Despite having worked at Fine Woodworking, I’m not much of a furniture builder. I appreciate well-made furniture, but building it is fussy work. I much prefer the rougher satisfactions of carpentry, where one can transform a patch of blue sky into the skeleton of a roof over the course of a day. As a carpenter, I’ve only stick-framed, joining wood together with nails and rarely working with lumber larger than a 2×12. I’ve always felt I’d been born a few hundred years too late, and that I should have been a carpenter when timber framing was how it was done (Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know that’s a romantic notion and that I’d miss hot showers, antibiotics, civil rights, and modern dentistry…).
Timber framing requires skills beyond what a stick-framer like me has, and I think it would feed my soul in a way that other work does not. But I’ve never quite been able to finagle my way into a timber framing job, and unlike furniture building, timber framing is hardly convenient as a hobby. But Chris Quetico may have created the perfect compromise. Check out his hand-tool-only timber-frame table video. When I showed it to my co-worker Aaron, his comment was, “Damn. Every adjective going through my mind right now feels like an understatement.”
Fine Homebuilding Recommended Products
Fine Homebuilding receives a commission for items purchased through links on this site, including Amazon Associates and other affiliate advertising programs.
8067 All-Weather Flashing Tape
Handy Heat Gun
Reliable Crimp Connectors
Finished table made entirely with hand tools.
View Comments
Brill'...very impressed. Just goes to show, we cabinet makers become over obsessive with our joints and finishing.
Can we see some detailed shots of the very final fix of top to frame...looks like something intriguing occured there..?
I came expecting to see a video. Where's the link?
where is the video??
Nice post..