Craftsmanship
“Sing clear-voiced Muse, of Hephaestus famed for skill. With bright-eyed Athena he taught me glorious crafts throughout the world - men who before used to dwell in caves in the mountains like wild beasts. But now that they have learned craftsmanship through Hephaestus famous for his art they live a peaceful life in own houses the whole year round.”
~ Homer, The Iliad
Made by Hand
Over the past several years we have seen a decline in the UK to artisan companies and hand made products, possibly this is due to cost however, here at Calder Oak we have seen a shift in more recent years to people wanting quality and character over mass produced work. Our customers are people who want a genuine hand made bespoke build or piece of artwork. We are not opposed to the advance of modern ways of construction and where we feel it is an advantage to our customers to employ modern construction methods then we do, however we feel that to get the best result and best product, then the traditional method of timber framing is the best way and we believe we can achieve this without compromising on your budget.
Artisanship
artisan / ˈɑːtɪzan / noun
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a worker in a skilled trade, especially one that involves making things by hand.
"street markets where local artisans display handwoven textiles, painted ceramics, and leather goods"
We use the same basic principles in the manufacturing process that mankind has used for hundreds of years to produce splendid Gothic cathedrals and churches. Our Oak king post trusses are constructed and held together in the same way and will stand the test of time, the most common joint we use is the mortise and tenon joint and the joint will be squeezed together and held fast using Oak pegs which actually tighten the joint up as the timber ages in some cases our modern day engineers also require stainless steel fixings. We always use stainless steel in oak as iron will tarnish quickly and leaves a blue black stain in the Oak especially should the timber gets wet. Now I’m told that’s how the monks used to produce Ink for the manuscripts the wrote and also documents like the Magna Carta, was writing using ink this same way mixing oak saw dust with iron fillings.
Why Green Oak?
First and foremost it’s a joy working with green Oak to produce a traditional timber frame. There is a wonderful sweet smell that fills the air as the saw glides through the oak, in fact we have a deal with a local cheese maker, he takes our saw dust and chippings for smoking cheese and we get free cheese and it's very delicious. Also green oak is soft and is easily cut using a sharp steel blade, producing a perfect edge.
When we refer to the oak as green, this simply means its freshly cut and sawn into timber, this means the moisture content is high and the timber will dry out once it's been installed, the oak will not shrink along its length but, more on the width section and as it shrinks it will crack and split. This adds a wonderful character to the already stunning timber frame and does not affect the overall strength of the timber frame, in fact it gets harder and stronger as the years go by. Working on aged Oak is tough going for tools and best to be avoided by a traditional timber framer carpenter.