Back in July, April and I debated about how the roof decking should complement the stained timber frame in our outdoor kitchen. At first, we considered some kind of white paint treatment on the roof deck, but I was never sold on the idea. Long story short, we decided to do a total 180 on the whitewash idea — I charred cedar instead, yakisugi style. Here’s how it looks.
Several years ago, I learned how to scribe wood to stone and have been patiently waiting for the opportunity to implement this feature in my own building project. The premise is simple — copy the rough surface of a stone plinth to a wood post for a seamless fit. This gives the impression of a timber or wood post “growing” out of the stone foundation. It’s a beautiful look, used in old building foundations especially in the Japanese “ishibatate” style.
The recent outdoor kitchen timber frame was the perfect chance to implement this technique. Here are the steps for scribing wood to a stone foundation.
I found no shortage of shou-sugi-ban (or more properly, yakisugi) siding in Japan. Since I just recently experimented with charring wood, I appreciated seeing a variety of walls finished with yakisugi siding. Interestingly, it was used in many different contexts, everything from neighborhood houses to temple perimeter walls. I liked that about it. In Kurashiki at least, it seemed to transcend all types of buildings both humble and grandiose.
Here are a few photos of shou-sugi-ban siding I saw out in the wild.
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I’m back home from Japan. I can think of no better word to describe the trip than ‘whirlwind’. It was very full and varied, and it’s taken me over a week to feel settled back into home life and routine. (The jet lag on the way there was almost nonexistent, but it hit me like a sack o’ potatoes on the return trip.)
It’s hard to summarize such a long trip, so I won’t really try. I’ll say this, though — I definitely want to return, and plan on it at some point. My goal right now is to document some of my trip highlights in a series of blog posts. I can’t share much about the first week (yet), so things will have to be out of chronological order. Not that it matters.
Enough jabbering, let’s get on to the good stuff. Here are some pretty pictures of clay walls and kura (storehouses) in the lovely city of Kurashiki, a small historic city I loved exploring.
Yakisugi is a traditional method of wood preservation. Charring wood is not specific to Japan, but charring sugi (Japanese cypress) for cladding use is a traditional feature of some Japanese architecture. It’s been used primarily for practical reasons — charred wood is less susceptible to rot and moisture damage, insect damage, and ironically enough, it’s more resistant to fire. Plus, it looks pretty badass if you ask me.
I first saw a video of a guy burning sugi boards several years ago and was entranced. I knew that I wanted to try it sometime, and I decided to use our first timber frame as an experiment. So I bought a torch and lit up our white oak timbers. Read ahead for more…
If you’re thrifty and building a timber frame structure for yourself, you’re most likely going to buy green (or unseasoned) timbers from a local sawmill. If you’re lucky, you might acquire timbers from a bandsaw mill, which produces relatively clean cuts when compared to a circular sawmill. However, if you’re not partial to the rough sawn look and texture, you have a few options to smooth and finish the timbers. Perhaps the most economical option is to plane the timbers yourself, but how?
6×6, 8×8 and larger sized timbers can be intimidating to consider planing. There’s always a hand plane, but that is challenging work for more than a few pieces or tough wood like oak. I was faced with this dilemma and opted for the electric hand planer route, picking up a Triton TPL180. The TPL180 is a 7″ wide electric hand planer designed for large dimension lumber. Here are my impressions of the tool.
If you’re building a timber frame with hand tools, it’s helpful to have a few types of hand saws in your arsenal. There are many many types of saws that you could use, and at the end of the day it boils down to personal preference. Me? I like to try new tools from time to time, and these are two that I find very effective in the cutting process — a Japanese anahiki saw (or timber saw), and a Japanese ryoba saw (or two sided saw).
Tools are what make any craft or trade physically possible. You cannot make a house, spoon, basket, or sweater without certain essential tools. And a quality tool makes the experience more efficient, enjoyable, accurate, and safer. As I’ve stated before, I have a particular fondness for using axes, for whatever reason. A few years ago, I wrote Axes We Love to highlight some of the high quality hand-forged axes being made out there in the world. In my second entry in the Axes We Love series, I want to highlight a few more of the talented blacksmiths who are hard at work producing custom forged axes and other tools we need to do our best work.
In November, I traveled to Illinois to help deconstruct a 100+ year old barn. It was not an immense building, but it still took plenty of muscle and ample time to deconstruct. Geez. I forgot how exhilarating it is to wield a pry bar for days on end. Well, the barn finally took the form of many piles of wood after dozens and dozens of hours of nail pulling and coaxing. It was a big relief to walk away from a few scattered foundation stones, the total remaining evidence of the building that once stood. Here are a few pictures of the process, petrified barn cat included.
Summer rolls onward, swiftly and sweatily. Recently, I had the chance to rebuild a spring-fed cedar outdoor shower at friends’ property just down the road. It was nice to work so close to home after a spring full of back and forth to do the big plaster project in western Kentucky. The former shower was a nailed-together hodgepodge of scraps and splinters, and this was a chance to start afresh with some decent materials.
Hi there, I’m Ziggy. In 2008, I launched The Year of Mud while building my first natural home. This website is a collection of personal stories and experiences building with clay, straw, and wood over the past 15+ years. A few of the things that get me fired up are natural plasters, timber framing, & Japanese architecture. In 2012, we started offering Natural Building Workshops, so you can learn essential hands-on skills to build your own natural home.
