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.
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