that responds to flash, and not substance. More than a few disgruntled carpenters around awhile back. High skills but the market for what they did dried up. One even told me that he didn't have time to sharpen his planes any longer. Some accepted the course of things and now pound nails or drive screws on pre-fab type construction. I do know one old styler that survives on his reputation for quality. he finds clients that aren't in a rush to move into a new home.

 

[Dave Shepard]

Timber framing, especially traditional timber work in the U.S., is done with green wood. Pine doesn't move or check much, and is a great wood to work. Green wood is always easier to work than dry, especially white oak. There are some outfits that work kiln dried doug fir, because their fancy ass CNC machines choke on anything but perfectly shaped timbers. Stuff that crap!

 

[woodworkingboy]

Yeah, Dave, I don't picture too dry wood as being the best thing for what you do. Isn't real green wood kind of stringy and sheet, like when chopping mortises or cutting tenons. I know little about working soft woods really.

 

[Dave Shepard]

Green wood works great. White pine works ok dry, too.

 

[squisher]

How's that work for log homes I wonder? A big log home builder around these parts used to have a whole log kiln. They went out of business though. The log home industry had boomed here in the 10-20 year ago range. Apparently a lot of the homes went overseas to places like Japan.

 

[brendonv]

That pine was topped last winter. I went back junish and dropped them. They have been sitting since then. Not sure if thats called green? Ive got three more loads of clear logs to haul, and two loads of logs for 2x's to haul. Lot more wood than i thought.

 

[squisher]

Nice. I get nervous if my wood/log pile gets down to much.

 

[brendonv]

Giving it he'll this morning with mike aka devildog.

 

[woodworkingboy]

Nice rig!

 

[Dave Shepard]

Looking forward to seeing a big stack of timbers tonight!

 

[brendonv]

We only did there big timbers to start on. I need more 2xs for a shed build. We did 18 brace stick pieces too.

 

[squisher]

Nice!

 

[woodworkingboy]

Yeah. Having wood around makes you want to do stuff with it, rather than thinking to make something than have to figure getting the wood.

 

[Burnham]

Very nice.

 

[brendonv]

Heres a right side up attempt. Ive got some tulip bark stickered to use for gable shingle accents too.

 

[MasterBlaster]

Beautiful!

 

[woodworkingboy]

Orgasmic!

 

[squisher]

Easy Jay! Lol.

 

[Burnham]

 

[woodworkingboy]

Yeah, I need counseling. It's not like stockings and high heels.