Is anyone interested in discussing the basic ways a tie beam relates to the plate such as normal, reverse, and level assembly, dropped tie including necked tie beams, interrupted plate, and double tie beams?

This would require scaning in some sketches or photos to be clear.

Why does this interest you?

Jim

Jim, Count me in. Your terminology with pictures would help. I'd be glad to, but my picture taker is broken.

I think you are on to something that all of us could learn from. If we get this started it might catch up with "Historic Hewing Questionaire".............

Edit. Forgot to answer your question. Because it is the timberframing question.

Hi Jim,

What's on your mind ?

Regards

Ken Hume

Yes, one at a time please.

Because I can find my self falling into a rut and using just a couple of tie set-ups, and that is limiting, so a variation on a theme will open doors and allow a more creative frame.

My picture taker is broken too, shimming up a rafter and the screen broke, it will still take a picture but it is a guess.

Tim

I'm interested as well.....

Count me in boys. I've only been using one style and don't even know what to call it. I just know it's a Tie Beam used in local barn frames.

Hi Guys;

The six catagories I listed in the first post are all I know of so I will be interested to see if there are any others.

I will see if I can digitize some drawings from Historic American Timber Joinery: A Graphic Guide.

Taking one at a time, normal assembly is called that because it was so common, at least in England and before the mid 19th century in N. America. The English tying joint is a well known example, where the tie beams sit over the plate. This is an inherently good designn because the rafters land directly on the tie and form a triangle.

The types of notches used to restrain the plate and tie does not matter in calling this assembly normal, but an English tying joint always has a dovetail or half-dovetail and the tie is usually let into the plate 1.5 to 2 inches. The Germans seemed to use a cog, and in some normal assemblies the top of the tie and plate are flush.

If you have Historic American Timber Joinery, see page 10 for seven examples of notches that join ties to plates found in the USA.

Jim

I'll try to play in also Jim -

Why, because I've had the good fortune to see or even work on most of the variants on the list, that and I'm curious to see where the discussion goes.

Don't have HATJ with me, but there's alot I don't have with me...

Do Collar Ties fit in here also or did you already list it by some other name?

For those of you who don't own the printed book of joints known as the "Historic American Timber Joinery" (HATJ) you can download free pdf copies from the guild site.

Here, I believe is the figure that Jim is referencing: