My name is David Frankenfield and I design and craft timber framed homes and barns. I have been coming to the forum for over a year now and I enjoy reading all the terrific post that all of you have written.We frame with alot of Hemlock and Eastern White Pine.Yesterday I received a request to frame a German or perhaps Austrian type home for a couple here in Maine. The clients have a cuckoo-clock of which they love the design of and they want us to replicate the clock. I have attached pictures of the clock and was wondering if any of you had framed homes in this european style. We generally produce New England style frames using square rule joinery, principal rafters and minor purlins. Any help or steering me to books or other resources would be much appreciated.
David
Photos must be in jpg format and in your Forestry Forum gallery.
For Germanic style log and timber work similar to the clock, look for "The Craft of Log Building" by Hermann Phleps and "Norwegian Wood " by Jerri Holan. Lee Valley Tools reprints Phleps.
Dave:
I'm at Wil's house now, doing some advanced training.
I can bring some ideas home with me.
In the mean time Wil has suggested that you look at the drawing that came in your last update cd there are many different German style building in there.
I'll talk to you next week when I'm home again...
Jim Rogers
Thank you Roger and Jim for your replies I am excited about this project and I appreciate your input. Roger I found both of those books to be available on the used market.The Hermann Phelps book looks particulary good---although I am not sure I want to "go round".
Jim I will be in all next week working in the shop. I'll look up those images Wil mentioned. Thanks again.
David
The German word for timberframing is "fachwerk". I would use any search system on the net with that word. English and German are related languages so you can surely understand a bit from German internet sites. I do not know German either but I manage it somehow with help of Swedish, Danish and English.
There is an impressive site at www.fachwerk.de
Manfred Gerner has written some books about central european timberframing. They are written in German but there might be translations. I have one of them in Chech translation and know less than five words in that language. Sadly. It is full of information and instructive pictures in a way that only Germans can write.
German and Danish timberframes usually have brick or clay infills in the walls. In Norway they have built some buildings called "gridebygg". They were weatherboarded, but usually the method was for uninsulated buildings. The customer migh even envision the log houses in Switzerland and Austria but they are not timberframes.
I am not a timberframer so do not take me too seiously.
Designing a house around the cuckoo clock ::) ::) Hmmm.... Well they pay for it.
After seven years of French classes (way back when), no German and a lifetime of speaking English I find I can get more out of a German site than I can one in French. :D
Welcome to the forum maineframer.I don't get to this neck of the woods much.I don't know anything that is talked about here,but I find it interesting.
I had thought fachwerk was more a description of using various exposed infills in a timber frame, rather than the actual German style of timber framing, I didn't realize that it referred to the whole style of framing.
English is a Germanic language, which is why it can be so familiar. For example the movie "Das Boot" (The Boat) is pronounced "Dahs Boat". Often times the same word is spelled differently and pronounced the same. Sometimes, however, there is no correlation. :)
Dave