Making Log Dogs, on My Blog.

While hewing the beams, I quickly found that the log likes to roll around quite a bit while being trimmed. This makes obtaining a square, straight edge very difficult, if not impossible. The answer, of course, is a log dog. A log dog holds the log in whatever orientation you set it in, and is effectively a big staple like clamp for the log. I needed some, so I made some with scrap I had lying around.



Started with two railroad spike and a 16" length of old plumbing steel.

Sharpened the spikes to a point, this was a mistake.

Before and after, the point is so slimming!

All welded up and almost ready to go.

I didn't like the relative angles on two of the spikes, so I heated one red hot with my torch and bent it till it was parallel with the other. Much better.


After making two of these log dogs, and trying them out, I realized that I should have made chisel point on them instead of sharpened square points. The pros make chisel points offset at 90 degrees to one another. I suppose I'll regrind them when I'm ready to start chopping again!

 

Some hewing progress

I found myself with some rare truly free time, so I went ahead and gave hand hewing a try. Blisters and a sore back brought only one half hewn side for a vertical support beam, but I learned a lot even in that short time. This gave me a heightened level of amazement at our ancestors and their level of skill at this. The existing hand hewn beams in the barn are BEAUTIFUL, dead straight, and massive. I am sure that I couldn't get anywhere close to that level of perfection without YEARS of practice, so I will keep my efforts small and slow. 

Time lapse Removal of Horse Stall Wall

This is how I spent part of my Sunday. Thanks, wifey, for watching the baby whilst I "played" in the barn.

The old horse stall wall had to go. It would have been mostly demolished while taking out the back wall for rebuilding, so I decided to bite the bullet and tear the whole thing down preemptively.

I also started gearing up to hew my first beam, a replacement beam for the front wall of the barn that had long ago rotted out and fallen out of its pocket. I foresee a lot of blisters in my future .

Some pressure washing progress

I was able to pressure wash some more of the beams today; progress is slow and extremely messy. I think the payoff will be worth the pain, though. Plus, no one wants a chunk of 100 year old paint in their martini.

This is why I am bringing the beams back down to bare wood,
look at those beautiful hewing marks!

From downed tree to future beams

We've started collecting the wood to make new vertical supports and horizontal joists for the barn. A rather large Elm tree fell in Little Buffalo Creek across the road, a victim of wind, weight, and ant damage.

Large elm in creek after major storm.

With a little help from a great neighbor, the tree was cut and brought to a better site up the hill for processing. We weeded out all the sections that weren't fairly straight, and started trimming down the rest.

I'm not sure exactly what is going to be used where just yet, but there are at least three good beams out of this pile, essentially free (minus new chains for the saw, gas, time, etc.).

Some more history and clearer pictures.

A little more info and clearer pictures.

This barn was built out of field stone and (mostly) hand-hewn timbers around 1900, as far as we can tell. It was a dairy barn, horse barn, and working hay barn for much of its life. It was eventually purchased by a general contracting and cabinetry company in the late 1990s, and came into our hands in the early 2000s. The cleanout process after so many years of hard use was intense, and continues even now.

Far left of current project, where the L shaped bar will eventually be. I have started pressure washing the beams to remove the old paint here.

 

Middle section with a good shot of the collapsed wall. Temporary supports are in place to hold the weight of the barn should the wall continue collapsing.

Far right of current project. The cinderblock stalls visible will most likely be completely removed and remade, for storage.

Some history and my goal.

In the winter of 2013, a lower wall of my barn in Marilla, NY (Western New York) started collapsing after having held strong for more than 100 years. This set off a flurry of ideas and restoration work, aimed at saving and utilizing this historic piece of local history. This Blog will be a partial journal of the work done to and around the barn.

Goal: 5 years from now, have drinks and play pool in the BARn, after pulling my motorcycle in through the large barn door.

First small collapse of the top of the wall. I tacked some spare 2x4s together and cut them to size as a very temporary support for the ceiling.

The collapse continued a week later, knocking out the wimpy temporary supports.

The outside of the barn in April 2013.

Weird panorama of the base barn.