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[hayton1960]

Please allow me to introduce myself
Jonathan aka hayton1960 (year I was born)
Joiner handyman
tool repairer saw sharpener
I intend to build a frame house, possibly in France (unlike in the UK, excellent land available with stands of good trees at sensible prices :) plus I like their cider calvados & chese, and you get very good old tools at their sales especially unusual old axes. I studied the colombage frames there as we used to have a stone house out there. The quality of work varies a lot, but there are still some top carpenters in france
I saw Jack sobons books some years ago, but never took it seriously. I thought it was beyond me. But I think now is the time to plan for it. I am initially intending to build a small 16x12 shed as described in timber frame construction (as are quite a few of you lads on here so it seems!), only, being english, with tying joints. I like the hand tools, am still on the lookout for some chisels.
From what I've seen of this forum, its excellent. Jolly decent show Jim

[Jim_Rogers]

Welcome Haydon1960.

There are lots of timber framers in the UK, and France. I know a few in each country.
Also, Woodmizer has sold sawmills in each country and you may be able to find a portable mill to come to your site to mill your timbers for you from your own trees.

Are you currently in France or UK? You could modify your profile to show your location and assign a flag for your country, if you wish to.

Glad you help you any way I can.

Jim Rogers

[hayton1960]

Hi Jim, thanks for your warm welcome!
At present am located in north east uk, but as a family we feel we want to get across to France soon. Our last visit more or less coincided with my wife receiving news she had breast cancer for which she is still being treated. That was when we sold the stone property in Normandy-was too much to cope with at that point in time. Its something we both are excited about, the prospect of creating our own home. We are looking at the Sarthe/Mayenne region. Warm but not baking climate, interesting landscapes, very friendly people, slower pace of living; the French arent only conoseurs of food, they like their timber as well! I got fed up of being green with envy seeing all the little saw mills and yard stacks of oak, beech, ELM-you just dont see that in the uk any more smiley_beatnik. They still coppice and pollard their hedgrows. A yard close by here couldnt be bothered to saw and stack ash/beech/oak etc-they just sent them to the pulp mill because they made more profit from fencing and decking, treated posts etc. His father had all the hardwoods in 2 and 3 inch boards air drying though....
Interesting you mention the woodmiser I been studying that on the web. On the right site in France that could be a winner.
This timber frame lark has got into my blood somehow! This site has definately given me that confidence push that it is possible and feasible to build my own house to outlast me and even my kids.
smiley_swinging_board
Cheers Jonathan

[beenthere]

Welcome to the forum,
Don't know about the region in France you are headed, but not too many years ago there was considerable interest in metal detectors for the French sawmills. Seems many trees near Belgium and northeastern France were heavy with shrapnel from the WWII, and had about 50 years growth over that internal shrapnel. The metal was hard to spot and real hard on the saws. On line metal detectors were being used to scan a sawn face, such that it could be turned away from if metal might be just below the surface.
I have no idea if that is a concern with the timber you are thinking of sawing, but may be of some interest.

[JoeyLowe]

Welcome to the former, Sir.  Lots of great information here and tons of experience.  Good luck!

[Jim Haslip]

Welcome to the Forestry Forum.

It will be good to receive your perspective on the issues raised here as I am quite aware that there will be differences between the methods used in North America and Europe. Perhaps we could all learn from your presence here.

[hayton1960]

Hi Jim H
In all honesty I can safely say that the little I do know about framing could easily be forgotten. I dont know that anyone could learn much from me. However I am genuinely interested in the craft. It is nice to live in country/s where there are still quite a lot of timber frames in existence, mostly oak of course. My training as a joiner has been in the traditional sense, working off rods/fullscale drawings, much as the French framers do  ;) .
(What an admission-I cannot do calculations for rafters &c in imperial-only in metric minimetres as I call them!! I started in feet and inches at school, but changed to metric halfway through).

Hi Beenthere
Good point about the shrapnel issue. I'd leave it to the judgment of the sawyer wether to cut or not; His blades, he's likely to know the local wood better than me...  ;D
I noticed while studying woodmiser mills on the web, someone cut some logs in a London park after the "great storm" of 1987. He messed his blade on some engine bearings from a meschersmitt aircraft that blew up during the war. A lad I know was ripping some oak (from a big old tree) and ended up ripping a civil war musket ball exactly in half.