We've bought and made in the past.

We went back to making them because the turned pegs don't deal with a drawbore very well compared to a riven peg.

We shave them into slightly tapered octagons with a pointed end on the shaving horse after splitting out the blanks with froe, mallet, axe, etc.

You don't need a froe, by the way. You can split out the blanks with an axe and a wooden or rawhide mallet. But a shaving horse is a must have if you're doing more than one frame's worth.

Making pegs is a welcome break from the other work. I really enjoy it.

timber brained, the little double ended ones take about twice as long due to the shortness and just more work. Once roughed out and with nice stock you can comfortably make a peg in 60 seconds. If you can keep the pace up that is 60 in an hour, just don't stop. If you are not accustom to the drawknife you will get blisters at that pace. So it is a blistering pace. 50 is comfortable and so to answer your question, a couple of hour for 100. Break it up over a few days and it is fun as well.

If you have more than one person helping it can go quickly. You also don't need a complicated shaving horse. A simple horse can be made in half an hour, which means everyone in the shop can have one, and will give years of service.

I am working on some pictures of the plank wall system and geometric design of it as well. I will present it in another topic at some point.

Tim

I made well over a hundred for a barn that I recently constructed (14x36). I started with hardwood firewood blanks (oak and maple). I squared off the ends, marked planks of quartersawn, split off planks with a froe and finished each with a hatchet. It took about 5 minutes each. They work and look great! Next time I'll build a shaving horse.

Hi Tim

Are you talking about edge-pinned planks? I have not had a chance to see an edge pinned plank wall taken apart but I assume the pins are double ended.

Can you post a photo of your portable shaving horse?

Jim

Its funny because one framer told me that he would only drawbore if he would be using freshly shaven pegs(because of the flexibilty), and then another framer, who always drawbored every frame, was using turned pegs, brought in, and they were as dry as they could ever be.
I have not gotten around to buiding a shaving horse yet, but I have always known I would need to eventually. What else do you end up using the horse for other than shaping pegs?
Anyone have some decent drawings, plans of a shaving horse, that they would share? tb

Hi everyone tonight:

good thread on wood pin making

My experiences in this regard is similar to some of the obove comments but I will add other remarks that have came from years of erecting traditional timber frames.

We always used red oak (green), cutting the blanks from a straight grained section about 16" long.

With a froe we split out rough squares a little better than 1.5" each way and then using a hand axe brought them down quickly to perhaps 1" --7\8".

We then sharpened them to a very long point maybe 3 to 4", and with a wooden mallet drove them down through a blacksmith made die.

This die was just a 3\4" round hole in a piece of flat steel, the blacksmith would throw it in the forge and heat it up red hot then with a tapered tool he would upset the hole from one way and expand it to the 7\8" size that we usually required for the large members of our frames, He also made up for us sets of
3\4" , 1" and 1.25" which once in a while the historic frames required.

The upsetting created an uplifting on the upper side and would peel off the excess wood easily as you pounded the pin through.

We then placed them in a pail of lard on end when they were finished, and the lubrication added to ease of pounding them home on the day of raising.

at times the pins would want to split when the drawbore was too heavy, it was at this time that we would wrap a piece oflight rope around the end of the pin a few times to support the fibres in the straight grained wood so the insertion of the pin could continue.

NH

Send a PM to Jim Rogers. He's got one from an old book with most of the dimensions. That's what I used to make mine. You can find one of his posts in the "Tool Forum". I've seen a number of horses with peoples own personal variations and modifications, but they all are very similar. I like making the legs removable, not only for portability, but so that you can also set up the horse across sawhorses if you so choose. That way you can easily hang the horse on the wall and just pull it down and set it on the horses without messing with the legs if you don't want to. Just peoples own preferences.

Great Post NH. I bet you could make a few hundred in the time it would take for me to make 20.

Here is another good go at pin making. Jim R. linked a picture of my simple horse, I just checked it and it didn't work. I have forgotten my password to photobucket, so I need to look into that. The hoops we have to jump through to post pictures, takes it right out of me.

http://www.tfguild.org/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=20364&page=2

I keep hearing about pins driven through a die. I have only seen shaved pins. How often were pins constructed in such a manner? Do others see die shaped pins often?

Tin

Another vote for making your own pegs.

I'm reluctant to mention it, but Will Beemer put a video on youtube of me demonstrating pegmaking to some clients. It was unscripted and there's blackflies flying up my nose the entire time.

Two comments I'd add are:
-that it's much easier to make pegs out of very straight stock. We're talking veneer logs here. I like to check the grain by wacking the potential peg stock with a maul first. It also breaks up the large round into more manageable chunks for the froe.
-the newer froes that you can buy (like I'm using in the video) are pretty much useless. Look for an antique or a blacksmith made froe that has lots of thickness (maybe 1/2"?) and taper to it.