I tried charcoal from my wood boiler yesterday and it worked great, a nice black line on fresh wood. I didn't try it on grey wood or bark, will do it today. I may even crush some and fill a reel. Rubbing charcoal on a string is about as messy as filling the reel with chalk from the gallon jug.

Is there historic pretension for using charcoal for chalk lines? Or am I completely imagining the possibility.

My grandfathers half ball of chalk had lines in it as well. Tim

Tim,

I seem to remember that Roy Underhill prefers willow charcoal for snapping lines -- nice and fine.

I remembered this allusion, from my copy, and I second Don's earlier reccomendation -

http://books.google.com/books?id=2W1Lq_nvlCQC&pg=PA15&dq=charcoal+for+snapping+lines&lr=&sig=QBtxpAnMiI82wzE_FPRdUGINdxk#PPA15,M1

I also find Red lines with some frequency, and Blue but twice.

I do also find the Red grease pencil markings in the universally fine cursive, you touched on in another thread Tim.

Not a big fan of the chalk disks, though I do pick them up on occasion, to abrade / break in a new braided line.

In the UK
historically there are references to rubbing white chalk on lines in Moxon, 1678, and Ellis, 1906. Good on bark, ok on darker heartwoods.
References to rubbing charcoal, half burnt sticks onto a line, also to burning straw and the carbon resulting being used to make a "smut line". Good on sapwood and heartwood.
Raddle, or Fe2O3 is used as a red powder, with the line being pulled through a pot containing the powder. Raddle lines over 200 years old are still visible today.Good on sap and heartwood.

That's one of the books where I read about charcoal, Will (Field Guide to New England Barns and Farm Buildings). And that's about the best book around in my opinion on barns in New England.

Tim:

Neat that you tried the charcoal. Makes perfect sense. Funny how we overlook the obvious and simple over the "modern."

Well, it sounds safe to use charcoal on a historical base. Thanks.

When I have more time I am going to check that book out. I should add it to my collection. Page 14 had a nice map. I am located up the coast where I see a over lap of common rafters and purlins. That's if I am reading the map correctly. Tim

Hi Don,

Please add the full reference for your book to the FAQ questions on the TFWiki. Possibly under a new section of "specialist interests - barns". I am not aware of this book.

Regards

Ken Hume

Tim:

Funny, I actually mentioned this map in an earlier discussion:
http://www.tfguild.org/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showthreaded&Number=15425

Would you say as a rule that purlin frames end north of Bangor?

Ken:

I will add the book at some point in the next day or so. Before purchasing this book, I looked at some of the reviews of it on amazon, etc... they give it a mediocre review, but I am really fond of it because its heavy on historical technical info, like saw marks and construction techniques. It is the best I've seen on New England barns--

It has info on why barns were laid out certain ways and even historical excerpts from 19th century farming journals on barn construction/layout advantages.

Hi Don,

I have made a blank formatted entry with the correct book title in the FAQ section for you to complete details of author, publisher, date, etc.

Regards

Ken Hume