Carolina Timberworks

Home Builders , Accessory Dwelling Units , Home Additions , Universal Design

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Carolina Timberworks

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Timber Framing 101

Traditional timber framing is the art of connecting two or more pieces of timber using wood-to-wood joinery. Prior to the discovery of metal, this is how timber posts and beams were connected to frame the homes, barns, and businesses our ancestors lived and worked in. Held together without nails,...

What is a Timber Frame?

A mortise and tenon joint comprises two components: the mortise hole and the tenon tongue. Here, a tenon is shown cut in a piece of Eastern White Pine timber.

A Tenon

This photograph shows a mortise hole in a reclaimed hand hewn timber. Note the old peg, as well as the IV marriage mark–used to identify the individual timber's location in the timber frame.

A Mortise

A treenail, or trunnel, is a wooden peg or pin used to pin mortise and tenon joinery. Here 4 1" diameter White Oak pegs are pictured in a mortise during the fitting process in our shop.

Wooden Nails

For several thousand years, timber frames have been made using freshly cut trees–as are most timber frames today. Trees contain a lot of water, and timber that is freshly cut is therefore wet–so wet in fact, that sometimes, when we drive a chisel into a green timber, you can see water on the blade.

Water in Wood

Green (wet) timber shrinks as it dries. It shrinks roughly twice as much along the growth rings as it does across the rings–which is why timber develops drying checks.

Drying Checks

If you were to cut down a tree and look at the end of the log, you'd see the annual growth rings. Count the rings, and you'll know how old the tree was.

Dense Grain

Douglas Fir is widely used in modern timber framing because it is strong, graded for structural use, available in large sizes and long lengths, and is moderately priced.

Douglas Fir

Western Red Cedar is used often in exterior timber framing–because it is highly rot resistant. It is also shrinks less as it dries than many other species, and is lightweight, but fairly low in strength.

Western Red Cedar

Western Red Cedar is used often in exterior timber framing–because it is highly rot resistant. It is also shrinks less as it dries than many other species, and is lightweight, but fairly low in strength.

Rough Sawn Western Red Cedar

One decision you'll need to make is the surface texture of your timbers.

Timber Textures: S4S & Rough Sawn

Hewn timber: In the old days, this texture was a result of how the round tree was hewn by broad axe into a square or rectangular timber.

Timber Textures: Hand Hewn Original Patina on Reclaimed Timber

Normally tenons are hidden in mortises, but when the tenon passes entirely through the piece it is joining, it is called a through tenon.

A Through Tenon

Reclaimed White Oak that has been planed and sanded is, in our opinion, especially beautiful.

Reclaimed White Oak Timber

From time to time, especially in reclaimed White Oak, we find timbers with quarter sawn faces–as shown in this photograph.

Quarter sawn White Oak

One day in our yard I noticed these two reclaimed timbers sitting side by side on top of a pile of timber. The roman numeral VIII and the 1E shown in this photograph were how timber frames of old were marked for assembly. Hewn timber of old was neither straight, square nor flat, so the joinery...

Marriage Marks in Reclaimed Timber

Timber that has been planed has a sharp edge where two faces meet. Chamfering is simply planing off that sharp edge and can be either through chamfering, or stopped chamfering.

Chamfering