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Timber Framing

Apr 29
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3 Advantages of Roundwood Timber Framing

By Natural Building Workshops, Timber Framing

Ben Law Roundwood Timber FrameRoundwood timber framing implements whole trees, eliminating the waste from milling larger trees into dimensional timbers, and offers a host of other benefits in the realm of timber frame construction.

Our Timber Frame Workshop this year will focus rather heavily on roundwood joinery and techniques, which I do believe is rather unique to this class. If you’re curious about implementing whole trees in natural building, you’ll have your chance this summer.

And be sure to check out my guest post for Tiny House Design here — 3 Benefits of Roundwood Timber Framing.

Image source: Ben Law’s Woodland Home

 

Apr 15
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Protect Yourself (and Your Tools)

By Hand Tools, Timber Framing
Chisel Tool Roll

Handmade toll roll for less than $5!

Protect your tools. Both you and they will be much happier with adequate shelter and storage. Even with our new tool shed, there is still a feeling of inadequacy for the storage of some of our building tools. Better shelves might help, but we’ve got planes, chisels, and all manner of things that are a bit too “exposed” and unprotected for my liking.

However, we are on the way to changing some of that, now that April made her first leather tool roll for our timber framing chisels. I’m in love with it!

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Apr 12
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Timber Framing and Straw Bale: The Perfect Marriage?

By Straw Bale Building, Strawtron, Timber Framing
Straw Bale & Timber Frame House 01

Straw bale & timber frame house in the works

I wonder: is timber framing and straw bale building the perfect marriage of two building techniques? Of course, I may be a bit biased, as I am building a timber frame and straw bale house as we speak, but I think there is much to say for the compatibility, efficiency, and beauty of these two systems. I’ll lay out my line of thinking here, including the benefits of timber framing and straw bale alone, and the two systems combined.

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Mar 04
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Timber Frame Joinery: How to Make a Mortise By Hand

By Strawtron, Hand Tools, Timber Framing
Millers Falls Boring Machine

How to make a mortise with hand tools: boring machine and chisel

You can’t have a tenon without a mortise. They go together like peas and carrots. (Or insert your favorite “go together” cliche here.) Uh, anyway, I described how to cut a tenon by hand in a previous post, and in this article, I’ll describe the process for making a mortise in a timber by hand. A mortise is basically a slot for a tenon, which is later pegged to secure the joinery. It’s simple and timeless.

Mortises are arguably more difficult to make by hand than tenons. I’ll describe how to do it with a boring machine and chisel.

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Feb 26
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AUTINE: Bladesmith John Neeman’s New Tool Company

By Hand Tools, Timber Framing
Autine Hand Forged Tools

John Neeman’s new wares

If you haven’t heard the scoop already, master bladesmith John Neeman of Neeman Tools, whose dazzling photos and videos of deliciously hand forged woodworking tools have whipped up a lot of excitement over the past year, has now branched away from his namesake company and is heading AUTINE, a new family company dedicated to creating stunning, and absolutely top quality axes, knives, chisels, and more.

It is unclear how the split between John Neeman and Neeman Tools has occurred, and it’s certainly confusing that his name is still the brand for the company that he has detached from, but regardless, we lucky tool fetishists now have two incredible sources for excellent hand forged tools.

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Feb 19
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Restoring an Old Millers Falls Boring Machine / I ❤ Craigslist

By Timber Framing, Hand Tools
Millers Falls Boring Machine - Replacement Base

The partly restored Millers Falls machine with brand new base

First of all, I love craigslist. I actually don’t use it that often in my daily life (it’s less useful when you live in the country), but we’ve made a few real scores in some lucky searching stints. While in TN, I happened to do a Millers Falls boring machine search, and I found one… for $160, and it wasn’t terribly far away. The only downside is that it needed some work, namely a new base and one or two small parts replaced.

Considering these suckers can go for $400-$900, I’d say it was worth it. And they just don’t make any equivalent (hand-powered) versions of these things anymore, so I felt obligated to pick this one up, tune it up, and preserve it. (And use it, too, no doubt.)

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Feb 11
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Stunning Timber Reciprocal Roof Frame Design

By Reciprocal Roof, Timber Framing
Timber Frame Reciprocal Roof

Amazing timber frame and reciprocal roof

Wow. This is gorgeous. I like catching wind of different reciprocal roof designs, and this one is mighty impressive. Designed and built by Fire Tower Engineered Timber, this reciprocal roof is part of an Episcopal Church construction on Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota. The dimensions are… massive. Read below for details.

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Jan 28
Love1

Timber Frame Joinery: How to Cut a Tenon By Hand… Quickly

By Timber Framing, Strawtron, Hand Tools

How to Cut a Tenon by Hand

I’m a sucker for cutting tenons. Maybe because it provides me with a great excuse to swing an axe. Maybe because once I get into the groove, I feel a great sense of accomplishment when I’m able to cut and clean up a tenon swiftly. Cutting a tenon — by hand — is a great skill to learn and practice, and I want to make the argument that it can be done by hand rather quickly, too. After cutting tenon after tenon, I got to the point of being able to do the bulk of the work with a saw and axe. I skipped the chisel altogether at some point. Here’s my process for cutting tenons by hand, perhaps my favorite “grunt work” of timber framing. Actually, I like it so much I wish I had an excuse to cut some right now…

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Jan 26
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Timber Frame Joinery Layout: Square Rule & Scribe Rule

By Timber Framing, Strawtron
Timber Frame Joinery

Understanding layout — the most important part of timber framing

I’m going to be very honest here — I will not be making any in-depth attempt to describe timber frame joinery layout here on this blog as part of my documentation for building our timber frame and straw bale house. I don’t feel fully qualified, and besides, you can find some pretty good documentation elsewhere. Personally, I’m in the camp of really needing to see and do layout to actually understand it. Reading about it, and having someone describe it to me makes my brain slowly turn off. Call me visual.

However, I can say a few things about the two systems we employed when building our timber frame. They are Square Rule and Scribe Rule layout. They are two singular approaches to achieving the same basic effect — making two different pieces of wood relate to each other, and join in a logical way.

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