"Puttin' on a show"...historically speaking

[Rooster]

Last weekend Brad_bb and I participated in the Franklin Grove Summer Harvest Festival at the Chaplin Creek Village just outside of Franklin Grove, IL  http://www.chaplincreek.com/index.html

The historical society down there invites demonstrators to show "old world" crafts or skills in order to educate and entertain the public.  We brought our traditional timber-framing tools, and some timbers and made pieces and parts for a couple sets of timber saw horses. 

The weather was a bit warm, but we at least had some shade to work under.  We actually spent more time talking and visiting with the public than being highly productive framers!!  ;D

I would encourage anyone who would like to share their love of TF with others to contact your local historical societies and offer to demostrate at one of their public events.  I would be surprised if you were not warmly welcomed by those in charge of the events.

Has anyone else done this sort of thing?  Care to share?

Rooster

[Dave Shepard]

When I have the time, I demonstrate blacksmithing at Hancock Shaker Village, Hancock, MA. I've thought about talking to them about setting up a few timbers and going up there once a week to work on them. People really like to see things being made.

[Rooster]

Last summer I did a demo at an antique power club reunion in Southern Wisconsin called The Rock River Thresheree.
http://www.thresheree.org/

There was a small enterence fee to the park, but there was lots to see.  At one point I had upwards of 20 people standing there watching me cut a mortise.  It struck me as being sort of ironic and I commented to the crowd,
"You know, If a 100 yrs ago, you were to tell a carpenter that in the future, people would pay to watch you work,...he would think you were crazy."

My, how things have changed.

Rooster

[Thehardway]

I did a similar demonstration at a local outdoors show, I demonstrated hewing short timbers with an adze and then cut,assembled bored and pegged the timbers into a mortice and tenon mailbox post which was then auctioned off for charity at the end of the show.  I had quite a few folks interested in the procedure but just about all of them said it looked like too much work and they would stick to their power tools. I might have some pics somewhere.

[Brad_bb]

It was a bit hot, and aside from my wardrobe malfunctions(my suspenders broke- multiple times), it was a good event.  We made at lease a little progress on a new set of Roosters timber frame "Mare and Colt" saw horses.  I think I did 4 mortises, several square timber cutoff demos, and laid out part of one upright.  Maybe Rooster will post them sometime  ;D
I'm planning on doing a local demo next spring(late march), so it will be nice and cool.

[Dave Shepard]

How long to cut off an 8"x8"x16' white pine timber?

[Rooster]

Ya know, I didn't think to time Brad_BB while he was sawing, but it seemed to be pretty quick.  Then again he is left-handed, so it is good that he brought his own saw ;)

This has given me an idea.  Maybe at the next Pig roast, we could host a friendly competition.

Timbersports...FF style!

Maybe get some two man crosscut saws and some EWP 8x8s.

smiley_swinging_board

[Brad_bb]

Yeah, It is pretty quick, but I am definitely not trying to hurry as I want to make sure the cut is square.  Layout maybe 1 minute, Chisel pre-kerf(4 sides)- 2 min, Saw pre-kerf(4 sides)- 2 min, Actual sawing-2.5 min?  So 7.5 minutes maybe for a square accurate finished cut?  I might be a little conservative on this estimate though.  This is just a guess.  The actual cutting time is pretty short.  Your kerfs guide your cut allowing you to cut at this speed. I told Rooster I need to make a video of this.  I presented a "how to saw square" pictorial on this forum within the last year, but Rooster just showed me an addition trick (chisel pre-kerf), that makes it even easier.  I'll try to make a Youtube video in the near future.