Learning timber/log framing?

Hey there! I was wondering if anyone has any insight and knowledge of organizations or just people who are willing to educate individuals on how to build housing from timber logs in exchange for labor. I know many folks offer courses which can be very costly. I am pushing for an alternative where I can commit to a length of time (more than a month) to work and learn without expending too many financial resources.

I think I would be open to doing so, however, my fear is that I would invest so much money into a course of so little time to where I would not be able to retain as much information as I would need to begin on my own. If anyone has taken courses, perhaps they could share their experience with doing so here and just how valuable that was to them?

I like to make these decision as wisely as possible. Thank you!

Hello Cody...and welcome to Permies...

I am still, some 40 years later, leaning as much every year as I did on the first day I became aware of the many arts and crafts my family and Elders were willing to teach...so...this is a life journey more than anything else, and the more you learn the more you realize you know nothing at all....

I have been called "teacher," and have studied the "art of teaching," as much as the craft of what I make efforts to teach. Old apprenticeships took a minimum of 20 to 30 years before you could be consider a "Master Apprentice," depending on the culture and the craft. In Japan, many of these arts and crafts don't have folks much younger than 50 or 60 before they are considered good enough to work on their own.

I have, for quite some time, observed that many of these "apprenticeships" are a poor way to learn when fully done in just the old ways, as many of the masters of their craft are as "bad" at teaching as there "great" at their craft. (This is not true of all of them however.)

Now the question is whether you care to learn this as a profession or as a skill to build something for yourself. The later is much easier to focus in on and achieve than the first. This as a career will require a level of dedication comparable to anyone in college working on a Master or PhD, with a minimum of 3 years (~6500 hours) apprenticing and studying for each of the arts/crafts one wishes to become competent in.

Permies.com is a great place to meet many folks with all levels of skills, and the folks behind the scenes are trying hard themselves to develope outlines of a barometer of what "skill sets" individuals may need in means, methods and materials for a number of disiplines.

I have taken on apprentices in the past, and I may again in the future, yet have over the last decade formed some pretty strong views of what this must look like if one has zero experience (or very little.) It does not fit very many or their modern lifestyles, as it is not worth my time to spend with someone if they can't spend a minimum of 3 years (or equivalent there of) working and learning. Let me know where you are, and I may be able to recommend someone to learn the basics from or a Timberwright to work with.

Regards,

j

Tillers International does lots of timber framing work.

Here's their course catalog:
http://www.tillersinternational.org/tillers/Class%20Catalog.pdf

J,
I believe if the opportunity to do so would seem right to me then absoutely. I would commit myself for five years if it is possible. The ability to build from the land is so valuable and the more I know the more I can impart to my children when I have them..if I have them!

This is also a skill I believe I would use for my own use as well as teaching folks in the community as well as sharing ideas and knowledge with friends and family. Who knows though, it could turn into more than just learning for myself.

As said if the opportunity were to present itself I may just do it. I have a year before I can do anything though. Working and learning and loving as much as I can before I move onto the next chapter.

The rest is left to prayers and guidance from the Lord!

Blessings
Cody James Duke Crowder

As well thank you both for your replies! Both encouraging and helpful in this process. :^)

Hello Cody,

I am starting a timber frame project. It is an addition for my existing tiny house. I have no expertise in timber framing, but I will be working with a local "master". I have been overwhelmed by the scope of the addition, when added to the mix of raising kids and starting a little farm. Add in work and homeschooling and it sounds downright ridiculous.
Nonetheless, I am going for it any way.

My timber framing friend has already shared much knowledge with me, and has agreed to teach me and let me use his shop for chipping out the frame. I would love to have another hand to help out with this project. Learning by doing is the way I learn.

Anyhow, if your interested in learning and helping, I may have a situation for you.

More details of what I'm up to are at the Helpx website. Search for Matt in Acworth NH, Cold Pond Community Land Trust. Find it in the FIND HOST section.

There's info on accommodations and much more.

Good luck!

Hello Matthew, welcome to Permies.com...

Your farm is about an hour from me. I am really glad you have joined Permies and I hope you would start a Post thread about your timber frame project in our building section so others could learn as you do. Could you share the name of the Master Timberwright you are working with?

We all look forward to reading more about your timber frame project and other adventures.



Hello Cody, if this works out, it sounds like a great opportunity for you to get into a project right away....good luck.

The "Help Exchange" link you need to get to Matthew's project is at Mathew's Timber Frame Project at Cold Pond Community Land Trust.

There's a $795 2 day log home building course available via

http://www.buildloghomes.org/

They seem to have been going father and son for nearly 50 years and have quite a following. Their homes are unique in that they use whole green logs, stripped of bark stacked and pinned together with rebar hammered through holes drilled in the logs.

There are quite a few photos in the open section of their forum

http://community.loghomebuilders.org/forum.php

and an example house at

http://www.hollowtop.com/cls_html/Stone_Log_Home_Construction.htm

where the main house section uses their technique.



Dave

For people in the northeastern US, I've come across a few other schools with timber framing courses that might be worth considering:

Yestermorrow Design School in Vermont.

Adirondack Folk School in upstate New York.

The Heartwood School in Massachusetts.

All of these places charge tuition for classes, so don't meet the original brief of this thread. But I figure many of the readers will be people like me who just came here looking for a list of places they could go for training.