Traditional Wood Framing Tools

[Woodenskye (Bryan)]

Thread transferred from previous forum - Original Post by Puka

Original Post:

I'm just going to throw this out there. I'm planning on building a traditional wood frame cabin or two in the not to distant future, but in order to do this I will need to upgrade some of my tools. And buy some tools I don't currently have I usually just ask Kevin these sorts of things, but I thought I'd ask the community.

SO. . .

Since the wood is joined by a lot of large joints like mortise and tenon and held in place with wooden pegs. I'll be after some hand saws with the hard back probably, a couple of different sizes.
Chisels. . .large with big handles. A draw blade or 2 and spoke shave.

Maybe even some of those old style shaping axes. . . ?!?

Anything else anyone can think of or maybe useful.

My current scribbing tool needs updating.

I have plenty of planes large and small (don't actually use these much).
Kevin has suggest a rabbit plane which I'm looking at buying.

 

Quality of tool....not looking for something dirt cheap and not looking for something stupid expensive. If I were after stupid expensive tools then I'd just buy the whole lot here in NZ at greatly inflated prices.

 

The size of wood that I will be working with will be for example 200mm x 100mm x 2400mm - 150mm x 100mm x 2400mm. I'm planning on using NZ grown Monterey cypress.

 

And for those of you that don't know, like me until I looked it up.

 

Monterey cypress, commonly known as macrocarpa or just mac, is a species of cypress native to the Central Coast of California. The native range of the species was confined to two small relict populations, at Cypress Point in Pebble Beach and at Point Lobos near Carmel, California.

 

Scientific name: Cupressus macrocarpa

 

Higher classification: Cupressus

 

Rank: Species

 

Strength: Macrocarpa is a low-to medium-density softwood that looks and works like kauri.

 

Appearance: The heartwood is golden brown and has a speckled lustre, which is rare in timber.

 

So after reading that I get the impression that Mac in the U.S.A is probably quite rare and probably in illegal wood to use department. Its not something I ever hear anyone talk about.

Over here on the other hand, the wood is incredibly common, the stuff is everywhere and can be easily brought in just about every chopped up tree supply shop from here to Timbuktu two.

 

Follow Up Posts:

 

1)  In this part of the world what you want to do is called a timber frame. I would search for timber framing tools and should get you what you need.