Cob: Re: Cob--fasteners, bought or natural?

[Amanda Peck]

Might have worked.   The man working with me is also an experienced 
rustic/traditional furniture maker, had also described to me how to mix 
green and seasoned wood together in a chair so that it needs no additional 
fasteners.  I'm not sure it would work with the mix of logs we actually 
used--different species, a few cut earlier than the rest.  He remains 
concerned about shrinkage and chinking, so we--probably me, by that 
time--are planning to do the chinking in late summer.  Since the logs are 
vertical, the problem is not the building settling.  I might do some testing 
if I ever plan to do this again.

Query--would it also work for green poles in a roof?

...........
In response to my half-quip/half-serious comment about fasteners, Arne 
replied--and he may have replied just to me, not the group, which from the 
"hi all" was intended--so here's the whole message.

I was describing a tiny building of vertical logs we're building to a
 > friend, saying "the logs were free, but we may be using $650 dollars 
worth
of fasteners."

Hi All,

          Fasteners are expensive if purchased.

          Why not make your own?

           I have made rustic and traditional furniture for years and found
that a tenon cutter allowed me to make these short dowels from almost any
piece of wood. Note that this requires a power drill.

           I like the 1" size which gives me a tenon of 1"dia x 3" length.

          Drill a corresponding hole in the pieces which are to be joined.

          You can add glue if needed.  However, if you make the tenons from
seasoned wood and put them into wood which has a higher moisture content,
the shrinking of the wood with the hole will make a very tight glueless
bond.

          Traditional post-and-beam construction often relied on this 
natural
method of union.

          A person with a wood lathe can make longer tenons/dowels.

          There are also non-electric antique tenon cutters which are quite
as serviceable today as in the past.

          I have a number of these and they work well.

          And then there is always the option of using a jack-knife ; draw
shave ; or other simple cutter to make your own tenons.

           These may not be as uniform as the tooled tenons, but they also
have worked for thousands of years. A piece of flat heavy steel with the
appropriate sized hole will finish off these rough dowels.

          Place tenon over hole and drive through with a mallet.

           Voila; home-made fastenings.

                        arne

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