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Backcountry Architecture - - The Craft of Log Cabin Corner Joints
Backcountry Notes ^ | July 27, 2009 | Jay Henderson

Posted on 07/27/2009 4:55:59 AM PDT by jay1949

A look at the corner joinery of vintage log cabins in the Virginia Backcountry, for those interested in history and folkways. Then again, the way things are going in Washington, you may want to get out the broadaxe and polish up your hewing skills.

(Excerpt) Read more at backcountrynotes.com ...


TOPICS: History; Outdoors; Society
KEYWORDS: backcountry; joinery; logcabins; timbers
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1 posted on 07/27/2009 4:56:01 AM PDT by jay1949
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To: jay1949

I’m familiar with “joints”. And I can claim never having been thrown out of one...

Actually, this is an interesting link. Thanks!


2 posted on 07/27/2009 5:04:27 AM PDT by bcsco (When Obama mentioned shovel ready jobs, I never thought he might be thinking of graves.)
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To: jay1949

KEWL website for a whole bunch of reasons! Thanks for the article — bookmarked!

(DieHard shall peruse this site at length this evening...)


3 posted on 07/27/2009 5:04:29 AM PDT by DieHard the Hunter (Is mise an ceann-cinnidh. Cha ghéill mi do dhuine. Fàg am bealach.)
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To: bcsco

My working title was simply “Log Cabin Corner Joints,” but I decided that it might raise false expectations. And thanks for having a look.


4 posted on 07/27/2009 5:07:58 AM PDT by jay1949 (Work is the curse of the blogging class)
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To: jay1949

I love log homes! :)


5 posted on 07/27/2009 5:08:14 AM PDT by TSgt (I long for Norman Rockwell's America.)
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To: DieHard the Hunter

Thanks, and come back any time.


6 posted on 07/27/2009 5:08:46 AM PDT by jay1949 (Work is the curse of the blogging class)
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To: MikeWUSAF

If you’re ever in Southwest Virginia, the log structures at Crab Orchard Museum are well worth having a look.


7 posted on 07/27/2009 5:10:12 AM PDT by jay1949 (Work is the curse of the blogging class)
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To: jay1949

phwooar, this is my lifetime ambition, to build our own log home, gonna read this in depth later, thanks for posting.


8 posted on 07/27/2009 5:18:33 AM PDT by bethybabes69 (Reichstag Flu, coming to a Country near you!)
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To: jay1949

Thank you!! I am really intersted in this! Our son is building a log cabin from Tamarac on his own land...and when he was young he built one in the woods on our farm. I passed this on to him too.


9 posted on 07/27/2009 5:19:24 AM PDT by Sistyelder
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To: jay1949

Thanks!

My wife and I plan on building one of these in the near future: http://www.heritagelog.com/Pages/default.aspx


10 posted on 07/27/2009 5:20:08 AM PDT by TSgt (I long for Norman Rockwell's America.)
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To: jay1949

It’s usually the joint on the corner that’s most popular :)

I enjoyed it. It goes to show how industrious our early settlers were. Not only industrious but clever.

We had a house across the street change ownership this weekend. The new owners closed sometime Friday. They were there until the wee hours Saturday morning, then the whole family, parents, grandparents, aunts & uncles showed up to paint, clear shrubs (actually removed a tree) and do trimming both Saturday and Sunday. The owner didn’t leave until 2:30 am Sunday morning, then was back at 8.

I told the wife It’s rare these days to see families work together like that, rare but nice. It reminded me of how our early settlers worked together to raise buildings and homesteads. Your link was another reminder.


11 posted on 07/27/2009 5:21:11 AM PDT by bcsco (When Obama mentioned shovel ready jobs, I never thought he might be thinking of graves.)
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To: bethybabes69

There are a number of videos posted on YouTube which give demos of modern log-cabin building. There a certain advantages we have that the settlers didn’t, the chainsaw being a major one.


12 posted on 07/27/2009 5:23:03 AM PDT by jay1949 (Work is the curse of the blogging class)
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To: appleseed

Ping.


13 posted on 07/27/2009 5:28:46 AM PDT by DuncanWaring (The Lord uses the good ones; the bad ones use the Lord.)
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To: bethybabes69

this is my lifetime ambition, to build our own log home

I hope you put a lot of research into building a Log Home.
With energy cost spiking upward every year, I find cooling and heating with log homes’ can be more expensive than a conventional home.


14 posted on 07/27/2009 5:37:48 AM PDT by buck61
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To: buck61
Really? We were looking at some 'kits' from [I'm pretty sure was] a Scandinavian supplier (I'll try and find a link from my old emails), who were claiming they were more thermally efficient (insulating) than brick cavity wall builds we have here in the UK.

Your opinion is appreciated on this, do you have a log home??

I'm intrigued.
15 posted on 07/27/2009 5:44:23 AM PDT by bethybabes69 (Reichstag Flu, coming to a Country near you!)
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To: jay1949

Looks like a really great site. I’ll be checking it out this evening (when not at work).

I’m a regular reader of Backwoodshome.com - but I’m always looking for good, practical, useful info to squirrel away in my head for when we’re ready to leave the big city and head for the middle of nowhere.


16 posted on 07/27/2009 5:48:43 AM PDT by chrisser (Jim Thompson is the the finest, bravest, most honorable American I have ever known...)
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To: bethybabes69

I am sitting on the back porch of my log home, watching deer come out of the woods to eat the deer corn we put out.
It is so peaceful.
I will never have a different style of home. Once you have a log home, there is no going back.


17 posted on 07/27/2009 5:50:16 AM PDT by ImaGraftedBranch (...And we, poor fools, demand truth's noon, who scarce can bear its crescent moon.)
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To: ImaGraftedBranch
Ahhh, now you just made a very jealous enemy! ha ha ;)

Seriously though, it's my dream home, the organics of log homes when we've viewed them is captivating, it's something I've been wanting to commit to do, for over a decade now.

Your location sounds absolutely stunning too, thanks for the beautiful mental image.
18 posted on 07/27/2009 5:58:27 AM PDT by bethybabes69 (Reichstag Flu, coming to a Country near you!)
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To: jay1949
I love log houses and I always wanted to own one. I only once got to see the log house my ancestors built when they moved to Texas in the early 1800’s. My uncle sold the property soon afterward and since I was only 11 when I was taken there, I could never find it again. It was the traditional southern “dog trot” design. I wish I owned it now.
19 posted on 07/27/2009 6:11:02 AM PDT by Ditter
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To: jay1949
I'm having a great time exploring your site: it's a gem!

There's this Canadian company called Lee Valley that you might want to check out and perhaps link to.

Aside from selling the world's finest woodworking tools available anywhere, they sell all of the necessary tools (and I believe plans) for building log cabins, and doing "back-woods stuff".

Their catalogs are each a work of art: these are the sorts of tools that they would never allow "Tim the Tool-man Taylor" to own. I could (and do) spend a long, long time browsing their catalogs. You can even get the Popular Mechanics Shop Notes from way, way back (reprints) from Lee Valley.

It's an awesome site: http://www.leevalley.com

20 posted on 07/27/2009 6:46:21 AM PDT by DieHard the Hunter (Is mise an ceann-cinnidh. Cha ghéill mi do dhuine. Fàg am bealach.)
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