German Loft Timber Framing Suite

This fall Measure Twice is excited to co-host a three-session German Loft-Style Timber Framing course in the northern Upper Valley of Vermont. The lofting technique dramatically simplifies complex joinery by utilizing full-scale layout and a story pole. Any of the three sessions can be taken as a separate module, though the course is a coherent suite which builds upon the experience of the previous. Each weekend session begins on a Friday night with meals & camping provided. Class runs through Sunday at noon.

Saw Horses: An introduction to Lofting (October 11th, 12th, 13th)

Through the exercise of building a pair of sawhorses the course introduces students to basic layout principles of German timber framing techniques. Beginning Friday evening, there will be an introduction to terminology, the project and the process. Saturday and Sunday will be spent working independently on layout, transferring marks, cutting timbers. Hand tools will be in use for the majority of the cutting. $150.00 (includes meals, camping, wood for 1 saw horse (not pair) and all requisite layout materials).

The Stuhl Truss: Mortise & Tenon and the Half Lap. (October 25th, 26th, 27th)

Taking the methods learned in the first session, participants will deepen their understanding by applying the Lofting technique to the under squinted braces of this unique truss formation.

Through the construction of the plate system of a hip roof the students have ample opportunity to practice the different ways to go about laying out and cutting the most prevalent joints in timber framing and some of their variations.

Inspired by an article in Timber Framing #108, this frame has been outfitted with a stylized simple version of a liegender Stuhl. This is not a common choice for a hip roof, but this way the frame provides plenty of learning opportunities: Layout by measurement, Layout by simple scribing and lots of extra birdsmouths for the hips and common rafters.

Combination of hand and power tool use for cutting. There will be an evening session on Friday introducing terminology, the project and the process. $150.00 (includes meals and camping).

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The Hip Roof: Demystifying the Notorious (November 8th, 9th, 10th)

For the layout of common rafters and hip rafters we return to the layout method used for the sawhorses. Students will create a 1:1 scale drawing of three different roof profiles. There will be an evening session on Friday introducing terminology, the project and the process. The test of planning, draftsmanship, layout and execution will be set up on the second weekʼs plate system. $150.00 (includes meals and camping).

Session Format:

Friday

5:30 – 6:30 pm - Students arrive and settle themselves.

6:30 pm - Welcome dinner.

7:30 pm - Discussion of session syllabus.

Saturday

7:00 – 7:45 am – Coffee & Breakfast (provided).

8:00 am – Introduction and demonstration of techniques.

Break

10:15 am – Continued.

12:00 – 12:30 pm – Lunch (provided).

12:45 pm – Independent practice of methods.

Break

3:00 pm – Continued.

5:30 pm – Work concludes.

6:30 pm – Cook Out (provided).

7:30 pm – Slideshow, lecture, continued practice.

Sunday

8:00 – 8:45 am – Breakfast (provided).

9:00 – Complete project as need be

11:30 – Break Camp

12:00 – Lunch, adios.

Instructors:

Gerald David is a German-American woodworker, who received his initial training as a

Zimmermann in Germany. His apprenticeship with the Barthel Korr GmbH in Aachen

started in 2000 and went through 2002. He graduated at the top of his class.  During

this time Gerald participated in the the restoration of the Aachen cathedral and other

historic structures. He continued his formative years on the traditional three year journey known as

ʻWanderschaftʼ. These years of travel in his trade brought him to many different job sites

throughout Germany, Europe and the United States.

In the Spring of 2006 he moved to Plymouth Massachusetts where he joined forces with

preservation specialist Michael Burrey. Together they have completed many restoration

and preservation projects on historic buildings, private residences, churches and barns. To name a few: Winslow House in Marshfield MA, Harlow House in Plymouth MA, Atwood House in Chatham MA, Second Congregational Meeting House in Nantucket MA. From time to time Gerald builds new timber frames as well. Starting in October 2011 Gerald has been working for the Wooden House Company in Wells River VT, building log homes and log additions as well as performing restoration work.

Gerald joined the Timber Framers Guild in 2007 and has since attended many

conferences and TTRAG symposiums as well as presented at some of them. He has

participated in many Guild projects throughout the US. He was part of the leadership

team for the TFG at Gwozdziec Synague Replication project in Sanok Poland, and the barn project for the Old Stone House Museum in Brownington VT.

Jacob Mushlin grew up the Upper Valley of Vermont and spent his childhood dinking around in the woods building things with friends. He studied architecture and art a multiple institutions and has been teaching since his teens as a camp counselor.

Now living in Burlington, Jacob has been a carpenter and woodworker for ten years and teaching for 15.  From wood-and-canvas canoes, historic restoration, to project management he’s been a Timber Framers Guild member for three years and sits on Preservation Burlington’s education committee.

In 2012 he founded Measure Twice, a school of wood crafts based out of ReSource’s Waste Not Products woodshop at 339 Pine Street with the aim of establishing a competence in wood butchery, cultivating reverence in the build world, and empowering individuals through skill building and crafts.

Location:

All sessions will take place at the Wooden House Company in Wells River, VT. Camping is provided for free and while there are minimal amenities on site (restroom), there are showers available just down the road at a truck stop. For those who would prefer there is a hotel minutes away. Wells River will be gorgeous in autumn, but it will also brisk, so we encourage campers to plan accordingly.

Food:

In order to maximize time for instruction and practice meals will be provided for the weekend. Breakfast (continental) and lunch (sandwiches from town) will be simple and efficient. Saturday night we will grill and provide side dishes. If you have any eating patterns we should be aware of please contact Jacob 

(802-578-2286).

Tools:

Students should come with their own set of hand tools including but not limited to the list below.

Tape, chisels, saws, knife, chalk line, combination square, framing square, hand plane, pencils.  If you have a circular saw you’d like to bring, feel free.

Registration:

In order to best prepare for each session and coordinate meals we ask that you register for sessions two-weeks prior to the start date. We will be as inclusive and flexible as possible, but quality is born from good planning.

To register call or send an e-mail to the information below. Any questions can be fielded there as well.

MeasureTwiceSchool@gmail.com

(802) – 578 – 2286

Hand Hewing Postponed

Bad New Bears: Hand Hewing will not be happening this month.  

We'll keep you posted, and keep your eyes open for September's offerings: Hand Drawn Plans: Thinking with Lines; Intro to SketchUp: Easy as it Potent, and a SketchUp Full Day: Like a Pro.

Introduction to Sharpening

 This Tuesday Measure Twice offered it's second Autumn Semester.  Participants brought over-worked kitchen knives and some chisels that might have been at the bottom of the Atlantic for a over a century. Using nothing more than an eighty-nine-cent piece of 800 grit sand paper, a smooth plate of glass, and care,  they brought the life back to the only hand tool most everyone uses every day.  

It's been said there are two scenarios in which any tool - chisel, paint brush, stapler - is dangerous.  The first is when a tool is used in a way other than it's intended use (the worst hammer accidents are often juggled).  

The second is when a tool is dull.  Likely everyone you know has accidentally cut themselves while using a knife.  The worst stories involve applying more force than they should to pass the blade through their work, only to have the force let-loose suddenly and track a path unintended and horrifying.

"Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe."

Intro to Wood Shop Tools

90% of live is just showing up.  Assuming you can get that far, the remaining 10% is what defines your life.  Are you mostly happy with where you've ended up, or has the Agency of You brought into being what you want? Are you satisfied with your order, or did you make your dinner?

Last Tuesday handful of engaged citizens - and one Canadian - walked into a wood shop a 70/30 mixture of interest and intimidation and left with functional knowledge of 13 hand and power tools.  

From the quite mind-space of fractions on a tape measure to the domineering and deafening 5,000 revolutions per minute of a chop-saw, the group safely tried their hand at tool usage under the countenance of a more experienced wood worker.

The transfere of knowledge seeks to protect those untried from error and harm.  Those who receive training have the benefit of a better view of the world, as it is said, on the shoulders of giants.

Matriculation Station

It's sweater season.  Flip-flops are buried under muck boots.  Decorative gourds have again infested your dinner table.  And along with a renaissance of cider and earth-tones come three months of scheduled classes from your friends at Measure Twice.

We've hit the harvest-field running.  Starting in October we're offering two donation-based classes, both   onTuesday evenings: an Introduction to the Wood Shop, and an Explanation of Sharpening.  And back by popular demand, we'll be hosting another Hand Hewing Workshop, paid, full day.  

The long-form course descriptions can be found below.  

An Introduction To Wood Shop Tools

The wood shop is a place of dexterity, care, rumination and production. Most of the tools found there in have existed largely unchanged for two-hundred years, some a millennium. They can be loud, intimidating and flat out unwelcoming. MT is providing you the opportunity to gain familiarity with an unexplored environment.

For all ages, genders and experience levels we're offering a free Introduction to Wood shop Tools. One by one, we will cover the most often used hand and power tools found in any garden-variety wood shop. We will present each tool with its' nomenclature, save use, and history. Participants will be encouraged to use each tool after professions demonstrate appropriate practices.

Safety equipment, tools, and measured guidance will be provided. A five to ten dollar donation would be appreciated, but is by no means required. Running from 6:35 – 8:00pm, Tuesday, October 9^th at 339 Pine Street, BVT, in the wood shop of Waste Not Products. Call 802-578-2286 for answers.   

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An Explanation of Knife & Chisel Sharpening

You should know it's happened to me too. You don't have to be ashamed. I've been there before: your friends are gathered in the kitchen. Music playing. Pot luck-giddiness in the air. You take out one of the good knives. You feel the soft, heirloom flesh under your fingers. Metal connects with the skin of the fruit and it's like a Twizzler on a water balloon. You're making crushed tomatoes, not caprese.

Take some pride in your equipment. Take some time with your equipment. We'll bring the stones. You bring your knives, chisels, and anything else you want to take a stab at sharpening. We have to warn you: it's not easy and it takes time. You may take a step backwards in the process. We also need to warn you that it's addictive, meditative, and deeply satisfying. 

It's also happening from 6:30pm – 8:00pm on Tuesday, October 16^th at 339 Pine Street in Burlington, VT. As always, in the production facility of Waste Not Products. A ten to twenty dollar donation is requested but not required, as sharpening does degrade stones. Call 802-578-2286 should you have the need.  

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Hand Hewing Workshop

This summer, in the ungodly high heat of July, six sweaty fools turned three logs into posts & beams. They used axes, a level, a chalkline, and hard-headed determination. Some of the axes had been around longer than the State of Montana. Everyone left with a keen appreciation of the past and a more-robust upper body.

Just as before we'll start in the shop with some seasoned oration on history, care and importance. We'll move on to sharping as no thinking person uses a dull tool. Finally, before lunch, we'll move out to the hewing field and have at it.

Same place, new time: running from 9:00am – 4:00pm on October 20^th down in the old Waste Not Products wood shop at 339 Pine Street in Burlington, VT. Fifty-Five dollars gets you in the door and includes all equipment and complementary blisters. As always, call 802-578-2286 with questions or concerns.  

Roof Raised.

Every once in a while, you can't fake it on your own. Sometimes in life you have to call in the professionals.  It's not easy to admit, but what they bring to the table can't be synthetically manufactured.  

The grounds crew of the Winooski Valley Parks District, which calls the Ethan Allen Homestead their home, came out to hit a final home run on the timber frame.  Tim, James and Ben - who all helped hoist the rafters - were kind enough to carve out a part of their fall season to install the galvanized roof. 

I special thanks goes to Ben who, as the tallest member of the group, spend the entire afternoon holding on to the bottom rung of a home-spun version of ladder-staging to keep me as safe as I could be. 

YouthBuilt it All

After the grounds crew of the WVPD hoisted the rafter in place we needed to install the strapping as soon as possible.  Yet again, Burlington's own YouthBuild ReSource delivered big time.  They brought ladders, hammers, and a positive attitude.

We separated into two crews: one taking measurements and fastening strapping, the other moving materials and working the cut station.  

In just a few hours 80% of the strapping was up.  Yet again, YouthBuild's willingness to help, professionalism, and availability have played an irreplaceable roll in the timber frame project.