Ken, I started a thread, square rule or scribe rule and have not had the time to go back and look in more detail. The neat part is it has the reference faces as you mentioned all on the same side. As well as some other elements which are interesting. This layout is more typical of square rule layout. I see far more English barns with the layout done form the center bay and out. The two faces of the center bay are the reference, and the first and fourth bents are on the outside. Typically scribed. I have one sitting in my yard now. Is this the layout system you are seeing in your country? Tim

Hi Tim,

Pretty much yes that is very much an English practice and I would hazard a guess that your barn would be scribe rule rather than square with continuous plates ?

Regards

Ken Hume

Drawn = Riven & Shaved

Reference as Tim and Ken say above, and I think talk touched on it in the "No long" thread.

Look for which face the braces align to and record how that relates to the compass points and the entrance to the Barn.

This did not change with the shift to Square Rule, and continued to hinge on the use of the building and the position of the main door and much of the time, the threashing floor.

The roll I was speaking to, is to do with unresolved thrust literally lifting the inside corner of the plates, and the top outside / ref corner rolling out.

Thanks Ken. Interested to hear more on the recent surveys you received. I will revisit the glossary in regards to reference, etc.

So "rolling plate"... is this from shrinkage, or outward thrust from rafters. (This wouldn't happen in a CG frame. Perhaps yet another advantage!)

It seems I replied too early and missed the last page of comments: Will explaining rolling plate, etc.

Looks like we have some good makings for a new barn list.

Yes, the barn I have in a stack in my yard is scribe ruled. I still question the other one mentioned though. It shouts square rule with the exception of square fitting housings.

I was just reading that the threashing floor was put out of use and the term was dropped with the invention of the threashing machine in 1830-1860. Big House, Little House.... Tim

Hi Tim,

I beleive that the term "Threshold" is still in use in our language today. Brides are carried across the threshold. Thresholds were planks fitted into slots attached to the lower part of threshing bay door posts. This stopped grain seeds from flying out into the farm yard.

Regards

Ken Hume

I understand the term "Threshold", as it holds back the threshings. After the development of the threshing machine the center bay was no longer used for threshing, the use changed but the term has stuck. Thomas Hubka felt the term was mis-used with the development of the New England style barn which came along after after the threshing machine, and no more hand threshing in these barns.

I like the term threshold and carrying the bride across the threshold. I bet it has to do with fertility and many children to follow. Symbolism, could it have a Pagan background? Tim

That's what's I love about language/ words: literal and figurative uses of the same:

1. On the threshold of the blissful evening...

2. The threshold saved the farmer's labor when it was windy...

often times words begin as two parts which become hypenated, and ultimately singular. This likey happend w/ threshold:

thresh hold
thresh-hold
threshold

Ken -- I have several times found the bottom of posts in the drive bay/aisle fit out with mortises (slip morts at one end) for seasonal fitting of these planks, here in NNE.

I thought though, that they were called winnowing boards (I can't however recall why or from where that term came to reside in my head) and that the threashold was the slighly raised cill at the door that helped the wind seperate the wheat from the chaff.