The Oak Process

Here at The Traditional Carpenters we pride ourselves on being “hands on”. We design, build and erect all our timber frames. We can design for you or work using plans from your selected architect or designer. We want to make the process of having a frame crafted by us simple and enjoyable.

We predominately use mortice and tenon joints and scarf joints to lengthen timbers, the ability to craft a ‘fag paper tight’ joint still excites us!  We ‘plumb scribe’ the shoulders of our timbers giving us an accurate fit which is unique to each timber intersection.

We grade the timber and reject any that are not suitable. Because we are “hands on” it allow us to make the connection between the timbers we are using and how to orientate and position them in the frame, this enables us to use them depending on their character.  We do use power tools (purely for efficiency) but most of our work is finished using hand tools and marking out is always by hand, this allows us to keep the quality of our work to a high standard.

All our frames are bespoke, most of them are pre built in our yard following the approval of construction drawings and structural engineering. All of our frames are engineered by engineers that understand oak framing.

Once timbers are cut, joints fitted, cross frames scribed, walls and trusses assembled, all the timbers are marked with ‘carpenters’ marks’,  these are modified roman numerals which are either chiselled or scratched into the individual timbers marking there unique position within the structure.  This process of ‘carpenters marks’ has been used for centuries.

We are a small team of carpenters who are flexible, high motivated and we can scale our team according to size of job.

We buy our timber from mills that see the importance of maintaining timber from stainable sources. One of our regular mills source their logs from well managed British forests, this reduces their/our footprint and ensures that the woodlands that the timber comes from is maintained for future generations. Their raw materials come from legal, well-managed and, wherever possible, independently certified forests in Britain.

We are active members of the Carpenters fellowship.