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

Hi Don;

I have seen barn floor plank trenailed to the joists several times. I believe one barn they were skewed (toed, angled). I cannot recall the spacifics about the estimated age or even the type of barns. The most receint example was a single reused joist in connecting girt barn, I could not tell what type of barn the reused piece came from. Typically they are oak, 1" square pegs installed through the 2" plank and 1" subfloor boards into the joists and hold quite well.

A circa 1720 saltbox cape plank-on-frame house from Conneticut I reassembled had 1.5" pins holding the 1.5" oak planks to the oak frame only in the planks beside each original window opening and only into the girts, not the plates, ties or sills. All other fastening was with wrought nails. The 1" oak roof sheathing boards were nailed on.

Some plank houses have pins installed in the plank edges, between each plank, they are joggled. These pins keep the planks in line with each other and help prevent racking since only first-period houses seem to have bracing; most plank houses have no bracing.

I looked tree nail up in a few dictionaries and it is mostly referred to attaching planks to the frame in wooden shipbuilding with black locust being the best material because of strength and low shrinkage. Trunnel is a corruption of tree nail.

Jim