I'm relatively new to the timber framing world and thought I'd pick people's brains about tricks, techniques, resource information regarding cutting curves in brace stock. Any and all information is welcome!
Thanks,
dave

I have used a stationary bandsaw, a hand-held bandsaw, an axe-adze-spokeshave combo, and have even been on a job where they were cut from both sides with a 7 1/4" circular saw (the curve was pretty shallow).

We cut the joinery in all the braces first and then go through and cut the curves. To remove saw marks we used to belt-sand the curved part (bad--I don't like sanding), then I spokeshaved it (good--you can't breath those shavings), now we have a curved power plane (a little faster than the spokeshave although I kind of miss the shoulder workout).

Your technique will basically be determined by your available tooling. If it is a hobby and no bandsaw is available, I would rough out with an axe, take it nearly to the line with an adze, and clean to the line with a spokeshave. It really goes pretty quickly.

Good Luck

Gabel Holder

Another way to do it is to start with curved stock. We took some large curved branches and put them on the sawmill and cut two slabs out of it to make book matched curved pieces 3 1/8" thick. Then laid out the brace tenons on the curved stock and cut the mortises to the length of the tenons.
To clean up the bark edges we also used a draw knife and a spoke shave.
Good luck with your project.
Jim Rogers

We do it like Gabel does: Cut the tenons first (we use a large radial arm saw), then cut the curve using a stationary band saw (we built an extra-large outfeed support to hold up the far end of the brace, as it can be heavy to hold up at the same time you're trying to steer it. Then we clean up the saw marks with a curved-base planer . We may still use a belt sander four touch-up, depending on circumstances. Good luck, and welcome to the forum! CB.

if you are considering cutting the curves with hand tools, it can help to leave two braces connected in one length...we recently used a circular saw to score the curves, then an electric chainsaw to rough score the waste wood, then an adze to finish the curve..a time consuming process, but the braces look good. It was a lot easier to clamp and work on the curves when we left 2 braces together, end to end...

I like Jim's way. Used curved wood for curved pieces. Continuous grain is a beautiful thing, It's strong, can be bookmatched, and uses a natural symmetry that looks wonderful.

Part of having all the fun is making more,
Bob

Yes, I've never really understood why people continue to cut curves in straight stock, when making use of curved is stronger, and, no less (in fact it often seems more) visually appealing.

As shown in our forebears work, Curved elements, such as Cruck blades and what-not, can be entirely made up of Curved lumber and still be modified to fit a general template, or pattern, without the loss of strength which occurs when cutting curves into straight material.

When I cut my first frame (which is now my house) I cut one long arch in all of the braces running north to south, and for something a little different I cut double arches in all of the braces running east to west. All of my timbers were Sitka Spruce and all of my brace stock was 4"x10" and I cut out 4" at the deepest parts of each arch. It was a difficult and time consuming task concidering we burnt up the motor on a stationary 16" Bandsaw and had to finish them with a jig saw with the longest blades I could find (Bosh). We cleaned them up with a 4x24 belt sander. I was very pleased with the outcome even though additional labor was required.

Tyson