Neophyte Timber Framer

[wisdom]

I have been reading the forum for several years, decided to join recently.  Thanks to all that offer the great resources and insight, as well as the project posts.  Its been a joy to follow many of the threads and use this forum as a reference tool for learning.  The collective information on this forum is amazing and humbling.  I plan on building a couple of Timber Frames in the future.  As in the quote below, Im here to sharpen my axe.  

"If I had eight hours to chop down a tree, I'd spend six sharpening my axe."
Lincoln  

[Dave Shepard]

Welcome! What are you going to build?

[wisdom]

Im planning on building a wood shed, barn, partial timber frame house/barndominium (in that order).  I have an ample supply of white oaks that I plan to use.  We have paused most of the infrastructure (septic, well, roads, etc..) due to lumber and supplemental supplies being at a premium.  Along with limited selections.  Im also continuing to modify the design of our house.

[Brad_bb]

A couple things you can do in the meantime.... since you have white oaks.. Start making pegs.  If most of your members are going to be 8 inch thick  or less, make 12 inch long pegs.  But your logs and start splitting them.  You don't need anything fancy- a chainsaw, splitting maul for your first whack, Then when I've go the pieces down to a manageable size and they split straight, I use a hatchet with a large enough poll to whack with a rough Osage mallet.  You could make a white oak one, almost as heavy. If you need more info, ask.  I'm sure I can dig up a past post I did with more detail.

another thing you could do is make braces.  3'x3' braces are common.  Cut white aok stock -4x8 or 4x6 stock and use these as a way to practice layout and cutting joinery.  You need a lot of braces for a frame  and they are usually pretty interchangable.