Loading…
10
Saw a 100 year old barn frame in Hermann, MO last weekend and now I feel like I know nothing about joinery
I was out in Hermann, MO last weekend for a buddy's wedding and we drove past this old barn that had half its siding gone. You could see the whole frame inside, so I stopped the truck and walked up to the fence to look. It was all hand cut mortise and tenon, no metal anywhere, and the pegs were still tight as anything after a century of Missouri weather. The timber was true 8x8 oak, not nominal, and the wind braces were cut with a sweep that I couldn't have matched with my chop saw if you gave me all day. I mostly frame decks and privacy fences for work, so seeing layout like that done by guys with no power tools kind of humbled me. I stood there a good 20 minutes just tracing where the shoulders met the posts. Any of you ever stop at one of these old timber frames and try to figure out the layout they used? I'd love to know how they got those braces so dead on without a square.
1 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In1 Comment
hugoharris10d ago
Watched a buddy try to re-cut one of those swept braces on his bandsaw last year and he gave up after two tries, said the curve fought him the whole way. Makes you wonder if the old guys just had a feel for the grain that we lost somewhere along the line.
7