Timber Framers Guild Forums General Barns and Traditional Timberframing Pegs -- riven, sawn, drawn, turned, driven, etc?

Hi Don,

I am struggling to think of examples but one that does come to mind is ship decking where nails would corode quite quickly in service.

Another might be in the construction of clay dabbins, a rude cruck variant found in the Solway Firth area on the border between Scotland and England. These have plank roofs where the planks interlock and are pegged at the ridge running vertically down to sit on top of the side purlin and / or wall plate and where lower "half" planks are fitted then this is done by driving a treenail through one end of the plank which is then simply hung over the purlin and draped over the wall plate at the lower end. No pegs are applied at the lower ends of the plank rafters. The whole roof is then covered with turfs. Check out "Clay Dabbins - Vernacular Buildings of the Solway Plain" by Nina Jennings (ISBN 1-873124-38-4). My son gave Will Beemer a copy of this book so anyone visiting Heartwood School can check this out in their library.

I will forward the question about nails to Chris How MSc. (timber building expert) in Australia who is currently preparing a thesis on nails with professor Miles Lewis at Melbourne University.

The problem with using treenails with thin members would most likely relate to splitting of the thin member especially when driven near the ends which makes the clay dabbins example all the more intersting.

Is "clay dabbins" in the glossary.

Regards

Ken Hume