Pitts Blacksmith shop - Spring cleaning.

Saturday was a day out at the cabin. No big projects going on just yet so I decided to do a long overdue spring cleaning at the smaller cabin, the Pitts Blacksmith shop.
Over the years I have intended to use this cabin as first a workshop, then it ended up being used for storage. Then I was turning it into a Girl Scout cottage, then guest cabin, now, at least for a little while, storage again.

Although a lot of work, I was able to clean out the bays on both sides of the cabin. The most fun was re-discovering things long buried over the years.

Found lots of tools I had not used in a while, including this old wooden handled shovel.

 Came across several old door and window jambs.

In this photo are two door and two window jambs.

I have held on to these as teachable moments if anyone asks, and I have used a couple as coat and hat racks in the main cabins.

In this picture (of the main cabin), just above the piano, you can see one window jamb being used as a hat rack.

Just to the left of this photo would be another I use for a coat rack.

 Here is one with a square peg in a round hole.

And you can see some square nails in this jamb.

A slightly closer look.

Here I am holding one so you can see that it is actually a square peg that goes into a round hole.

A square peg would fit tighter than a round peg when hammered in, making a better fastener.

Here is one of the window jambs with a fine tenon that would have fit into a mortise on the bottom side of a log above the window.

Mortise and tenon jambs would have to be planned for during construction, and not added later.

 This window sill or window head (I don't remember if this one was the top or bottom, there were two) came out of the Pitts Blacksmith shop and at one time had square wood bars like a jail cell.

Although they would not have been strong enough to keep a man in, they must have been used to keep some animal in or out of the building, while still allowing for air flow.
  Or maybe just a little security to protect tools, knowing even though they could be broken, it would make a lot of noise doing so.

And, well, since it was a blacksmith shop, if they needed metal bars, well . . . they could have made them.

You can also see at the top of the piece where the jamb would fit into the sill notch.

 A closer look and the square mortise work.

Another tenon.

This one you can see my numbering written on it.

Which means if I wanted to I could go back and find which window it went into at one time.

 Circular saw marks on some old lumber.

 These are some log dogs a blacksmith friend made for me about twenty plus years ago.

 The well weathered look of a half dove-tail notch.

If you protect the logs after a rebuild, you can save some pretty worn looking logs if they are solid otherwise.

 Glass insulators for lightning rods.

These came off of one of the buildings.
I also saved some of the rods and the bracket that held the rod and a glass ball at the top of a roof.
None of the glass balls were intact however when I took the cabins down.

 Some of the metal punch-outs I used for my numbering system to tag the cabins before taking them down.

 Only time I have seen this.

On a double-pen dog-trot cabin I took down, the outside was covered with the metal siding in about 2x4 foot panels.
Each panel had a brick patten stamped into it.

I saved several of the panels to hang up, once again to be teachable moments.

An early version of siding.
I have seen stamped tin siding with large stone work patterns stamped into them (usually for commercial buildings), but never a brick pattern.

 Another panel.

Once again, the occupants wanting to get away from the image of living in a log home.

It would prevent some air drafts, and somewhat protect the logs also.

 This is one of the original doors from the Pitts building.

I just had to save this wooden latch.
And it is still used every time I go into the cabin.

A friend actually copied the pattern to make a latch for a basement bathroom that had a rustic look.

 Here you can see some of the axe marks in one of the jamb boards.
Even the jambs and sills were made by hand, as were the pegs used to hold them in.
In the original build very little, if any, sawed lumber would have been used.

Here is one of the square nails in one of the jambs.

I am going to carefully pull this one out, next time I am out there, to see if it is hand wrought or an early cut nail.

(Do you know, at one time nails were so valuable that Virginia had to pass a law making it unlawful to burn your house down when you moved  to get the nails. Often times abandoned houses would be burned down to get the nails.)

 One of the notches from a top plate log.

Spring flowers were out.

 One cleaned out bay where you can now see the old Ford Tractor that helped me raise the logs.

 Made enough room near the entrance of the other bay to hang a swing.

All cleaned up.

What's in a word? - B2R by the fire - 'Building the Hewn Log House' by Charles McRaven

For this blogger, books by Charles McRaven are kind of like books by Eric Sloane; I tend to go back to them often.

I recently got this copy of McRavens first book, from 1978.

A classic. So I started to read it.
As always with these books I look for basically two things.

One; to learn something new.

Two; affirmation that something I have learned or think is true.

But it's not really about either one of those this time.


  In an earlier post I discussed the word 'chinking' and how I use it and how others use it.
  While in most cases I use the word to describe the whole process of putting stone, wire or wood between the logs and then the mortaring over that as 'chinking'.
  Others just use the word to refer to the material between the logs before the mortar is applied, while referring to the mortar or mud mixture as 'daubing' (daubing seems too hap-hazard a word to me).

  This most recent reading brought to mind the use of another couple of words and how they apply to these hewn buildings.

  When ever I am going out to our property I usually say I am going out to "The Cabin".
"See ya later dear, I'm going out to the Cabin!"
"Ya, we spent the weekend working out at the Cabin."
  That sort of thing. We haven't really given the place a name. Nothing like Cold Comfort Farm, or like Beatrix Potter's Hill Top Farm. We just simply say, going out to the Cabin.

  When in actuality I don't really think of it as a 'Cabin'. When I do say cabin, especially when I descibe it to some one new, I want to go on and explain that it is not "really a cabin, but an old hewn log house that I moved and rebuilt. "
But I guess in the broadest since of the word it could be a cabin.

  This is how dictionary.com explains the word. "a small house or cottage, usually of simple design and construction." 

Well, there is nothing simple about the design or the construction of a hewn log building.

So maybe I will have to rethink "going out to the cabin".

  Well, back to the book.
  Reading it last night McRaven came up with a good explanation that I am going to have to find someway of adapting to my visits out to our place. ('Our place' isn't going to work either.)

  He says it this way; "The American log house is by historic definition a structure of hewn logs, corner-notched to form one or more pens, chinked with split boards or thin stones, and mud or mortar, covered on the top with split shakes. It has one or more fireplaces, stone or mud-and-stick chimneys, and is intended as a permanent home.
   The log cabin, by contrast, is often of round logs, and is of less careful construction, being generally built as a temporary or occasional residence."

  In a way this leaves me in kind of a quandary. While mine is indeed "a structure of hewn logs, corner-notched to form one pen and chinked with mortar." is is also only used as a "temporary or occasional residence." (Although I did plan the building so it could go permanent.)

  I think I use the word 'Cabin' as a simple explanation of where I am going without having to go "yea, we are going out to our very old hewn log house." and then having to explain what hewn is, or what makes it a house and not a cabin.

  But I do agree with him. Cabin does imply something less substantial than a hewn log house. Not to suggest a cabin is not a great place to have. I have stayed in many great cabins on the sides of wonderful lakes and rivers.
  Even people with lots more money than I, who have vacation homes in the mountains, that are larger than my house, but who only use them a couple of times a year, don't call their places cabins. "Yea, we're going to our 2000 sq. ft. cabin this weekend. You want to bring your six kids and come on up? We have plenty of room."
  I think that's why they say vacation home, or weekend home.

  But, going out to the cabin is so simple to say, and well . . . most people don't care and don't want the long explanation of " yea, we are going out to our structure of hewn logs, corner notched to form a single pen and chinked with mortar."

  Maybe 'Cabin' will have do, at least until someone shows a lot of interest in how it was built. Then I can really go into the difference.

 Cabin?

Not a Cabin?

Or is it To-may-to, To-mah-to?

B2R by the fire - Eric Sloane's 'Diary of an American Farm Boy'

Both of my blog followers already know I love anything by Eric Sloane.

At one point Eric Sloane came across the diary of an young farm boy named Noah Blake.
He had the diary reprinted and added his wonderful illustrations.

You could imagine a diary being pretty dry reading, but with the illustrations it is quite fun.

I have passed the book on to many young readers.

Below are some photos of a rebuilt Blake's cabin, which a group is trying to preserve, along with some of Eric Sloane's illustrations.

This blog didn't last long but it has some fun photos.

Miniature Log Cabins

A neat site on some cool Ohio homes. . .

Historic Architecture of Ohio

Mobile Homes? - Why move an old cabin and the use of Carpenters Marks.

  While reading an old house blog yesterday I came across an article on Carpenters Marks, like those pictured to the left.
  Most things you read about Carpenters Marks are a reference to how they were used in the construction of post and beam or timber frame construction. How these building were pieced together before they were ever assembled on site and marked so they could be reassembled on location.
  I have a different story on Carpenters Marks and how they were used.

 When taking down this cabin, which would become our main cabin, as I was removing the rafters I noticed Carpenter Marks on the top plates, the logs slightly cantilevered out for the rafters to sit on.

  This brought to mind a discussion I had had with the farmer who sold me the cabin.
  As I worked on the cabin one day he told me a story; he said, "In about 1960 two old ladies in their 80's stopped by to see the old place (this cabin). While talking they said they had grown up in that cabin. Then they said, 'Did you know, although we grew up in that cabin, it wasn't on the spot it is on now.' They pointed out across the field to the east and said, 'We grew up in it, but it was moved from over on the other side of the field.'"
  (This story is also how I started dating the cabin; If they were in their 80's in 1960 that would make the age of the cabin at least 1880.)

  This story brought to mind why Carpenters Marks were used in perhaps a different way on log cabins than they were used on timber frame construction; To mark rafters to be placed back where they came from after the cabin was moved at an earlier date.

  Building methods are different from timber frame and log cabins. Tools are the same; adz, axe, maybe chisel and saw. Skills required were the same; How to use the adz and axe to fell and hew logs.
  But construction was very different.
  Timber frame most times required a large group of people to construct and raise a building, usually barns.
  Hewn log cabins were often built by just a few people with maybe and oxen, mule or horse. Sometimes it would be just the family raising the building, hopefully with strong sons and/or a horse.
If you were very lucky, you maybe had some neighbors not to far away.

  In construction, as mentioned, timber frames would be fitted together like puzzles, numbered, taken apart and rebuilt on site.

  Hewn log buildings were constructed very near where the logs were harvested and each log moved into place one at a time with no pre-build some where else. Each log stacked one at a time, with the building growing as each new log was added. Each log individually cut, hewn, notched, then places with maybe even some adjustments once it was on the wall.
   And while you will find most hewn log cabins pretty level, they perhaps were not quite as perfect as a precontructed timber frame.
  What this would mean was that once the builders got to the rafters each one could be just a little off from it's neighbor in length.
  There was no need for Carpenters Marks as you constructed a hewn log cabin, only if you had to move it at some time.

  In many cases, because of additional land purchases, or a better location decide on, a hewn cabin may at one time have been moved.
  If you were not moving a great distance, it would be far easier to move your existing cabin than to start over and make a new one. They probably had no siding attached. Mine had no outside chimney, so no fireplace. Things weren't screwed or nailed together. Pegs could be easily cut and remade for window and door frames.
  And it would be much easier to move an original cabin than it would be to move one now that has been rebuilt.
  Logs were not attached to foundations or floors as modern codes require. Usually just built right on to of a stone foundation.
  There was no electrical wiring or plumbing running through the logs that had to be removed or worked around.
  The chinking was not cement or synthetic material attached to wire mesh.
  In the original builds the chinking was just mud and binding material (grass, horse hair) stuffed between the logs. So when removing an old building in, well, the old days, the chinking would just fall out as you lifted the logs. And once you rebuilt it on another site, it was easy to re-chink the logs with home grown materials again.

  However, because of the irregular nature of a hewn log cabin build and the not quite perfectly level nature of the material the rafters would have to go back in the same spot that they came from. That is why I found the Carpenters Marks on the top plates and the rafter logs. This way the rafters could be reused in the same spots and keep the roof line true.

  I found no carpenters marks on any other point of the construction. None in the logs themselves. They may have moved them one at a time so no number system was required or they may have had some form of tagging like we do now.

  So next time you hear about carpenters marks (you know, like when you are sitting around the bar or somethin') you can add another take on the conversation.

  Just like everything else in history, one story may not be the only story.

Barnwood Builders - what I love about this show!

  My wife said it best; "That show is porn for guys like you."

  What's not to love about it?
  A great group of guys, doing something they love (don't we all wish we had jobs like that?), in beautiful areas, saving our history and having fun doing it.

  But besides all that, the thing I love most about it is all the memories and shared experiences I have in common with the show.

  These last couple of days I have been re-watching a couple of my favorite episodes.

  Yesterday I re-watched the one that took place in my home state of Missouri.
  One of the cabins featured in the show had been one I had stopped by to see just before the episode originally aired, not knowing it was going to be on the show.
  Mark and I came away with just about the same feelings about the little cabin.

  I recognize the feeling of discovery Mark experiences the first time he sees a new barn or cabin. I to have lovingly passed my hands over logs knowing the skill it took to do the work.
Or the thrill of finding great logs under really bad siding, not knowing for sure what you will get until you have it all uncovered.

  Each time I watch an episode memories of working with the old logs come back; smells, the dust, old paint, making discoveries, finding coins or marbles (even found cat bones behind a wall once).

  Another one I recently watched had the boys having to use ropes to lower logs because the ground was too wet to get their big equipment in.
  Flash back for me; coming up with a way to lower eight hundred pound logs by myself with ropes.
While our methods differed a little, the applied principles were the same and we both got the job done.

  While I will never have all the expertise that Mark and his crew have, I am often pleased with some of the 'ah-ha' moments I have when watching Mark explain something I had discovered also.

  In some episodes I watch Sherman make a notch, and am pleased with how well mine have turned out.

  Most of those guys probably learned most of what they know from hands-on experience. My skills with cabins were learned very much the same way. When comparing what they do with what I have done I am pretty proud of having gained many of the same skills and much of the same knowledge.

  Like most TV shows I like, this one will eventually come to an end long before I want it to. But I am sure enjoying it while I can.

Time out at the cabin this weekend. Worked on the treehouse and spring cleaning.

Spring has sprung out at the cabin.
Although with snow on and off all weekend (flurries), someone did not get the memo.

Wildflowers and non-natives were coming up. As were the May Apples.
In this photo you can see the main cabin and the two latest projects.
While I did spring cleaning all of Sunday. . . .

. . .  all of Saturday I worked on getting bunks in the tree house.

While the top one is slightly shorter than the bottom one (window considerations) both are long enough for an adult.

Little cabin in the (downed) woods or 'as memory serves'

Our memories are funny things.
Things are smaller than we remember.
Things aren't always where we thought they were.
Many years ago, 30 plus, my log cabin mentor, John Frank, took me by a little log cabin in OFallon Mo.
  I am sure we had been out doing other things that day also; cutting firewood, visiting other antique shops, etc. And we stopped by a little log cabin near a much newer brick home. I don't know the reason we stopped by. Maybe they wanted his advice on something to do with it. Maybe they thought he would want to take it down and move it.
I just don't remember the purpose of our visit.

 On the way out to our cabin, we would pass where I seemed to remember this little cabin stood, just out of sight from the road.
  And for these last thirteen years or so I often drive by the spot in my work truck usually couple of times a week.
  But being in a work truck, I don't stop by. "I'll do it another day," had become my excuse.

  Well, driving by the site yesterday, I noticed a lot of brush and trees had been removed, land cleared and a 'for sale' sign on the lot.

  Well, I have missed a few chances at others times, to look at an old building, just to find them gone when I finally get there, so I thought I better make it happen.


  The top picture is how I found it yesterday. Hidden in the bulldozed trees. It sat just below the levee of a small pond.

  They had made sure all the trees were kept clear of the building (and the others on the site).

 This is the front door and porch.

  The door is missing, as is the window on this side.

  Not much left of the porch decking, but what was there was stable.

  Inside was a half loft, with an old wood ladder going up.

  The loft joist's were left round and still had bark on them, as did the rafters.

The loft floor was rough cut boards.

  This is the view as you walk in the front door.
  Not to much rubble really.

Fireplace to the right.
An old chest of drawers tipped over.

Not much else.

At one time it was wired for electric.

 The chinking is a little over done, especially on the inside.

But that happens quite often.

 I love the little shelves around the room. The supports were cut to shape to fit around the logs.

A nice little detail.

 This is the addition on the back, or west side.

  Sun was just in the wrong place to get a good shot of it.

  I don't know if it was used as a kitchen or just another room.

  There was an overturned couch in it when I stopped by.

 The gable ends are covered with rough cut boards.

  You can see right through the gaps, so it had never had insulation of any kind. At least at this location.












The roof is old channel and grove tin.

 The notches are 'V' notches, and the logs have been hewn.

  They are very small logs, so this could have been some type of utility building or even a slave or workers cabin at one time.

  This, the south side, had the most weather and possible damage.

  I doubt if the window is original.
The style and shape do not indicate that.

  Probably added later or during a move of the cabin at one time.

  If the logs did not prove to be in to bad a shape it would be a fun little building to reuse as a play house, shed or little weekend place.