more timber framing

I worked a lot today on the shop frame. And took a lot of photos. Finishing up some leftover joinery; then some detail stuff. We’re using a method called “square-rule” joinery, where each timber is cut down right at the joints to a common thickness. In this case, 5 3/4″. That means each mortise gets a housing cut beside it. Here’s some of how I cut this detail.

I make a series of saw kerfs to break up the material to be removed. Angle the saw to cut down to the depth at the front shoulder; the saw is tilted so I don’t cut into the back of the timber, behind the joint.

Then sneak in there with the toe of the saw to even out these kerfs.

Here’s what it looks like after these steps.

Then, using the chisel bevel down, knock these bits out.

Then pare them down to the required depth.

Sometimes I do this paring with the timber’s face held vertically, it’s easier to see the line I’m paring to that way.

When I’m done paring, I want this shoulder to be less than 90-degrees. That way nothing interferes with the joint closing at assembly.

Then I chop a bit of a bevel at the mortise’s bottom end. A corresponding bevel will be on the tenoned piece.

The posts and one tie-beam have chamfers on their inside corners. After marking out the width, I start by shaving with a drawknife.

Here you can see that I just blocked the timber up so the corner is easy to get at:

Then I dress it a bit with a smooth plane. 

The chamfer on the tie-beam has a “stop” I marked it out with a square & awl, then sawed down to the chamfer’s depth. Clean up with a chisel.

Then using a chisel bevel down, I cut a curve into the section behind the stop.

End result:

Then I got out the carving tools to finish off this timber – the first one I worked on, finished it last!