Hello everyone

Well too cold for the bush today so here I am

Gumphri--I just visited your site and really liked what I saw especially the picture of all of you standing in the finished frame

The frame is interesting especially the way the upper plate is attached, and the location of the cross girts.

I always had to follow the framing techniques of the early settlers and I guess in some ways it has limited my experiences to other types of frames

It was quite interesting though because we had to use hewn material with rough surfaces, and that meant using lines and seatings, taking into account the uneven thicknessess and the twists in the timber, quite a challenge, it made the old brain work

I had good carpenters walk away because they said that they just wern't up to the mental challenges that came with working on the hewn surfaces

Anyway here is a shot of the just raised 3 bay driveshed at the Bellamy's Grist mill site at UCV, It was the culmination of 2 seasons, usually 1 year hewing the timber and 1 year framing and raising. Prior to that I spent part of a year working on securing and documenting a surviving historical, in this case a driveshed, to measure and produce a set of construction plans

In the very beginning of the project it was necessary to try and obtain a photo of the original drivehed, which in this case we were able to obtain a painting that one of the family members still had, and from studying that we were able to ascertain what the building we would be looking for wood be in appearance

This driveshed had unusually heavy timbers in it, and had a second floor for storage of barrels and other articles that was needed to run and maintain the mill.

Anyway really enjoyed your site and recommend a visit by everyone looking in

It looks like you are really dedicated to the timberframing trade keep up the good work

Where in Ontario did you work?

enjoy

NH


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