The Forestry Forum

We are trying to figure out how many years of experience and knowledge this forum offers in certain areas. You will find similar polls on other boards such as sawmilling and the logging boards. This Poll is for Timber Framing and log type construction. Cord wood construction would fit as well I do believe.

When answering the poll, round to the nearest number, either up or down, what ever is closest. It would be just to much for the poll if we added an option for every year. What we will come up with by rounding will be a very accurate number for our total.

I finally after years playing in the sugar bush built the my log cabin, and am now working on the garage.

If my log building experience was compacted to full time work it would be a little more than a year, I suppose.

I started in 1978 as a full time handscribe log builder.  Did 35 homes up to 1990.  Got tired of pushing a chainsaw...went back to school...learned AutoCAD and have been designing log homes (and other custom houses too) to present.  Guess that makes 40 years!  So 12 years hands on and a couple of hundred designs for 18 more.  I got stories....bet you do too!

(Sorry I haven't been on this Forum for a while.  Thanks for the reminder to get back on!)

I started out timber framing in the mid 80's and was there with the beginnings of TFGNA. It's been a nice career. I have a Wood Mizer LT40, with siding and resaw attachments, and I generally make all my buildings from scratch, starting with the logs. I'm also a general contractor, since I do the entire project from foundation to finish.

Before that, I grew up working with my grandfather, making post and beam barns and trusses using ring-and-plate joinery from WWII era technology--the same method used to create the giant blimp hangars in Texas and Oregon.

I know the blimp building in Tillamook.  That is one HUGE structure.  When I saw it last it had a nice tower crane inside.  Just Google
Tillamook blimp hanger for pix.

Whoa Greg, does LHOTI know your having an affair with The Forestry Forum? lol

Cheers,
Alan

  Shame on me.  I just got around to posting my time on the poll.  GrandPa taught me but Dad was a stick framer and finisher for the most part.  Back in 1995 I went to work at a sawmill while in civil engineering school.  Sawdust got into my blood and I bought a mill in 2001.  When I could make my own timbers I started framing and do between 3 to 5 frames a year.  I am no snob and will frame with 4x4 on up and use steel or what  ever the customer wants.  Last big job was a hybrid or timber framing and stick framing.  Customer is right most of the time. ;D



(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10186/-1.JPG)

I've been at it for 6 mos. But a carpenter for 25 years. things turned out well. I found most customers require guidance, like a teenager. I tell my customers that they need to treat their general contractor like a doctor. Tell me the problem, I'll do the operation. Keep your hands out of the way! The best thing aout TF is Im always shopping for Big and manly tools.LOL

ive been messing around at it for about a year started a saw shed this year . have learned a lot here and gained some valueable information. im a little slow on getting it finnished with working on some custom saw jobs here and there.
got some pictures in my gallery but havent learned learned how to post them yet. i have to helpers neighbor is 84 and his brother whos 78

When I lived in North Dakota with my grandparents we built and rebuilt a few barns with Birch and Popular logs cut locally.  Didn't square them up just worked the ends to fit together and then sided the structure with sawmill lumber that was powered by a huge JohnDeere tractor PTO, maybe a #6?  Anyway maybe it amounts to 3 years combined over 6 or 7 summers.

I have deconstructing one barn, timberfamed two, built a pole barn and timberframed a kitchen ... in the last five years. I have an Alaskan Saw Mill ... slow but consistant. I am currently working on a nice set of Timber Framed Ponies to joint my addition on ... in my garage ... nights and weekends ... for the rest of my life! I joined this forum quite a long time ago and gained the knowledge I needed at that time. I revisit this forum tonight, saw this post and felt obligated to respond. I have several project in the works ... as do several others from what I read. Thanks for the venue, great site!

Am in the process of building a log home.  I have an old Foley's Belsaw with a 40" blade.  A John Deere 4610 tractor with front end loader and other attachments.  Lots of other junk I have gathered up over the past couple of years.  I have about 1 year experience in working with logs and no timber frame.   Built my own stick house in 1980 and covered it with rock and cedar.

One thing about it - no matter how much money people have in this forum - we are all rich.  Nothing even comes close to the passion we have for working with wood.  Give me some woods and a beautiful day and I am in Heaven.

I started building log and timber buildings in January of 1980 and have been at it ever since . Work mostly with white pine . Have an M30 enercraft sawmill that I bought new in 1993 . Good reliable mill but they were bought out by Baker and they moved to the Southern States from Ontario . Use a couple of gin poles for lifting the logs onto the building and a Komatsu WA120 for moving the logs to the building site ect. Been at it for over 30years and still really enjoy it. scouter Joe

Welcome to the Forestry Forum, Joe.

Jim Rogers

I have been building handcrafted log homes for about 21 years now and still; love every bit of it. But my body does not work as well as it use to. Funny how as you get older you find ways to make things easier to do. Nothing I like better, than to stand back and look at a log building that I just helped to build. ;)

I started about 2 1/2 yrs ago with some chainsaw milling to build 2 sets of saw horses as my first TF/M&T work. Rebuilt my storage shed with all CSM'ed materials, 4x4 TF joints, 2x4s and 1x's siding.
Now cutting a R-V carport from 6x6 bought from a local mill.
At 57, not likely I will do too much more CSM work.
I did 2 week long workshops, Oct '10 and Oct '11.
I enjoy spending time here learning more.
Thanks everybody!

Recently found the forum and have discovered the quality and diversity of folks on it. is wonderful.  I hope it only gains in popularity.  I have been timber framing and doing guild crafts since 1975 when I met Amish barn wrights as a historical reenactor at Lincoln Log Cabin State Park.  I have been timber framing ever since on and off, then almost full time for the last 15 years.  I specialize in the vernacular folk architecture of the Americas, Middle East and Asia.

I have been reclaiming log and timberframe buildings for 18 yrs, never built one from scratch, but I have sold a dozen or so to others that have rebuilt them..I just recently acquired a timber frame house on main st in historic Salisbury NC that was built in the late 1700s or early 1800s, they tell me that Danial Boone may have stayed in it a few times, don't no why as his cave is just a few miles down the road!!? If anyone would like to buy it I have it for sale..It is Yellow heart pine and poplar and has the 6-8 inch wide heart-pine flooring that is face nailed and Block print wall paper from the 1850s still on some of the walls..The walls are 6 inch wide heart-pine boards and the sleepers are 3/4 round lap jointed white oak trees with the bark still on most of them...It is two full storys high and the mortise and timber joints have roman numbers carved into them...

Built my first cabin in 2000 from dead standing pine. Before that sawed a couble timber frame homes on my mill. I got a lot of good info off this forum when I first started. I have built around 20 log homes and cabins since.
I started sawmilling in the early 80's, and have milled a variety of products since. Darty Contracting is my business name.

 I think it's time to Update the list.  The original post went out 7 years ago.  I'm sure we have new additions and more experience.  I'm up to 29 years and counting of Timber Framing myself.

Seems like a dead thread too bad. 15 years marine construction, not the same animal but some similarities I suspect. boathouses, docks, and seawalls. Driving and jetting poles up to 18" diameter and laminating/drilling beams for the topwork. Survived it intact, glad I learned it, but I don't miss it.