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).
We just wrapped up our 7 day Timber Frame Workshop and I’m finally catching my breath. Whew. Timber framing has a steep learning curve so it’s not the kind of thing you can easily jump into, willy-nilly. It takes some warming up and getting used to lots of new terms, tools, methodologies, etc.
Timber framing is, first and foremost, an exercise in visualization. Looking at plans and applying layout to a timber, imagining a timber oriented in the building — these are all skills that take some time to hone. It’s a totally different way to approach building the bones of a house because everything is laid out and cut in advance of the pieces being assembled. So it’s immensely helpful to be able to see things in your mind, before they exist in front of you. Essential, even.
White oak is impressively heavy. Green white oak timbers are that much heavier. Today we got our order of white oak, pine, and sassafras, in-between massive bouts of rain. There was flash flooding for most of the day except for a tiny window in which we were able to get 10,000+ pounds of timber on-site and loaded off the trailer. I’m thrilled this day is behind me now. Jeez. Onto the next step! (All of the wood is not pictured here, by the way.)
p.s. The “wedding tent” is still going strong after all these years! Granted, we replaced the canopy once, but… this thing has been a lifesaver for shade and rain protection during our workshops. So goofy looking. Maybe a barn is in order next year?
p.p.s. Oh, how do I know it’s about 10,000 pounds of wood? This handy dandy lumber weight calculator, of course.
We’re just about one month out from the start of our July Timber Frame Workshop. Happily, the pieces are starting to fall into place. This year we’re collaborating with Brice of Timber Frame HQ on this very simple and beautiful pavilion design. Brice is doing the drawing work — we’ll have super tight plans that students will be referencing during the course. I’m excited to have these plans available. Clear drawings contribute to a better understanding of the entire layout process.
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.
The finished timber frame wood shed (sans siding)
In the fall of last year, I was contracted to build a small 8×16 timber frame wood shed and it was a great opportunity to get back to the ol’ chisel and mallet. I love this type of work — the materials, the scale, the tools, and the workflow feel so good. In my first post about the shed back in November, I shared some photos of the building process. Here are a few more pics of the raising and the finished shed.
A common design question when working with wood posts and concrete (or stone) is: how do you anchor posts to the concrete? Honestly, if we’re talking about a large structure with a lot of weight, gravity does most of the work and you don’t need a specific connection. A concrete post anchor may be necessary in a variety of situations, however. Here is a particularly slick way to anchor wood posts to concrete using a very discrete piece of hardware.
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.
Check out this collection of beautifully simple animations of Japanese joinery in action. These are great little demonstrations of timber frame joints interlocking together.
We just accomplished one of the more exciting items on our remodeling to-do list — we raised a timber frame between the kitchen and living room. Before the frame went up, we methodically removed the original 2×4 wall. The intention here, of course, was to really open up the space and facilitate a better interface between the living and cooking areas, provide more light to the kitchen, and allow the heat of the (not yet installed) cook stove to move more freely though the house.
I’d say it’s lookin’ pretty good right now. I managed to capture a little video of the actual timber frame raising… watch the video above to see how smoothly the frame fits right into place in the opening we created by removing the stud frame. The video also illustrates some of the steps we took to ready the house for the new frame.
Click ahead for some photos of the new wall, as well!
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.
