Archive for June, 2015
Tools of the Timber Trade: The Chisel
The chisel is one of the earliest created tools. Man (or some form of man) has been using tools for the past 2.6 million years, which, when taken at face value, were stones that were chipped/broken to create sharp edges. These tools were categorized by Mary Leakey, a British paleoanthropologist. […]
Tools of the Timber Trade: Maebiki Oga
Today our timber framing tool journey takes us to Japan where we will discuss the Maebiki Oga saw, or as the English call it “The Whale Back Saw”. Below you will see a photo of Dan Devine, our resident “Tool Guru” using his personal Oga saw. According to Amemiya-Daiku, a […]
Tools of the Timber Trade: Chain Mortiser
Over the next couple of weeks I’ll be showing you some of the tools that are particular to the timber framing industry. One of the Vermont Timber Works pillars is that we hand cut all of our timber frames. This certainly isn’t the easiest way to fabricate, but it is […]
Timbers and Stonework
This post covers different ways stone can be incorporated into a timber frame design. First, imagine a fabulous stonework foundation facade that is also incorporated into the post base design. Can you picture it? Viola! The masonry stonework doesn’t actually support the timber posts, but the design makes it look like […]