"Chinkless" Log Building is when we fully scribe the logs to fit very tightly not only at the knotches, but the entire length of the logs between notches as well! There is no need to fill any "gaps" as there will be none. This look and joinery is most appealing as once a log builder finishes fitting a log into place, that is all he will need to do for log work and sealing out weather. "Chinked" Log Building is when we do not attempt to fully fit each log along the length of the log between corners to the exact contour of the log below. "Gaps" between logs result, therefore, and we seal these gaps along the length of the logs - inside and outside - with materials to seal them and to each other from the weather.
The traditional craft of building with logs is not difficult to learn at all. The practice of laying out various cutting operations and seeing how and why it all comes together the way it does is very important in cutting down the amount of time it would take for you to figure it out, and eliminate the mistakes made learning by trial and error.
It will save you a lot of time to see first hand how you need to handle the logs; cut notches, store them, organize them and move them into place. Not just "familiarization" with the tools and how they are used and maintained - but guided by a master log builder in actually doing all this where it can be demonstrated and one on one until you understand. Revealing how to calculate the amount of settling that will occur in the next few years after the house is done and you are living in it and where to anticipate the downward movement of the logs as well as how to use several methods to ensure this natural process is not going to cause you any problems later - which means saving you a lot of money. In our workshops, you are shown how to utilize various foundation applications, log floor beam design and engineering for floors and lofts as well as log roof support systems - wheher you choose post and purlin, truss and purlin or conventionally framed roofs. How to safely install doors and windows so manufacturers warranties will not be voided!
While this sounds like a lot, or too complicated - it is not at all, and, any milled log package or "kit log home" builder would still have to know how to do all these things too!
The whole purpose of the school of log building is to instill the confidence and requisite skills needed to build your own log home. I worked alone for my first 4 years of handcrafting log homes from scratch, only hiring help to peel logs and get them cut and delivered, then shipping to the final assembly site!
I will show you a step by step procedure for getting your logs up on the wall and fitted into place. There are about 15 steps to this and it is generally grasped very quickly. In a class, I will be hammering on emphasis for each student to good detailed notes - outlining the steps and trouble shooting of each step. I could prepare a printed article for you - but this is "school" and part of retaining information is greatly increased by diseminating and processing it. You must actively engage the hands-on experience and copy drawings and sketches I make, notes on detailed descriptions of how and why each step is important - in your own words too.
You will be advised to view what we will be doing throughout the workshop as preparation for you to be able to go home and "teach" this to others, your self. Because you will.be conveying what you are doing and why to helpers, employees, code inspectors, your loan officer and banker,
sub-contractors and others. When anyone learns from the perspective of then becoming a teacher, the need to be able to "grasp" methods and techniques and articulate them is magnified. I have caught some flack for not having a formal printed course syllabus prepared for the students. But not many times!
The investment to attend and learn is yours and that is why you are there. I have a rule that I stuck with when raising my step-children. I homeschooled them my self as well as taught them carpentry, plumbing, sheetrocking and roofing and yes, the craft of log building. They knew they were being prepared for the rest of their lives with the greatest gift I could be giving them in the time I would have with them. The rule was and still is, "I will help you with anything you are doing - but I don't "do-for". In other words, if you are actively invloved in reaching for a goal, I want to do everything I can to help you reach that goal, but I will not do it for you."
Today, even my daughters will do remodeling on their own homes while their husbands have little or no expirence to help them. All of them are not afraid to "do-for" themselves! This is no differant for workshop students.
The confidence you will have with the preparation I will provide will take that hesitation away from planning and following through with ideas and dreams of having something substantially built and of great value. And any other skills you will need to complete the project will be decisively compensated for through additional education or OJT or through bartering your gifts and talents for those of someone you need services of.
