Our first timber framing project

Last week Carl instructed Justin, Danielle and I in our first timber framing assignment. This gave us all a chance to become accustomed to the tools Carl bought especially for our Timber Framing projects. The great thing about this project was that the wood was harvested right here from the farm and our sawmill used to saw the timbers into lumber!

What I learned from our first class is that Timber Framing has the same type of joinery as is used in furniture building.  That is, some of the older ways of furniture building, not necessarily the modern way of making furniture. Although most of these tools are commonly used in construction, this project taught us how to use the following tools specifically for timber framing, which I found very interesting.  What we learned this past week:

• How to read and interpret timber framing plans
• How to use the various timber framing tools:
  • Tape Measure
  • Framing Square – Did you know these were designed back in the timber framing era? The widths of the farming square are for verifying your mortise sizes. How COOL!
  • Combination Square
  • Speed Square
  • Caliper
  • Chisel
  • Mallet
  • Slick
  • Chain Mortiser
  • Circular Saw – normal sized – a 7 and 1/4 inch blade
  • Circular Saw – Big Daddy – a 16 inch blade
  • Plane
  • Large Drill
• How to mark and layout the various cuts
• How to cut/shape a tenon
• How to cut/shape a mortise
• How to make a brace (These are used extensively in timber framing, and I am am not that good at cutting these yet, so I am hoping to cut a few more of these so that I can perfect the craft.)
• How to make pegs