By L.S. Irish
Old barn boards, in our area of the country are a well sought out material today. Their wonderful variety of texture and color create interesting carving features to your barn.
The earliest boards were pit sawn. A deep pit was dug so that one man could stand in the pit with the log laid horizontally over the pit opening. Another man stood on top of the log. Together they were able to cut the log into board sections. The pit sawn board has fairly straight horizontal cut lines across it’s surface. See the board example on the left.
The mill saw, often powered by a steam engine, made sawn boards much easier to produce. The circular saw blade of a milled log leaves arched lines across the face of your board. See center board example.
The third sample on the right again shows the board and batten wall. Here the boards have been reversed so that you can add even more interest to your work with mirrored saw lines. Through out the wall of your barn be sure to add a few knot holes and even well rotten areas and splits in the edges of the boards.
Mud bricks have been a reliable building material over the years. It was a readily available building material and was hand packed into wooden forms. The bricks could then be fired in kilns to harden.
With bricks, either hand packed as the upper example or manufactured as the lower example, patterns can be added to the wall.
The builders of brick barns would omit some bricks from the rows as the barn was raised. This allowed openings in the wall for ventilation. And, of course, intrigue designs were often created with the holes that where left.
Page four is all about Field Stone and Flag Stone.
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Introduction
Roofing Ideas
Boards and Bricks
Field Stone and Flag Stone
Barn Example Drawings
Carving Sample One – Rough Out
Carving Sample Two – Detail Work
Carving Sample Three – Finishing Details