Our level best
Tuning up to cut a frame…
Our favorite chisels get the oil bath treatment.
…and leveling up a lot with long pine timbers. This will allow us to more accurately layout and mark our oak framing timbers for joining. Hewing and pit-sawing, while time-tested, leave framing timbers which are imperfectly squared. The timbers must therefore be scribed to their individual joints. That is to say, a tenon cut on the end of one post is meant to fit only that single mortise for which it is scribed to fit. It cannot be moved to another mortise and fit properly. While this is a very foreign concept to the modern stick-framer, this traditional method of framing is as much a part of a 17th-century carpenter’s tool kit as his chisel and mallet.
Oak beams on top of pine layout timbers on top of baulks. The pines in the middle are used to create a level plane. They won't become part of the new frame. Posts will be placed on top of the beams and scribed to fit. The baulks at the very bottom are remnants of the former Francis Cooke house frame.
We got down on site first thing this morning, so we could stretch the historical milieu a little and use a couple of spirit levels and tapes.
If anyone asks, it was all period-appropriate levels, doublets with a thousand buttons, and Early Modern English–
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
And just because it’s Halloween, Pilgrim Seasoning’s own Kathleen Wall alerted us to a nice little link on witch marks:
k
Tags: 17th century house, English carpentry, oak, pilgrim house, Plimoth Plantation, The Francis Cooke House, timber frame
Good Day All,
Would it be possible to dialogue with the individual(s) in you organization that lead the timber framing? I have questions, comments, and observations that I would enjoy to share and discuss. This current entry has me pondering several points.
A little background on myself maybe in order, with a very short account, I have been working is several guild crafts for over 3 decades. As for timber framing, I started with the Amish as a Barn Wright’s apprentice at age 14 and have moved onto specializing in Middle Eastern, Asian and indigenous folk architecture.
With that validation stated, let me share how I enjoy this blog and all that you do. If some of my comments seem blunt or challenging, it is meant in an air of academic discourse only and no disrespect is intended.
Do you have historical protocols and/or mandates for your timber framing procedural methodologies? If so, why would you use a “vial type string level,” instead of several simply built traditional levels from that time period? Vial string levels are notoriously inaccurate, as used in your photo, while more traditional types would render much better results and negate the inaccuracies of the line level.
Of the myriad joint scribe methods, (i.e. line rule, edge rule, scribe rule, etc.,) and their deviations, how did you choose your method? Do you practice other types? If not, why?
Do you ever use traditional template methods for the joinery, such as vellum, thin board, divider, etc.? They all existed during your enacted time period; would make layout much less challenging logistically, and with less labor redundancy.
Again, I think I understand your cribbing method for timbers that will be worked into a frame but working on the individual members would be easier if done on trestle, or a related implement. Trestles allow you to work at a more comfortable height, (whether standing or sitting types,) and you may move freely around the cant of wood, thereby facilitating less problematic layout and joinery execution. All, of which, are traditional to your enacted time period.
The video on “witch marks,” had me at a bit of a loss. All that I saw, would seem to be simple marking methods for joints, bents or related member locations within a frame. As often was the case within Timber Wrighting Guilds, both in Europe and Asia, these marks, often proprietary in nature to a specific Guild or Wright may also have “hexing,” lore behind them, but unlike the depiction in the video, their primary function was layout, not hexing.
Respectfully submitted,
Jay C. White Cloud
Tosa Tomo Designs
Hi Jay. Thanks for your thoughtful and provoking comments. Going public with some of our methods should lead to stimulating discussion and you have not disappointed! Please check back here in a few days for a more fully formed response. In the meantime, when are you coming down to Plymouth for a visit?!
Hi Jay–see the full response in the subsequent post, Cooke House, part 3…
On the subject of witch marks, it was common to carve a double ‘V’ on fireplace lintels, above doors etc., sometimes they are still visible.
Alternatively, a horseshoe would do.
Some while ago I spotted what I thought was an inventory mark on a (probably) 18th C settle currently in the cwtch of a bar in Tregaron. I wrote about it….
http://handmadeinwood.wordpress.com/2012/05/29/inventory-mark/
……on second thoughts, could it be a witch mark?
The Welsh were a superstitious lot.
That’s a very nice mark on the back of the settle! Thanks for sharing it, Howard. It doesn’t seem to have the “scrawled” appearance of some of the other recorded Ws and Vs. Still though… Here are a couple of sources which reference apotropaic marks in English interiors: “Domestic Interiors, The British Tradition 1500-1850″ by James Ayres (Yale University Press), and “Period House Fixtures and Fittings 1300-1900″ by Linda Hall. Both books have sections on “witch marks”, and other apotropaic marks, with nicely illustrated examples. Linda’s book also records layout marks on doors and etc which can usually be distinguished from apotropaic marks. Check out our earlier post called “Which Marks”. I’ll hold my tongue on Welsh superstition, but I wouldn’t mind pulling one back at that bar in Tregaron!
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Thanks, Rick – in fact the mark is carved in the middle of the centre stile on the front of the settle in full view. I would have expected an inventory mark to consist of more a persons’ initials to be honest and probably on the back.
It is in an ancient old drover’s inn, ‘Y Talbot’ in Tregaron and it serves an excellent pint of beer.
Parts of the current building are estimated as 17th C, and an inn stood on the site probably much earlier.
My picture was a grab-shot in poor light. The next time I’m in I’ll take a better photo of the whole thing.
All best from Wales
cool–