Timber Framers Guild Recommendations?

Traditional framing and building practices, using wood, stone, straw, clay.
durbien
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Timber Framers Guild Recommendations?

Sun Dec 07, 2014 7:35 am

So today I was poring over my newest Japanese Carpentry textbook purchase (and since I do not read Japanese, we're talking about looking at the drawings and doing much chin-beard-scratching). It occurred to me that perhaps there might be other sources of general timber framing information in my native language! My local library has several titles that look promising, however I also remember seeing Chris write about the Timber Framers Guild.

Am I correct in assuming many members here are also members of the Guild? Are any of you in Southern California? There don't seem to be many events on the West Coast, other than up in the PNW.

In any case, would anyone familiar with the Guild have any specific comments/recommendations as to:

Membership benefit for a beginning, student-level woodworker?
Books/Periodicals to purchase? To avoid?
DVDs/Instructional materials to purchase? There are two DVDs on their website that deal with Japanese subjects: a teahouse build, and plane construction/setup. Has anyone seen these?

(Don't know if a "review" request is appropriate for this board - if not, please forgive my presumptuousness)
michael langford
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Re: Timber Framers Guild Recommendations?

Thu Apr 02, 2015 11:34 pm

At the risk of offending anyone who honestly believes in the Guild:

By the end of 2003, it had become painfully clear to me that there was no reason to continue paying dues to the Guild. I would never be anointed by the luminaries, that much was certain. In the beginning, the Guild had offered access to like-minded individuals, people that I enjoyed working alongside. Those people, ironically, weren’t running the Guild, or the businesses. In fact, more and more, the businesses were running the Guild, and the craftsman-like people I so enjoyed working with were drifting away as well.
What the Guild could never offer: stable long-term employment, competitive wages, collective bargaining; in short, any relief from the predatory labor-relations practices of the businesses which were rapidly becoming its major stockholders.
Freelancing is risky at best; I’ve done it all my life with measured and often dubious success. Putting yourself, your tools, essentially life and livelihood on the road to work for less money than a reasonably intelligent person can make staying home is just shy of lunacy. Or, maybe it’s just for those with a trust fund big enough to cover the shortfall. Over time, I discovered that while the Guild itself might well be a truly noble enterprise, human nature could be venal and self serving if given the chance, and the people I had ended up working for were merely human, at best…

"The tools that would teach men their own use would be beyond price." Socrates
durbien
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Re: Timber Framers Guild Recommendations?

Sat Apr 04, 2015 2:04 am

Thanks for the candid response. I am far from being able to have my "skills" exploited, however - I am only a beginner woodworker and even less so a carpenter. When I look at timberframing, I know it will be something I will pursue as a hobby or as something for my own property and not for a profession.

All that being said, it's hard for me to understand how someone is supposed to learn this craft. There are certainly books about, and websites such as Chris'. But without hands-on experience in big timber, how would you gain enough experience to even think about "freelancing"?

Then there are workshops, mostly around a week long. I'm having a hard time believing one could learn more than what would make one dangerous in a week. And how much would that small experience help you find a job on a real crew doing real work?

I thought the guild might be a good resource of basic info and systematic training; if it is not, would you mind enlightening me about where you would go for such knowledge? It seems like the only way to learn would be to take any job regardless of pay just for the experience - is that how most here learned?
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Chris Hall
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Re: Timber Framers Guild Recommendations?

Sat Apr 04, 2015 10:37 am

Sympathetic to Michael's take.

I was a supporter of the Guild for a few years but found myself treated poorly by one of the director's at one point and stopped being a member. I wrote articles for the TF Journal and presented at two conferences, and act as moderator still for the 'Asian Timberframing' section of their forums. Most of the conference lectures were, by the way not of much interest to me - and those conferences were expensive to attend.

I think one of the issues with a Guild like this is that it becomes more about preserving the past than becoming a valid 'living' way of building. Traditional craftsmanship is not about adherence to past practices alone. I think the Guild's business relationships with the SIP industry was a turn off for me personally - if that is the main direction 'forward' for timber framing then it is rather sad to me.

It looks like the guild is in some danger of falling apart, if recent postings on their forum are indicative. Failed to attract new younger members for the most part, become less relevant to building practice today.
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Steve
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Re: Timber Framers Guild Recommendations?

Sat Apr 04, 2015 12:03 pm

Durbien,

If you just intend to timber frame on your own property as a hobby maybe a week long class would be enough to get started. Or, take that money, buy some wood and hire a young timber framer to lead the project as you help.

Best would be a small project like a woodshed or cabin, keep it simple. The main thing is to build something and get some hands on experience.
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Chris Pyle
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Re: Timber Framers Guild Recommendations?

Sat Apr 04, 2015 6:29 pm

Hey Durbien,

If you have the time available this fall, I'll be attending a 10 day class where we'll be building a wallipini style greenhouse and workshop. The person instructing the course is Jay C. White Cloud. It'd be nice if we could get him to post here as he has a lot of experience with natural building modalities. This will take place in Richmond, UT on Aug. 10th.

As an FYI, I've never TF'd anything
michael langford
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Re: Timber Framers Guild Recommendations?

Sun Apr 05, 2015 8:05 pm

Essentially, timber framing is a path, not a destination, and Why you choose to pursue it is as important as How you choose to do it. There's a lot of really good information in the Guild's published material. If there were one go-to book for timber framing, I would be handing out copies. Maybe Walden...
Workshops are a lot like high school; it isn't so much what you learn, as the social connections you are likely to make. If you want experience cutting joinery, using tools, build a set of trestles. You will find them useful, anyway.
There are several approaches to layout, find one that works for you. I know square rule and plumb-line scribe. Basically, all layout systems use geometry to compensate for the reality that timber is neither square nor straight. Second-growth trees twist, bow, shrink, and check to a sometimes alarming degree. Learning to imagine the tree that produced the timber can be helpful.

Design is another issue. Either you work from someone else's drawings, copy an existing piece of work, or you develop your own design. Symmetry, proportion, and a rational sequence of assembly. Building a scale model is always a good idea, as is mocking up joinery at some manageable scale. Read everything, don't believe everything you read.
AntoineLaMothe
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Re: Timber Framers Guild Recommendations?

Sun Apr 05, 2015 8:13 pm

That's a great post, Micheal.

Being on the beginning of that road myself, I'd say that I keep one word in my mind all the time: doubt. Read and try everything but keep doubting every joint and design until you really know why you're using it. In my case I'm getting a bit paranoid, but it's helping me learn fast and well.

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