Illustration of carpentry (charpente) in the French Encyclopédie showing hewing, mortising, pit sawing on trestles. Tools include dividers, axes, chisel and mallet, beam cart, pit saw, trestles, and bisaigue . The men talking may be holding a story pole and rule (or walking cane). Shear legs are hoisting a timber. Below, the sticks on the log are winding sticks used to align the ends of a timber.

Tools used in traditional timber framing date back thousands of years. Similar tools are used in many cultures, but the shapes vary and some are pulled rather than pushed.

Gallery[edit]

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  A folding type of race knife
  

  
  

  
  


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  Race knife capable of making circles.(ritsmes en ritspasser met uitgeklapt). Image:Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands
  

  
  

  
  


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  Hand boring machine (Carpentry and Joinery magazine, 1925)
  

  
  

  
  


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  A type of mortising chisel called in German a Stossaxt (Stoßaxt) or stichaxt. No wooden handle is inserted in the head, the metal head itself is the tools grip.
  

  
  

  
  


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  A chain mortiser.
  

  
  

  
  


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  Draw-bore pins (hook pins) are the metal pins sticking out of the plank above the plank being added to the USS Constitution during restoration.
  

  
  

  
  


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  A hook pin or draw-bore pin
  

  
  

  
  

Preparing timbers[edit]

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  Conversion of logs into timbers was often done by someone other than the timber framer including a lumberjack, sawyer, farmer, or laborer using a variety of tools including:
  
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    Whipsaw types of rip saws used in the conversion of logs into timbers in a saw pit
    
  
  
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    felling, carpenter's, and broad axes are used in hewing.
  
  
  • Sawmill
  
  
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    Wood splitting, also called riving uses wedges, splitting mauls, and/or froes.
  
  


• Historically most timbers were used green but some went through a process of wood drying using some tools and equipment.

Marking and measuring tools[edit]

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  A Japanese ink line called a Sumitsubo. Miki City Hardware Museum, Japan. 10s3200
  

  
  

  
  


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  Winding sticks are used to measure twist (winding) by viewing across one stick and comparing how parallel the other stick is.
  

  
  

  
  

Tools for marking out and measuring:

• A rule, now better known as a ruler and similar to a yard stick, is used to measure.


• Repeated measurements often use a storey pole
  


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  Carpenter's marks were made with a race knife, chisel, gouge, saw, grease pencil, chalk pencil, or lead pencil.


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  Chalk line or ink line used to snap lines on the wood. Ink and a slurry of charcoal were used like chalk.


• Carpenter pencil


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  Scratch awl or similar tools were used to scratch lines on wood before the pencil was commonly used beginning in the 19th century in the U.S.


• Try square


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  Steel square is also known as a framing square. Historically a square with measurement markings on it was known as a "square rule" which is also a layout method.


• Combination square


• A Plumb-bob on a string is sometimes used with a plumb-rule or plumb-square to measure vertical or horizontal and to transfer marks between timbers while scribing.


• Spirit level


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  Dividers Used in measuring and proportioning
  


• Layout floor - a large, flat surface to mark lines and scribe timbers.

Hand powered cutting tools[edit]

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  Saw
  
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    Crosscut saws to cut timbers to length and in making joints.
  
  
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    Japanese saws are special saws used in woodworking including timber framing
  
  


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  Axes were sometimes used to cut timbers to length and in joinery.


• Hatchet


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  Adzes are of many shapes and names.


• Framing Chisels are heavy duty. In Western carpentry common sizes are 1 1/2 and 2 inches wide. They are designed to be struck with a mallet
  


• A slick is a very large chisel designed to be pushed by hand, not struck.


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  drills for boring holes in timber framing were typically T-auger. The cutting edge of the bit can be of many shapes, the spiral auger being the standard shape since the 19th century.


• Timber framers boring machines were invented by 1830 and hold an auger bit. They made mortising easier and faster.


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  Draw knives are used to chamfer edges of beams and shape pegs (treenails)


• Sometimes, particularly in wooden bridge building the pegs were shaped by being driven through a hole in a heavy piece metal.


• Historically timbers meant to be seen in houses were smoothed with a hand plane (Japanese plane including what is called a spear plane, yariganna or yari-kanna) and decorated with a chamfer or bead.


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  Twybil The name literally "two blades", historically rare in the U.S.


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  Bisaigue A French tool with similarities to a long handled twybill

Powered cutting tools[edit]

• Circular saw


• Drill


• Band saw


• Router (woodworking)


• Power planers
  
  • One or two sided stationary rotary, thickness planers in a shop and up to a four-sided planer (timber sizer) at a mill.
  
  
  • Hand held rotary power planers up to twelve inches wide.
  
  


• Chain mortiser


• A few modern framers use computer numerical control (CNC) machines to cut joinery.


• Chain saw

Splitting tools[edit]

A Froe is struck with a mallet to split blocks of wood into rough sizes for making pegs.
Large and long timbers are split (riven) with wedges

Holding tools[edit]

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  Shaving horse may be used in making pegs


• Draw-bore pins temporarily hold a frame together during construction.


• Iron dogs or log dogs are used to hold timers during hewing, scribing or historically to repair or reinforce a joint


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  Sawhorses, short sawhorses are called ponies.

Material handling tools and equipment[edit]

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  Gin pole or shear legs may be used in lifting wall sections or timbers.


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  Pike pole used to push wall sections up during a barn raising
  


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  Rope is used to lift or pull objects, sometimes in combination with a windlass, bullwheel, or block and tackle.


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  Cranes are sometimes used to lift assemblies and materials.


• Commander or beetel is a large, long handled mallet for forcing timbers together or apart.


• Rollers, carts, or other lifting equipment are used to move the heavy timbers

Tool maintenance[edit]

Tools require sharpening and replacing handles.

• file (tool)


• sharpening stone


• Grindstone (tool)


• hiring a blacksmith
  


• mechanics tools for general repairs such as repairing power cords, changing bits, etc.

Access[edit]

• Ladder


• Scaffolding


• Aerial work platform

Safety[edit]

• Fall protection


• Hard hat


• Safety glasses


• Hearing protection


• First aid kit

External links[edit]

• The Takenaka Carpentry Tools Museum, Kobe, Japan


• The Debate of the Carpenter’s Tools, Edited by George Shuffelton. Originally Published in Codex Ashmole 61: A Compilation of Popular Middle English Verse