Shop Joinery
(Photos below are courtesy of Bruce and Cyndy Gardener, Homstead Timber Frames.)
From completed shop drawings a timber cut list is compiled and the timbers are ordered from a local mill. A good timber order is a tricky thing. The mill must understand our requirements for each timber and so we spell out those requirements in writing. Timbers are ordered over-sized so that we have room to square and plane to dimension. Timbers must be structurally sound with no shake or rot and with minimum slope of grain. Waney edges should be few for appearance sake. Excessive crown, twist, and bow are not good. And the species must be given. I like white oak because it is strong, predictable, works and finishes very well, is local to us, and smells good.

Each timber in a timber frame has its own nomenclature and orientation in the frame. We bring like timbers into the shop and begin our work in a set progression—posts first, bent girts, rafters, braces, and so on. With the shop loaded, lay-out begins.

Timber lay-out starts by first labeling a timber. Labeling includes its nomenclature, outside faces, and any other reference faces. We label the bottom of timbers so that the timber stands in the completed frame as it grew in the forest. It is bad karma to place a tree upside down. We orient crowns up and bows out. Attention is paid to orient a timber so that beautiful faces show and ugly faces do not. With the timber labeled, all joinery is laid out. We use shop-built scribes to lay-out parallel with the grain and razor knives to lay-out across the grain. Each mortice, tenon, peg hole, angled cut, and decorative edge treatment is clearly marked. Tenon lengths and mortice depths are noted. We use a permanent sharpie to mark mortice depths within the mortice—the material that will be removed--and lumber crayons for any notes on a visible face that will be later finished. Once a timber is laid out, a different joiner checks the lay-out for accuracy, discrepancies are discussed, and needed changes are made. Only when the lay-out person and the checker agree can a timber be joined.

We attempt to lay-out and check a set of similar timbers before cutting begins. We have found that it is more efficient to pick up a power tool, set that tool to the depth required, and move through-out the shop performing similar tasks. For example, Kip may begin with a drill motor with a 1” bit and drill all 1” peg holes on all timbers. Adam might follow with the mortice machine (an electric chain saw with a thick bar mounted on a portable drill press affair) and rough out all mortices. I may follow behind with a 16” circular saw and make end cuts. This part of the process is noisy, but concentrated. By the time we put the power tools aside, most of the rough cuts have been made, the shop quiets down, and we can now concentrate on hand tool work. Here are some photographs of work progression. (Show a couple of photos of power tools and hand tools in use.)

I would like to discuss shop safety for a moment. We take safety very seriously. A dropped timber will break whatever it falls on. It takes only a careless moment to be badly cut. Chips flying from tools travel at a high rate of speed. Noise levels damage hearing permanently. And toxic wood finishes are just that—toxic. We talk openly and frequently about how a particular task can be accomplished safely. We wear ear plugs and safety glasses. We help each other move heavy timbers. We remove timber cut-offs to eliminate trip hazards. We only use a natural finish so benign I think you could use the stuff over your salad. And we adhere to the rule that if a task does not feel safe—don’t do it. We will talk it over and proceed only when everyone is comfortable. We have had no more that the occasional splinter and we intend to keep it that way.

Was there ever a finer tool than a chisel? We sharpen our chisels to 5000 grit on water stones and we touch them up frequently—about every hour. We work to our lay-out lines with slicks and chisels, guided by squares and jigs. We check everything for proper depth, length, and angle. We do not obsess over accuracy. We simply achieve accuracy. We do make mistakes—all of us do. When a mistake is made, we decide if we can patch without compromising appearance or strength. If we must replace a timber, we do so and move forward. We do not say that we do the very best work. We simply do the best work we are capable of doing.

Once we have completed the joinery for a section of the frame we trial fit that assembly. All the saw horses in the shop are exactly the same height and so by placing timber reference faces down, we can pull joints together. We check for dimensions across the assembly and diagonally, adjusting and paring when necessary. With the assembly pulled together with come-alongs and nylon straps, we use the peg holes earlier drilled in the side of mortices as a guide to drill tenons. With the trial fit completed and the holes drilled, we separate the timbers once again, add any carvings and edge treatments, and finish sand the timbers. We use an air compressor to blow chips from mortices and dust from surfaces. With the timber clean and sanded, we label timber ends with our marker and we coat all cut end grain with an end grain sealer to control checking. Labeling timber ends allows the timber to be identified later in a bunk of timbers. We apply a heavy, soaking coat of our finish. This finish is a combination of Tung oil, linseed oil, rosin, citrus terpenes, and beeswax. The finish is allowed to skim over—typically overnight—and we wipe the excess off before buffing with an auto buffer and lambs wool pad. Repeating this process (lay-out, joinery, trial fitting, and timber finishing) with each timber assembly in turn eventually brings us to the end of our shop work and we are ready to raise the frame.