Tenon layout

[Housewright]

I did not sleep well last night so here are more thoughts about which side to use for layout. I once took a close look at a gable entry bank barn in New Hampshire. The back wall was 7 or 8 feet off of the ground so assembling the rear bent was done on the deck and the rear wall raised first. There were still pike pole holes visible on the front faces of the tie beams and posts. This raising sequence determined that the layout face must be to the rear of the barn (the top side of the assembled bents as laying on the deck). They must have blocked up the front bent enough to have gotten underneath to drive the pins upward, from the outside of the barn.

The English barns, which are often laid out toward the threshing floor, are of a sidewall rather than bent construction so the pins in the cross frames could be driven from either direction.

Jim