Gears quickly shifted this fall when I was contracted to build a wood shed in town. Up until a few weeks ago, I was trying to squeeze in as much work as possible on the ol’ homestead projects — the light clay straw outhouse in particular. I did end up getting the little outhouse to a good point. (Plastering season is over… unless for some reason we get a 60+ degree stretch in December. You never know these days, sadly.)

Anyway, the wood shed I’m currently building is a proper timber frame with wood joinery, which is obviously very exciting for me. Getting contracted to do a timber frame anything has been my goal since moving to Berea a few years ago. Here are a few photos of the building process.

The Timber Frame Wood Shed

The timber frame wood shed is a small structure, only 8×16 with two bays. I decided to use 6×6 poplar, acquired from our neighbor just a stone’s throw down the road. He’s got a sawmill and sources the wood from his own property, which is doubly sweet. It’s been a treat to work on cutting the joinery here at home, just a few feet outside our back door. Earlier today we loaded up the cut pieces and transported them into town for raising.

A stack of poplar timbers

The wood shed is a very simple design, functional. No need for anything too over the top here. It’s been nice to get back on the boring machine, axe, and chisel. The actual cutting is one of my favorite aspects of working with timbers, other than the raising of course. It’s also been a great chance to collaborate with an experienced woodworker friend.

Tools of the trade (some of them)

Planing the 6×6 poplar timbers

It was a treat to be able to use our newly acquired planer to smooth the timbers. Because the timbers were skillfully cut on a bandsaw, most of the faces needed just a single pass to clean them up nicely. We acquired this planer with a grant we received last year. Putting a 6×6 through the tool is definitely a limit-pusher, but doable.

Putting the boring machine to good use

I love this kind of work and hope to increase my experience over the years. Timber framing is truly a deep craft, with so many different aspects to learn and explore.

Drilling 1″ holes for the pegs

A pretty clean mortise and tenon joint

I’ll be sure to share some finished photos once the raising is complete! p.s. If you’re in the area in Kentucky, check out my local contracting website to see other examples of our work.

Putting the timber frame wall assembly together