The best addition to have on a small cabin
Which do you find more attractive?… the cabin with the addition off of the back… or the one with the addition off of the side?
Originally posted 2015-08-08 14:06:38.
The Pit Saw
After a log was hewn square with an axe, and if someone wanted lumber for joists, flooring, or siding, the timber would then be taken to a pit saw.
Operating a human powered saw is much more labor intensive than swinging an axe. I have found that it only takes a few strokes of the saw before the first time user has had quite enough. Never volunteer to be the man under the timber, you do not want to be the person at the bottom of this pit who is showered upon with sawdust all day.
Notice the saw patterns that this form of cutting lumber creates.
When salvaging a house this is often a great indicator of the age of the home. Circular saws came into existence around 1800 (which of course created circular patterns). The type of saw pattern seen on a houses framing members can clue a person in as to which side of that century mark the home is from.
The appreciation for these vertical markings on lumber leads “old house guys” today to seek out new lumber (when it is needed) from sawmills that cut their lumber with band-saw mills which create similar vertical markings to that of the 18th century and earlier.
Often squared timbers were taken to a pit saw and these hewn members would be sawn into three ceiling joists. This would create one joist which would have sawn marks on two sides, and two joists that would each have a sawn face on one side and an axe hewn face on the other. It’s a treat to go into an 18th century house and spot this two to one ratio. I’ve pointed this feature out to both architectural historians and tour guides who had never heard of this.
This sketch is from Eric Sloane’s book “Museum of Early American Tools” which is one the books on my recommended reading list (the link to which can be found on the home page). This will be my last posting of Sloane’s sketches. I hope you have enjoyed them.
Originally posted 2015-08-08 13:07:02.
An alternative method of hewing a log
Railroad ties used to be all hewn with an axe also, very much like log cabins were built.
I’ve seen some of these ties still in use when I have “walked the tracks”.
Often, because these railroad ties were short in length, men could skip the step chopping the wood into sections and rather split out an entire side in one large piece as seen in these photos.
Originally posted 2015-08-07 19:04:50.
The adze
If you want to take a rough hewn beam or log and make it smooth the tool to use is an adze. I have seen men who were talented with this tool smooth out a rough piece of wood so nicely you would think it was machined and sanded.
In this crazy world that we live in today the adze is used by log cabin kit manufacturers not to create a smoother surface but to roughen up their previously smooth “logs”. Go figure.
An adze is also a dangerous tool, one that I prefer to operate as little as possible. It needs to be razor sharp and swung through a complete overhead motion between your legs. The famous woodworker Roy Underhill operates his by ending his swing under his boot… no thank you Roy!
This sketch is from Eric Sloane’s book “Museum of Early American Tools” which is one the books on my recommended reading list that I offered a few weeks ago. I’d like to share a few more of Sloane’s sketches with you in the coming day or two… I think you’ll enjoy them.
BTW… I have four duplicate copies of four different books of Sloane’s (one that is out of print) that I’m giving away to four different people that sign up by Monday. I’m going to do a random drawing of those on the list… I’ll shoot the winners an email and ask for an address. (The sign up button is at the top of my FB page or on my blog handmadehouses.com OR… if you get my free list of the books I recommend reading you will be automatically signed up. Oh… one last thing… those that signed up to get the free guide prior to this last weekend, there was a technical issue… you did receive your guide, but you weren’t signed up… sorry about that… please, try again, thanks… I’m afraid that I am a much better builder than I am a techie. Noah
Originally posted 2015-08-07 18:11:40.
How to turn a tree into a log cabin
Today, with the help of artist/writer Eric Sloane, I’d like to share with you the process of starting with a tree and then making a home out of it… with just a few basic tools… no manufacturing facility necessary!
There are two things about this drawing that I’d like to comment on…
One is that we have improved upon this antique version of a chalk line. This device marks the length of the log with a line that will be our guide in hewing the log (creating a flat surface on the inside and out). This diagram envisions this log to be hewn with an axe on all four sides which would create a floor joist (or ceiling beam).
My experience in working with old logs, and in performing this same technique today on fresh cut logs, is that rarely is the complete log de-barked. That’s a lot of work that will only be discarded by next phase of the work anyway. (I and most log workers of the past would just remove the bark where the line would be snapped)
The next step would be the axe work. First you stand on the log and cut away the wood at regular intervals down the length of the log, cutting back to your marked line with each finishing cut.
Then you go back down the length of the log with this same axe knocking out the chunks of wood left in between your knotches.
Next, you come back with a special axe… a broad axe… an axe with a large head and is beveled only on one side, which smooths the log down to the finish we see on old log cabins.
The process, for me at least, is labor intensive, but I have witnesses men who can swing an axe with more ease than a carpenter swings a hammer, men who could do this type of work all day long. It’s amazing to watch.
These hewn logs would then be used to create a log home or outbuilding.
Eric Sloane does an incredible job of displaying the beauty of a half dovetail notch doesn’t he? But the notches he drew on the second log corner, (which I would call a half-lap joint), must be a New England method of notching. Here in Virginia we have a square notch also, which is always used on outbuildings and barns, where the ends of the logs are squared and large pegs are driven down through each log end, once it is laid.
Another exception that I would take note of is that it appears the logs in this drawing have been all been hewn on all four sides, which I have never seen on any cabin. Maybe again, it’s a New England feature? I find that log cabins are much more attractive with the natural curves and unique shape of the original log. (this is a major failing in so many log cabin kits)
This sketch is from Eric Sloane’s book “Museum of Early American Tools” which is one the books on my recommended reading list that I offered a few weeks ago. I’d like to share a few more of Sloane’s sketches with you in the coming day or two… I think you’ll enjoy them.
BTW… I have four duplicate copies of four different books of Sloane’s (one that is out of print) that I’m giving away to four different people that sign up by Monday. I’m going to do a random drawing of those on the list… I’ll shoot the winners an email and ask for an address. … if you get my free list of the books I recommend reading you will be automatically signed up. Oh… one last thing… those that signed up to get the free guide prior to this last weekend, there was a technical issue… you did receive your guide, but you weren’t signed up… sorry about that… please, try again, thanks… I’m afraid that I am a much better builder than I am a techie. Noah
Originally posted 2015-08-07 14:35:19.
Outbuilding designs
I’d be hard pressed to come up with a more attractive design for an outbuilding where one can practice their craft out back… complete with a fireplace!
This sketch of a Forge Barn above is within Sloane’s book “American Barns and Bridges”.
When I look at these drawings above and below by Eric Sloane that he made of existing historic outbuildings I am overwhelmed at the variety and the beauty of these structures.
How is it that we lost this ability put up something attractive in your back yards?
I don’t know about you but I’d like to have one of each! I used to tell people that I was going to have a bumper sticker made that read… “He who dies with the greatest number of outbuildings wins” lol
Here’s an outbuilding that I once built that was inspired by one of these drawings.
These sketches of are within Sloane’s book “Our Vanishing Landscape” which is one the books on my recommended reading list that I offered a few weeks ago. I’d like to share a few more of Sloane’s sketches with you in the coming day or two… I think you’ll enjoy them.
BTW… I have four duplicate copies of four different books of Sloane’s (one that is out of print) that I’m giving away to four different people that sign up by Monday. I’m going to do a random drawing of those on the list… I’ll shoot the winners an email and ask for an address. (The sign up button is at the top of my FB page or on my blog handmadehouses.com OR… if you get my free list of the books I recommend reading you will be automatically signed up. Oh… one last thing… those that signed up to get the free guide prior to this last weekend, there was a technical issue… you did receive your guide, but you weren’t signed up… sorry about that… please, try again, thanks… I’m afraid that I am a much better builder than I am a techie. Noah
Originally posted 2015-08-06 13:47:19.
A lot of beauty can be found in the lines
Isn’t this a precious Sugar House”?
Whenever I view an attractive building I ask myself… “What makes it so?”
There are some lessons to be learned upon careful examination of this wonderful pen and ink drawing by Eric Sloane. The author/artist lays the answer out there for us, so plain, simple, and easy to understand.
This is one of the many sketches within Sloane’s book “American Barns and Bridges” which is one the books on my recommended reading list that I offered a few weeks ago. I’d like to share a few more of Sloane’s sketches with you in the coming day or two… I think you’ll enjoy them.
BTW… I have four duplicate copies of four different books of Sloane’s (one that is out of print) that I’m giving away to four different people that sign up by Monday. I’m going to do a random drawing of those on the list… I’ll shoot the winners an email and ask for an address. ( If you get my free list of the books I recommend reading you will be automatically signed up… the button to get this free guide is to the right on this page… and oh… one last thing… those that signed up to get the free guide prior to this last weekend, there was a technical issue… you did receive your guide, but you weren’t automatically signed up… sorry about that… please, try again, thanks… I’m afraid that I am a much better builder than I am a techie. Noah
Originally posted 2015-08-06 13:17:28.
Lincoln’s log cabins
Here is a replica of Abraham Lincoln’s childhood cabin where he spent most of his childhood, along with his parents and brother. This cabin is built on the site of the original cabin and as authentic to the original as it could be made.
Abraham Lincoln was born in the log cabin seen in the post card above, but his family moved a year or two later, so he had no memory of this first cabin in his life.
This birthplace cabin, according to the website that keeps track of all the cabins that Lincoln lived in, later “disappeared”.
Here is a log cabin that Lincoln built with his father. According to this post card it was taken down and moved for display at the Chicago Worlds Fair.
Originally posted 2015-08-05 13:08:37.
Some of the many benefits of living in a log cabin
Families who live in log cabins are always happy.
The men where hats and smoke pipes.
All is well with the world.
Living in a log cabin instills peace in one’s soul, and often inspires creativity.
And living in a log cabin has long been known as a cure for infertility issues.
And finally… Log cabins were the original man cave.
Originally posted 2015-08-04 17:12:14.
Classic cabins are timeless
A log cabin on an old postcard.
(notice the Model T in the left side of this image)
This cabin looked good when it was built… 1820’s.
It looked good in when the photo was taken.. 1920’s
And, it looks good today.
I guess that makes it timeless?
Originally posted 2015-08-04 13:01:56.