Frame Cut

My oldest son, Jack, and I just returned from our two week timber frame adventure at the North House Folk School in Grand Marais, MN. Our blood, sweat and tears are literally on the timbers that are now neatly stacked in our garage.

I could not recommend attending a class through North House enough. Every staff member we encountered was so welcoming. One truly feels at home and part of a community. Our instructor, Peter, was equally amazing. He has the patience of a Saint and knowledge of master craftsman.

Hand cutting mortises and tenons is a humbling task. While I consider myself fairly skilled at building certain projects. Timber framing requiresprecision measuring, spacial relations, and chisel skills that neither Jack or myself were equipped with at the start of the class. After twelve full days in the workshop, I am proud to say we have a new set of skills. While not yet masters of the craft, we got pretty handy with a chisel.

An 1.5" Barr Framing Chisel was my tool of choice. I had purchased a corner chisel and slick, as well. If I had to do it over, I would have just purchased the framing chisel. Paired with a 30oz Wood is Good Mallet, I found it the perfect timber frame tool. The other two chisels barely left my tool bag.

My goal before the class began was to fully document our entire stay in Grand Marais and the North House Folk School. I had my camera bag packed and ideas galore. However, the cameras never left their case during our entire journey. All of my energy went into building. I was creatively and physically tapped by the end of each day. I took quite a few snaps with my phone but Jack and I became quickly unplugged from technology and focused all our energy creating the best timber frame we could.

Our hands at the end of the average day. The one downside of cutting timbers in the winter is the amount of sap. We quickly discovered Pine-sol works amazing for getting it off of hands and clothes. WD-40 eats it off chisels and tools.

Jack's standard "I'm too cool for a picture dad" pose. Four to six timbers fully cut was an average full days work. We stayed late this evening to meet our daily goal. We shared the fully equipped and gorgeous workshop with three other builders and made many new friends working along side each other for twelve days.