A Cherry Cruck Frame part 3: Milling and picking timbers

Vicco and Mattie hade been busy getting ready for this project before I arrived: Long ad straight cherry trees were located in the neighborhood, felled, hauled and stacked next to the mill. Mattie then proceeded to convert all these into future building parts.

Cherry logs waiting to be milled

Cherry logs waiting to be milled

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One inch boards. To be planed and laminated at the rafter radius.

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Removing the dirt from years of storage.

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A sizable collection of timbers: Plates, tie beams & cruck blades

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These two bookmatched pieces of cherry describe an almost perfect circle segment and will make a beautiful cruck bent.

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Many timbers to choose from.

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Gunstock material?

 

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How do you assess what this timber can do?

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How it will fit into the frame?

 

Now the following piece is one to follow through this project:

 

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Is it a branch off of a trucnk or a branch off of a bigger branch? Hard to tell.

 

Both Vicco and I immediately wanted to find a place for it in the frame. All timbers are three dimensional, but this one takes that up a notch.

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It is partially milled in two directions and has dried for a few years.

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Very likely a corner post.

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And it will need some trimming to get it in wind.

How will this post tie in with the rest of the frame? We’ll see!



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