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Re: historic hewing questionnaire [Re: northern hewer] #28023 01/30/12 02:42 AM
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northern hewer Offline OP
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hello everyone tonight

thanks Don for you reply and fine explanations

NH

Re: historic hewing questionnaire [Re: northern hewer] #28036 01/31/12 06:19 PM
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Cecile en Don Wa Offline
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Hello,

Well, I've got to revise my list of favorite building materials, if I may without penalty. Instead of corrugated iron coming third, the ordering would in truth be, after wood and clay, flax, and then corrugated iron. Flax is just so versatile. You've got the fibers for all kinds of reinforcement, from a floor scree to a filler in the plaster or mortar mix. It makes a good insulation itself or in additive form along with other cellulose material. In spun and woven form it can be spanned across a wall attached to batons as a base layer for glueing wall paper onto, and the seeds can be pressed for oil for a whole other range of applications in and related to building. Yes, flax is number three.

Greetings,

Don Wagstaff

Re: historic hewing questionnaire [Re: Cecile en Don Wa] #28052 02/03/12 02:16 AM
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northern hewer Offline OP
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Hello everyone tonight:

Thanks Don for coming on board and your list of building material preferences

Personally I really enjoy working with hard wood like oak, my dad used to say it separates the men from the boys

Oak was his favorite wood and when he died I made sure he had an oak casket to lay in.

In my opinion anyone can work with a soft wood like pine, but put a piece of oak in front of him and you soon find out his skill level, and how sharp his tools are, and his carpentry experience.

I think that everyone will agree with me that producing a timberframe using oak, ash, or any other hardwood, is not near as simple as pine or other soft wood.

Mind you there were many frames produced using soft wood, that are still standing, but having said that I did reconstruct a 3 bay drive shed using white ash (as was the original), and it is hard to describe how or why I felt the difference as I stood there looking at the bare frame after the raising.

One thing that was noticeable was that the connecting girts, posts, beams and braces seemed slimmer and more elegant, with a smoother finish, making the whole structure appear special in some way

Does any one have anything to add to this or have experienced such a feeling??

enjoy

NH

Re: historic hewing questionnaire [Re: northern hewer] #28053 02/03/12 03:29 AM
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D L Bahler Offline
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The forests of central Indiana are totally lacking in pine or any other softwood, aside from the occasional scraggly ceder. This means for me that, from little up, my experience has always been with hard wood like oak, maple, walnut, and especially ash -I am very sad to see that the beetle has made its way almost to my stomping grounds, and my beloved ash trees are doomed.

For me, whenever I hear people talk about how hard woods like ash and oak are to work, I think it strange. That's just normal to me. Every now and then I get to take my axes to some pine r fir -transplants- and it's like butter to me!

Yet I have this lofty dream of laying up a house of stacked fir timbers, like my kin in the homeland do. It would be totally impractical, and very difficult, to build a house like they do out of our local hardwoods!
Interesting how there in the homeland (Switzerland) where they have softwood they build solid wood houses, like a super-refined log type of building, while in the lower regions where they have more oak they build timber frames.

I would have to say that wood cannot be beat as a building material, and if I had the option I would live in a Chalet made entirely of well joined stacked timbers, all wood inside and out.

But this flax you mention, Don, interests me. In what form do you use it? Is it just dried and beaten? Is it retted and separated into fibers?


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Re: historic hewing questionnaire [Re: D L Bahler] #28060 02/05/12 01:39 AM
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Hello eveeryone tonight

Well the firewood is all out for next winter, just needs to be split, and piled indoors for the summer.

Now to continue with my project the Casselman handsleigh, I posted a few weeks ago some views of the naturally bent ash for the runners, I now have them completed and ready for the dainty work of mortising the holes for the supporting spokes, that carry the cross framework members.

You know it is not easy working in what I call miniature frames, which is what this sleigh is made up of, and try and follow the way that the original sleigh was crafted, the angling of the runners is tricky because it throws out the 90 degree angling of the mortise holes, and the seating lines which on the original I supect was pretty darn tight and accurate. One has to be careful not to over do the angling and give the runners too much cant.

One thing that I have going is that I do have the original metal braces which give a good indication of the cant of the runners

It certainly is a fun project

NH

Last edited by northern hewer; 02/05/12 01:46 AM.
Re: historic hewing questionnaire [Re: northern hewer] #28062 02/05/12 02:23 PM
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Hello,

Here, going through the firewood pile like it was vanilla pudding with this cold Siberian high pressure system hanging over. Not to be misunderstood now, the winter here, up untill last week had been absolute crap - warm, wet, soggy, grey - so the cold fresh, and above all dry air now is more than welcome. The wood boiler at full working force out there in the stall keeping the whole house warm enough.

Well Bahler, the last time I reached for flax was about two weeks ago. Doing some plumbing work, and to seal up one of the nut connectors of two adjoining pieces by lining the thread of the male component with flax fiber. Any leakage will soon swell the fibers permanently, sealing the joint. A lot of plumbers are using teflon tape for this purpose, with all the disadvantages that entails. Anyway, not having the fibers ready to use I grab a handful of flax stocks harvested last year and the year before, down from the hay loft, beat, break, twist, scrape and otherwise abuse the hell out of them until the outer dried stem has broken away to leave just the long intact fibers in hand, making up extra just to have when the need arrises for example, short lengths for tying up a sack or bundle. Another time the flax came in handy was last year or so, laying a lime screed floor in the boiler room. With the whole stock - minus the seeds naturally which have to be replanted - lain roughly or randomly spread under the scree, as opposed to mixed through, acting as reinforcement - where you might otherwise use reinforcement bar or re-bar. Well, there is just under 100 liters now out there in the barn, of oil, pressed from flax seed by my neighbor with his oil press, known as linseed oil oddly enough. That, I used in a mixture to coat the barn. Mixed up with some ocher pigment and lime I painted the ceiling in the kitchen. For walls or items within reach it is less good because of the time it takes to dry, but up there on the ceiling it doesn't bother anyone. We used the fine outer portion - a waste product otherwise - of the stocks mixed into the mortar as we bricked up the masonry oven at the other house. Again, it is a sort of flexible reinforcement that can accommodate a lot of the movement that occurs as the masonry work cycles through heating up and cooling down. One might think, huh, dried grass to make an oven? But I am assured that as long as there is no air there is no combustion. What more? Oh yeah, On a more refined level, and also after some processing, the flax is spun and woven into a more or less open structured linen which is tacked to a grid of battens nailed on a plastered wall. Well, I won't go into the process just now, but this linen forms a good tight and flat underground for pasting wallpaper onto with very fine and durable effect. These are some of the uses I've had the chance to put flax to in every form from unprocessed to moderately processed.

Richard, There is some help here for the next half year and to start him off he's begun taking apart and refurbishing the old wheelbarrow with the cast iron wheel I pulled out from the sheep shed down there at the end. He'll be wire brushing and painting the wheel, replacing broken parts with new and remaking what needs remaking, then we'll mix up some paint to make it look sharp in the end. I'll be calling it, The Mellema Wheelbarrow in honor of the previous owner and in all likelihood original maker. Planks of pine, structural components, oak. Sort of a simplified counterpart of your sleigh, minus the family history part though.

Greetings,

Don Wagstaff

Last edited by Cecile en Don Wa; 02/05/12 02:25 PM.
Re: historic hewing questionnaire [Re: Cecile en Don Wa] #28064 02/05/12 06:18 PM
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D L Bahler Offline
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Without air there is no oxidization, but there is pyrolosis. these are both processes that occur in combustion of organic matter. pyrolosis is charring, the matte undergoes a chemical change where it releases a number of volotile gasses such as hydrogen and methane and CO, and liquids such as tar and water. What's left behind is a semi-crystaline structure that is about 80% carbon, and very brittle -useless for reinforcing. This will occur in wood at about 580 degrees Fahrenheit, a little lower for grasses and such.
Oxidization normally occurs after pyrolosis. Essentially, the heat breaks down the solids into volatile compounds which will freely bond with oxygen. Without Oxygen, the carbon will not burn into CO2.


Was de eine ilüchtet isch für angeri villech nid so klar.
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Re: historic hewing questionnaire [Re: D L Bahler] #28065 02/05/12 06:52 PM
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Hello,

Might your point be that at degrees above 580 F the flax elements in the mortar would begin to carbonize and then provide no reinforcement? Maybe so but only the burning chamber of this oven was subject to such temperature - and even more - and this was made up of fire fast free standing precast elements. After some years of use I decided to reconfigure the encasing and in dismantling it noticed no change in the blocks or mortar other than some soot accumulation here and there inside the channeling. I smashed the excess clay blocks, mortar and plaster all up and reused it in putting the oven/heater back together.

Last edited by Cecile en Don Wa; 02/05/12 07:04 PM.
Re: historic hewing questionnaire [Re: Cecile en Don Wa] #28066 02/05/12 08:21 PM
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northern hewer Offline OP
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hello everyone tonight

Well good conversation you guys, but you are loosing me in the technical talk, but I agree with you Don, it seems that flax no doubt has alot of uses, not just clothing

My mother who is now 100 years young wove with flax on her spinning wheel, I have some good pictures of her at work.

Flax reminds me somewhat of cotton with its multiple uses, and there is corn with its whole plant cattle feed, the cob only at times for people, and also just the corn kernel with its multiple uses, corn starch, corn syrup, by products of whisky (distillers feed), corn glutten,--look at wheat the many uses it has for many centuries, oats, also for many centuries, this was a verycommon crop in these parts, Ontario's climate was very well adapted to many of these cereal crops

well back to my project at hand- the Casselman Sleigh--, I will be sharpening up my spoke shave to use on the curved surfaces, what a versatile useful tool--back to work till chore time--

enjoy

NH

Re: historic hewing questionnaire [Re: northern hewer] #28067 02/06/12 02:52 AM
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northern hewer Offline OP
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hello everyone again tonight

Not often I post twice in one day but here I am again.

Ken -- I was just reading through an old copy of Joiner's Quarterly 1997 issue #35, and thoroughly enjoyed your article on the 600 year old "Pembroke Cottage", it sure must have been a great feeling to have reconstructed and preserved for future generations this old building--

In your opinion will this new building be around 600 years from now, or will the original one still outlive it?

Wood I suspect can only survive x# of years even under ideal conditions--dry--especially--my sleigh that I am working on is being reconstructed with only the metal parts the wood completely gone--reconstruction can only be done some from memory, some from the metal parts, some from a surviving example if there is one somewhere, maybe an old photo, and maybe an old painting.

I am maybe lucky because UCV has an example in the vehicle museum that in my mind seems almost exactly like the one I remember

Having the measurements from it to start, and as I compared it to the metal pieces of the original, I find some similarities, but I also am finding some irregularities, like the overall height of the sleigh, 1" to be exact, and a slight difference in the curvature of the sleigh runner's curved front

Well have to go now

enjoy

NH

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