TIL about an old barn with hand-cut mortise and tenon joints

I was up in Lancaster County last weekend visiting family and saw this old barn from the 1800s. Every joint was cut by hand with a chisel, no nails anywhere. Has anyone else come across old timber framing like that and just stopped to look at how clean the cuts were?

2 comments

2 Comments

derek93915d ago

Did your buddy happen to save that beam? My friend Mark runs a sawmill down in Virginia and he found a beam like that in an old tobacco barn. He said the mortise and tenon was so tight he had to use a sledgehammer to get it apart, and even then the joint barely cracked. He kept the piece and hung it in his shop just because of that little mark the carpenter left. It's wild to think someone spent all that time cutting one single joint by hand, not even knowing if anyone would ever see it.

craig.parker15d ago

My buddy Tom restores old houses up in New Hampshire and he called me over last fall to see a barn they were taking down. He pointed out a beam where the tenon was still tight as a drum after 150 years, no glue or metal. The old guy who cut it left a little mark, like a cross, carved into the side. Tom said that was probably the carpenter's signature. It really made me think about how much skill that took, just a chisel and a steady hand.

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