The Forestry Forum

If one was to build a shed or small barn (in Mississippi) using the timber framing methods, IF, one decided to use pegs at the joints, would pine pegs be ok or would they need to be of hardwood, like oak, hickory etc? I put the state in there because everything matters. eg, humidity, temperature etc. Thanks in advance for any input.

Hi Lane,

This is not a simple question to answer.

In general you should employ durable wood that has long fibres such as oak, chestnut, cherry, locust, etc., however it is important to recognise that the preferred way for a joint to fail is by the peg breaking. Broken pegs are simple to change whereas a tenon relish failure or mortice cheek blow out are not and thus if an overly strong wood like locust is used in a pine frame then the scene is set for one of these unwanted modes of failure. On the other hand if weak or less durable woods are employed then the pegs might fail at a lower level of stress than might otherwise be expected. Having said that a frame should be designed to withstand the loss of performance provided by certain key joints and members to ensure that the potential collapse of the whole frame is avoided.

Historically a variety of woods have been employed to make pegs including pine however since pegs have to be driven then they must also be able to withstand a hammering without mashing or blowing the end of the peg and thus in this respect pine is not a good candidate.

Tapered draw pegs driven through offset drilled tenon holes are best to use since these can be driven easily to begin, with very little risk of experiencing mechanical damage, and can be driven to a point where experience tells the carpenter that the peg should not be hit any more.

I am sure that other experienced based comments will be provided by the regular visitors to this forum.

Chilterns

I agree

Jim Rogers

Thanks for the replies.

Now I can really appreciate your reply. I am almost finished with the Sabon book about timber frame construction and now I know a little about what you are talking about :D. It makes more sense now, although I still have much to learn. much,much,much. Thanks again for the replies.