Traditional Timber Framing:People And Profiles:Peter McCurdy (Timberbee)

From the Quicksilver Metaweb.

Peter McCurdy & Co. Though one of their most prominent jobs was the Replication of Shakespeare's Globe theater in York, England, it is just one of a long line of Awe-Inspiring projects.

interconnectedness. A number of years ago Peter and Co. was hired to do an extensive survey, of Harmondsworth Barn in England -- A Tithing barn, very long. That data was then used by Richard Lawson (Dovetail Woodworking at the time) to produce a replica of it in Conn. USA, a replica that was approxiamately half as long, or less. At the end of the project, Paul Martin was called in, as a consultant to help finish out the Hipped roof on one end of the structure. paul and Richard were later to form a team, along with Tom Haris, Richard's son, Jack Sobon (as an Architectural Consultant), adn at least one other who currently slips my mind. This team competed for, and won, the bid to rebuild the Timber Framed Roof of the Cabildo in New Orleans after a fire had devastated the original. Fredric Brillant was recruited to provide the absolutely essential expertise in Traditional French Scribe, the layout system which was used to construct the Historic Roof System.

The world of Traditional timber framing is a relatively small one. The point of this example is more than merely name dropping. Peter and Fredric represent two poles. Both practice methods of scribe rule, as opposed to all of the others mentioned above, who -- at that time -- practice Square Rule, which is an Americam system dating back to about 1805, or so. Unlike scribe rule, square rule allows every piece of a frame to be layn out and cut, independently of the others. It is centered around the idea of a theoretical timber existing within the Real, and, may or may not -- depending on the manner of conversion, and the local differences -- have any actual contact with, or relation to, the Actual timber.

The concept of Real vs. Theoretical timber will also play a large role in the discussion on Hewing.