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TIL old barns in Vermont have mortise and tenon joints that still hold after 150 years
I was up in Stowe last week helping a guy restore a 1870s barn and the joints were so tight I couldn't slide a knife in them. No nails, just wood holding wood together. Has anyone else worked on old timber frames and seen that kind of craftsmanship?
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oliviabutler1d ago
Yep, I've been in a few of those old frames. That whole "green wood" thing is real but it's not just about shrinking. The builders back then knew the oak or hemlock had to be cut and shaped while still wet so it would shrink onto the peg or lock into the mortise. I've had to replace a rotted sill plate on an 1880s barn in upstate New York and those tenons were so tight I had to cut them out with a chainsaw. If you ever have to repair one, don't try to force it back together with metal brackets. Just cut a new tenon from green lumber and let it season in place. It'll lock up tighter than anything you can buy at the hardware store.
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Did they use green wood when they built it back then? I heard the timber would shrink as it dried and basically grip itself tighter over time. Up here in Maine I've seen old hay barns where the posts have twisted a bit but the tenons are still locked in like a vice. My buddy swears by that method for fence posts even now.
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