Tools used in traditional timber framing date back thousands of years. Similar tools are used in many cultures, but the shapes vary and some are pulled rather than pushed.
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Timber Framing Tools - The Basic Hand Tools for Your Timber Frame Tool Box - Visit us today - - https://timberframehq.com/timber-framing-tools-the-basic-hand-tools/ you been wondering what a timber framer has in his timber framing tool box? In this video we look at...
Preparing timbers
- Conversion of logs into timbers was often done by someone other than the timber framer including a lumberjack, sawyer, farmer, or laborer using a variety of tools including:
- Whipsaw types of rip saws used in the conversion of logs into timbers in a saw pit
- felling, carpenter's, and broad axes are used in hewing.
- Sawmill
- Wood splitting, also called riving uses wedges, splitting mauls, and/or froes.
- Historically most timbers were used green but some went through a process of wood drying using some tools and equipment.
Marking and measuring tools
Tools for marking out and measuring:
- A rule, now better known as a ruler and similar to a yard stick, is used to measure.
- Repeated measurements often use a storey pole
- Carpenter's marks were made with a race knife, chisel, gouge, saw, grease pencil, chalk pencil, or lead pencil.
- Chalk line or ink line used to snap lines on the wood. Ink and a slurry of charcoal were used like chalk.
- Carpenter pencil
- Scratch awl or similar tools were used to scratch lines on wood before the pencil was commonly used beginning in the 19th century in the U.S.
- Try square
- Steel square is also known as a framing square. Historically a square with measurement markings on it was known as a "square rule" which is also a layout method.
- Combination square
- A Plumb-bob on a string is sometimes used with a plumb-rule or plumb-square to measure vertical or horizontal and to transfer marks between timbers while scribing.
- Spirit level
- Dividers Used in measuring and proportioning
- Layout floor - a large, flat surface to mark lines and scribe timbers.
Hand powered cutting tools
- Saw
- Crosscut saws to cut timbers to length and in making joints.
- Japanese saws are special saws used in woodworking including timber framing
- Axes were sometimes used to cut timbers to length and in joinery.
- Hatchet
- Adzes are of many shapes and names.
- Framing Chisels are heavy duty. In Western carpentry common sizes are 1 1/2 and 2 inches wide. They are designed to be struck with a mallet
- A slick is a very large chisel designed to be pushed by hand, not struck.
- drills for boring holes in timber framing were typically T-auger. The cutting edge of the bit can be of many shapes, the spiral auger being the standard shape since the 19th century.
- Timber framers boring machines were invented by 1830 and hold an auger bit. They made mortising easier and faster.
- Draw knives are used to chamfer edges of beams and shape pegs (treenails)
- Sometimes, particularly in wooden bridge building the pegs were shaped by being driven through a hole in a heavy piece metal.
- Historically timbers meant to be seen in houses were smoothed with a hand plane (Japanese plane including what is called a spear plane, yariganna or yari-kanna) and decorated with a chamfer or bead.
- Twybil The name literally "two blades", historically rare in the U.S.
- Bisaigue A French tool with similarities to a long handled twybill
Powered cutting tools
- Circular saw
- Drill
- Band saw
- Router (woodworking)
- Power planers
- One or two sided stationary rotary, thickness planers in a shop and up to a four-sided planer (timber sizer) at a mill.
- Hand held rotary power planers up to twelve inches wide.
- Chain mortiser
- A few modern framers use computer numerical control (CNC) machines to cut joinery.
- Chain saw
Splitting tools
A Froe is struck with a mallet to split blocks of wood into rough sizes for making pegs. Large and long timbers are split (riven) with wedges
Holding tools
- Shaving horse may be used in making pegs
- Draw-bore pins temporarily hold a frame together during construction.
- Iron dogs or log dogs are used to hold timers during hewing, scribing or historically to repair or reinforce a joint
- Sawhorses, short sawhorses are called ponies.
Material handling tools and equipment
- Gin pole or shear legs may be used in lifting wall sections or timbers.
- Pike pole used to push wall sections up during a barn raising
- Rope is used to lift or pull objects, sometimes in combination with a windlass, bullwheel, or block and tackle.
- Cranes are sometimes used to lift assemblies and materials.
- Commander or beetel is a large, long handled mallet for forcing timbers together or apart.
- Rollers, carts, or other lifting equipment are used to move the heavy timbers
Tool maintenance
Tools require sharpening and replacing handles.
- file (tool)
- sharpening stone
- Grindstone (tool)
- hiring a blacksmith
- mechanics tools for general repairs such as repairing power cords, changing bits, etc.
Access
- Ladder
- Scaffolding
- Aerial work platform
Safety
- Fall protection
- Hard hat
- Safety glasses
- Hearing protection
- First aid kit
External links
- The Takenaka Carpentry Tools Museum, Kobe, Japan
- The Debate of the Carpenterâs Tools, Edited by George Shuffelton. Originally Published in Codex Ashmole 61: A Compilation of Popular Middle English Verse