Finishing Cabin Corners With An Axe | Half Dovetail Notch Technique

[joshiecole]

Pegs, I shall take that as a challenge to try out the compound dovetail!

 

[rjdankert]

Great post! Thank you.

We built that way in Washington State, too. This blockhouse uses the compound dovetail that Old Axeman mentioned.
. . .

What a neat building. Bet it was fun to participate in building it.

Bob

 

[rjdankert]

Pegs, I shall take that as a challenge to try out the compound dovetail!

Article on making a compound or full-dovetail notch here:
http://www.logbuilding.org/Dovetails.JQsm.pdf

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Just for general information this is from the above link illustrating the half and full (compound) dovetail notches:

 

[Square_peg]

What a neat building. Bet it was fun to participate in building it.

Bob

I'm sure it was but sadly I wasn't part of that building crew. It's a historic building at Fort Simcoe on the Yakama Nation Reservation. Built in the 1850's. Very dry area. It's one of several well preserved structures on the site. Here's another. I bet they're some of the best preserved examples of this type of construction.

 

[halfaxe]

There are several old homesteads around the upper Midwest still standing with this construction. This is from the Finnish Hanka homestead near Baraga, Michigan.

[/URL][/IMG]

 

[joshiecole]

I'm sure it was but sadly I wasn't part of that building crew. It's a historic building at Fort Simcoe on the Yakama Nation Reservation. Built in the 1850's. Very dry area. It's one of several well preserved structures on the site. Here's another. I bet they're some of the best preserved examples of this type of construction.

These are particularly beautifully hewn logs.

 

[Square_peg]

These are particularly beautifully hewn logs.

I wondered if they might be pitsawn.

 

[Old Axeman]

Only a very few historic log buildings had exterior wall logs that were pit sawn. Out of somewhere around 500 historic log buildings I was involved with only one, a very small Jail, had pit sawn exterior wall logs. The rest were all hewn. The broad axe was THE tool for hewing logs. Adze hewn wall logs in historic buildings are also rare. Many so called experts, who I might add have very little hands on with historic log buildings, make the adze out to be the hewing tool for wall logs. I found only two that I can remember, both in New England near wooden shipbuilding areas where the adze was a major hewing tool.

 

[abbydaddy]

Only a very few historic log buildings had exterior wall logs that were pit sawn. Out of somewhere around 500 historic log buildings I was involved with only one, a very small Jail, had pit sawn exterior wall logs. The rest were all hewn. The broad axe was THE tool for hewing logs. Adze hewn wall logs in historic buildings are also rare. Many so called experts, who I might add have very little hands on with historic log buildings, make the adze out to be the hewing tool for wall logs. I found only two that I can remember, both in New England near wooden shipbuilding areas where the adze was a major hewing tool.

Would that still apply out West? I feel like the old images of northwest loggers seem to show a lot of pit sawing. I mostly wonder in this case because the logs seem pretty smooth in the photo, though I am in no way trying to act like I have any real knowledge on this topic.

Edit: I'm referring to the Fort Simcoe pictures

 

[Square_peg]

I'll have a closer look at the originals of those photos when I get back home. Maybe I'll see hewing marks or saw marks.

 

[Steve Tall]

Here's a detailed drawing of the Fort Simcoe blockhouse, which mentions that "these logs are hand-adzed square and true throughout, with joints so fitted that, generally, they will not admit the insertion of a knife blade."

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/95/Fort_Simcoe%2C_Commandant%27s_House_and_Blockhouse%2C_Fort_Simcoe_Road%2C_White_Swan%2C_Yakima_County%2C_WA_HABS_WASH%2C39-WHIT.V%2C1-_%28sheet_13_of_13%29.png/1024px-Fort_Simcoe%2C_Commandant%27s_House_and_Blockhouse%2C_Fort_Simcoe_Road%2C_White_Swan%2C_Yakima_County%2C_WA_HABS_WASH%2C39-WHIT.V%2C1-_%28sheet_13_of_13%29.png

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fort_Simcoe,_Commandant%27s_House_and_Blockhouse,_Fort_Simcoe_Road,_White_Swan,_Yakima_County,_WA_HABS_WASH,39-WHIT.V,1-_%28sheet_9_of_13%29.png

The drawing was a WPA project during the 1930s, as part of a Historic American Buildings Survey.

 

[Square_peg]

I'll have a closer look at the originals of those photos when I get back home. Maybe I'll see hewing marks or saw marks.

After having another look at my original photos it's clear that these log are hewn not pitsawn. Many logs appear to have been worked with an adze. Some look like they were done with a broad axe. In general the quality of the work appears to improve in the upper levels.

Maybe Old Axeman can tell us what's actually going on here. If anyone knows for sure it would be him.

 

[Square_peg]

Here's a detailed drawing of the Fort Simcoe blockhouse, which mentions that "these logs are hand-adzed square and true throughout, with joints so fitted that, generally, they will not admit the insertion of a knife blade."

The drawing was a WPA project during the 1930s, as part of a Historic American Buildings Survey.

Thanks, Steve. I have photos of the interior as well. If the original poster doesn't mind my stepping on his thread I'll share those later.

 

[Old Axeman]

From the close up photos my best guess is that there have been logs replaced in this wonderfull historic log building. You can clearly see that some logs have a different patina, I think these are the replaced logs and look adzed. The original logs were broadaxe hewn. They need to get the base (sill) logs on this nice building 6" above grade or it wont be too many years before they will again need to replace logs. It is too bad they could not find an axeman who knew how to run a broadaxe to hew the replacement logs so they all matched. If you ever have occasion to replace logs in a historic building, match the original tool marks and be sure to date stamp your replacements logs (on the interior where it does not show so much). Some where down the road this will help the next restoration crew figure out what was original fabric and what was replaced and when.

Abbydaddy- What I said applies in the west. Photographers alway shoot pictures of anything out of the ordinary. Pit sawing fits the bill. Before saw mills, pit sawing was used to make boards. It was more labor intensive than broadaxe hewing. Most log buildings were owner built and one good axeman could hew the logs by himself.

 

[Square_peg]

From the close up photos my best guess is that there have been logs replaced in this wonderfull historic log building. You can clearly see that some logs have a different patina, I think these are the replaced logs and look adzed. The original logs were broadaxe hewn. They need to get the base (sill) logs on this nice building 6" above grade or it wont be too many years before they will again need to replace logs. It is too bad they could not find an axeman who knew how to run a broadaxe to hew the replacement logs so they all matched. If you ever have occasion to replace logs in a historic building, match the original tool marks and be sure to date stamp your replacements logs (on the interior where it does not show so much). Some where down the road this will help the next restoration crew figure out what was original fabric and what was replaced and when.

Thanks, Bernie. Now it's obvious that several logs have been replaced. If you look a the ends of the dovetails some of them have a vertical line down the center. That is made from cutting the end with a 7-1/4" skilsaw. They cut half way through from one side then flipped it over to finish the cut from the other side. I hadn't realized how out of place those marks were at first. I'm so used to seeing them in modern building construction. But they absolutely wouldn't be there in a historic log that was cut off with a hand saw.

 

[joshiecole]

Sorry to bring this thread up again, but I just came across some interesting information regarding the half dovetail notch. In my reading I came across 'The American Backwoods Frontier'.

According to Matti Kaups and Terry Jordan the half dovetail notch played an extremely important part in the colonization of America. Apparently the dovetail notch is an example of the traditional woodsman's and carpenter's that Swedish and Finnish settlers passed onto the more numerous English and Border Scots who pushed on through Pennsylvania to the Appalachians and eventually the West Coast. The half dovetail was not part of the native architectural vocabulary of the British or the significant number of German/Dutch colonists but was quickly adopted and put to good use. Interestingly, the English and the Germans continued to use their customary axe styles (the British their felling and broad axe and the Germans their goosewing) to effect their new-found new techniques.

The ability to build solid cabins enabled pioneers to build sturdy base camps from which to penetrate further into yet untamed lands.

Just thought some of you might find this interesting.