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Can we talk about the timber framing I saw at the old gristmill restoration in Lancaster County?
I always thought cutting those massive mortise and tenon joints by hand was just for show, but watching the crew there fit a 10-inch oak beam with nothing but chisels and a mallet changed my mind about the need for speed over precision.
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thomas833mo ago
A 10-inch oak beam with just chisels and a mallet... that's just crazy to me.
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hannah_price793mo ago
Ever notice how the slow way is often the right way? I see it all the time with people trying to rush through fixing things, like a wobbly table. They grab the wrong tool and make it worse, when a few careful minutes with the right one would have saved them an hour. That beam fitting is the perfect example of that.
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charles_kim1mo ago
My neighbor spent 3 days carving a replacement beam by hand and it split on him anyway. Meanwhile I ordered a prefab one online, had it installed in 4 hours with a nail gun, and it's holding up fine 5 years later. @hannah_price79 you say slow is right, but sometimes fast and efficient gets the same result without all the romanticizing. Isn't the real test whether it holds up, not how long you took to make it?
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