TIMBER FRAME PEG MAKING

[D L Bahler]

When erecting buildings in Blockbau, we have to peg all the courses of logwork together. By the time a whole building is erected there are hundreds and hundreds of these pegs to be made and put into place. The traditional practice is to use dowels instead of carved pegs. Dowels are made of riven stock cut down to an approximate size and driven through a hole to create a nice round piece of stock. A much quicker process to be sure. These dowels are not seen in the finished work, if I were to build a frame with exposed pegs, I would want to make them with the draw knife or with my axe.

If you have a good side axe, this can be the quickest way to make quality pegs. I like it better than the drawknife for hardwoods.

On a side note, however, on the timber frames I observed in the Canton of Bern, pegs were often totally absent in the timberwork...

[Jay C. White Cloud]

Dowels are made of riven stock cut down to an approximate size and driven through a hole to create a nice round piece of stock.

Hi David,  What did they drive them through?  I wonder if this would work with larger blanks?  It sounds like you made this work, could you tell us more about he process?

I observed in the Canton of Bern, pegs were often totally absent in the timber work...

What kind of joinery David, a mix of "gravity" and "draw wedge," or something else?  Thank's for bringing this up.  ??? Thank's

[D L Bahler]

Jay
we often simply by dowels. good poplar or oak dowels. these are more than sufficient for the task, and inexpensive
what they drove them through, that depends on where and when. The easiest way is to drive the wood through a metal plate, but you don't always have metal available (the houses in the Berner Oberland), for example, were built without even a single iron nail until the late 1800s
I suppose fir and spruce dowels could be driven through a hole in a harder wood such as maple beech or oak, or through a hole cut in a slab of gneiss or slate which is abundant in the mountains.
regarding the joinery
the use of the mortise and tenon is not so prevalent as with Anglo-American styles. and tenons are generally short stub tenons. Much more of the joinery relies on shouldering, cogging, lapping, and dovetails or combinations of the three. sills are secured with through tenons secured with a heavy wedge on the outside
interestingly however, in the Oberland pegs were and still are used in lieu of nails to secure things like stair treads and wall paneling. these pegs are carved with an oversized head, which is made to be somehow attractive or even decorated with a pattern such as a rosette.

[stanwelch]

I did drive a few preshaped but oversize 1 1/16 dia pegs through a 1" steel hole
Not much fun. Easiest method so far is to make octagon pegs on the table saw. Not the traditional handmade way but fastest and most consistent diameter
I don't have a lathe so didn't try that way

[S.Hyland]

I've tried it on a lathe, and I prefer the octagonal shape. The octagonal shape is much more forgiving size wise. Fully round turned pegs have to be so accurate to work, especially in a hardwood frame. If they are a 64th too big they just won't drive.   

[tgalbraith]

These pegs are not visible along their length, so any slight imperfection is ok.

Hi Tgalbraith,

I know I have used "steel peg dies," for furniture work up to about a 1/2", but then they got a little too rough and needed some spoke shave work just to be acceptable.  As critical as pegs can be in timber frame joinery, I'm not sure I could use a larger die to make bigger pegs.  Have you had success with this in your timber frames?  I always wondered if I over sized the die hole, then sized the peg down with a spoke shave, if that wouldn't work. It may speed up the process, but I'm thinking pounding big blanks into a die just may not be worth it.  Is that what you did and did you find it faster?

Regards,

jay

Jay.
I have never been involved with a complete "timber frame" project, but have used larger size wood pins when building rustic benches, rustic gates, etc.  I agree that the bigger you go, the harder it is, but I have found it to be quicker and easier than the " draw shave" method used by the original poster that I responded too.

[D L Bahler]

I'll reiterate what I said peviously,

when making octagonal or square pegs, I find by far the fastest method is to use an axe.

Split out a blank close to the right size with axe and froe. Make the blank significantly longer than the finished peg, maybe 8 or 9 inches or even more. Holding the blank in one hand, cut the sides down with the axe, use a slicing, shaving type motion and not a chop. With split wood, it takes a matter of seconds to make a good peg (you can then refine it with the drawknife if you wish, or if you are not yet accurate with the axe) You could turn it over and shape the end you held to, but I like to make a nice peg head some times. It can be very attractive to have a peg with a carved head driven against the timber

Most of the time, as was pointed out, you dont actually want a round dowel. So maybe forget the plate method. But when using lots of dowels, it does help to drive a lot of long stock through a plate. It also helps to have a number of holes each slightly smaller than the last. Drive the stock through the first hole that it barely will contact, then step down from there

[CBERBER]

Hello Folks,
Just wondering if anyone knows where I can purchase a timber peg die or is this something I need to custom make thanks in advance
(hope someone reads this)

[Brad_bb]

I don't know of anywhere to buy.  Anyone who uses them typically makes it.  Drill a hole in a piece of thick steel.  Hole needs to have sharp edges to cut.  I've never used one though.

[Jim_Rogers]

Hello Folks,
Just wondering if anyone knows where I can purchase a timber peg die or is this something I need to custom make thanks in advance
(hope someone reads this)

CBERBER:
Welcome to the forum.
You can make your own pegs many ways. One way is to push them through a piece of steel with a sharp edge.
Another way, is to trim them with a table saw.
Also, we normally make them with a shaving horse and a draw knife. Each peg blank is shaped to fit a test hole so that we're sure it will go into the mortise peg hole each time when we put the frame together.
If you'd like a set of shaving horse plans, send me an email via the regular email system and I'll send a set to you. I can't post it on an open forum.
If you'd like to get a draw knife, check out the tools for sale list in the for sale section. We do have a good stock of draw knives on hand right now.

Jim Rogers

[classicadirondack]

stanwelch--there's not much you can do about getting "older", but there's a lot you can do about getting "old"

[routestep]

This post is a little old but for the record:

I've used all above but the ax method. I might try a hatch though.

Currently I use a No. 4 hand plane, a saw horse and a board with a v shaped groove cut down its face to hold a peg blank. I plane down the corners of the blank to whatever roundness I wish.

Dry wood works better than green using a plane.

[Dirigoboy]

Thought I too would revive this topic as I think I've found a pretty ingenuous method, from Sussex oak builders in England for more efficiently and less tediously turning out wooden pegs.  I think it's pretty slick and, a few quick nips on the shaving horse and the pegs seem to churn out fairly effortlessly and uniformly.

Enjoy the video, I did
A PRO's way of making Oak pegs 'FAST' for Timber construction - YouTube

[stanwelch]

Thanks for sharing that video.  I think that taper on the top of the die makes the peg feed much easier than driving a square peg into a hole in a flat plate. I think I might try to make a die like that. I plan to start an addition on my shed and want to make the pegs this spring. However, I did find shaping the peg blanks on the shave horse quite relaxing 
Stan

[Brad_bb]

I'm not an expert, but from my experience...

That type of die is definitely more difficult to make versus a hole in say a 3/8" thick piece of steel.  With a hole in a flat piece of steel, you need the peg diameter closer to the finished diameter than he needs with that die for exactly the reason that Stanwelch said (the tapers).  

One important thing to note here... I read the original post and most of those that followed.  The original poster did not specify if he was making pegs for draw boring or for a line-to-line fit.  One requires a tapered peg for about 3/4 of it's length.  The other requires a uniform diameter.  

For draw boring, you finish taper the peg with a draw knife and you're done.  The peg can have irregularities along it's length and diameter because it acts more like a wedge.  With a line-to-line fit you would have a lot of problems with draw knife finished pegs, especially in a hardwood frame.  Irregularities/non-uniformity would hang up the peg in the hole and you risk damage if you try to pound it in, the peg may even get stuck before it goes far enough and then you have to cut it off and drill the center out.  

That's why a die is used- to make them uniform and sized correctly.  I actually drive them through the die twice.  The first time removes the bulk of material, but some compression goes on.  The second pass cleans it up.  I recently made a peg die.  


 

If it's a softwood frame, the softwood may compress and allow the non-uniform peg or slightly oversize peg to go in.  It may also allow and octagon peg to be driven(compressing where the corners drive in).  But you also risk damage to the frame timbers or tenon when driving in a peg that is too tight.

So for a drawbore, drawknife your tapered peg(green).  For a line to line fit, draw knife your blank fairly close, drawknife the point on one end, let them dry a couple months, then drive them through your die.

As far as riving blanks, you want green, clear, straight grain.  But you also want to be careful of taper.  Sometimes you'll split at one inch or 1 1/16" but at the bottom it will taper down and be too small.  I look for a large diameter 16-30" that has the same diameter on top and bottom of the round.  The bottom of the butt usually has taper, but further up the butt is better (no jokes- I can hear you 12 year olds out there).  Any hardwood will work for pegs if they split straight.  I prefer white oak, which will be the strongest and rot resistant.  But I also have Ash, Walnut, and cherry.  I prefer white oak for outside- like a shed roof, for rot resistance.  I'd use Walnut too.  Heartwood is all you want to use.  No sapwood.  

Time it takes to make a peg.  
Making tapered pegs for draw boring goes very fast.  Once you get your splitting size down pat, and you're working with log rounds that are yielding good square blanks, You spend about a minute a peg on the shaving horse.  You have to watch how you hold the draw knife so your thumbs don't get sore.  You don't want to grip the draw knife too much.  

Making line to line pegs is pretty much the same work as above but draw knifing them round and not tapered.  Then you have to additionally drive them through the die.  This can be a workout driving them with a 3 LB hammer.  I will try to spread them out and do 25 a day or so.  Your arms will get in shape if you have a lot to do.  I had to do 500 in 5 days once.  What a workout.

Some people have done other techniques - like a fire wood splitter to push pegs through a die.  I've only heard of that and never seen it.  Once Riven and turning on a lathe is fine too.  I've never tried squaring on a table saw and then rounding on a router table, but that seems like a lot more work than using a shave horse and die, plus the noise and personal risks you take with the machines.

[rjwoelk]

I use straight grain birch. Picked out when processing firewood.
Joint  it then cut into 1 inch squares. Set the saw at 45 and fence at 11/16. Fit snug on a 1 inch hole.

[Dirigoboy]

[shrugs]  I didn't say everyone had to like it.
What I did say was that I found it efficient.  It ain't hard to find the steel or a welder to make it.  1/4" plate for the base, two pieces of tube stock and a welder can do that in less than an hour, and your left with a quality dowel maker.

I like it, and when I get ready to make pegs, I'm going to get it made.