I'm a lawyer, but I wouldn't call myself a timber framer yet. Nor do I have a construction background. I just ordered the timbers for my first frame (for me), and hope to get it up next year. I would like to timber frame and not lawyer, but that's more complicated than building one for just my wife and me.
Most of the contracts I see contain all kinds of stuff that never ever apply to the job. It's junk that is needed just in case that one in a million situation develops. But these are tried and true contracts that banks that lend and builders who build (and all the lawyers) like to see and use. You probably need to have all this.
But think about what really matters to you and put it down in the contract. Things like (1) giving the timber framer permission to vary somewhat from a design because of the characteristics of a particular timber or for aesthetics (that are in the eye of the timber framer), (2) common joinery tolerances when cut, when erected (and what happens if you have to wait a long time in between), but a recognition that not everything is going to be to within 1/16th of an inch, (3) a description of what commonly happens to frames, such as checking and shrinkage, over time, and (4) the payment schedule for timbers and your work. All of these things might scare off some customers, but it's better to talk about them up front than to worry about the phone call a few years later. I am sure that many timber framers have contracts that take this stuff (and much more) into consideration, but I have never seen any of them.
