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
