The Timber Framers Guild is dedicated to promoting the centuries-old craft of timber framing.
Timber frames offer a feeling of strength, durability, and spaciousness.
Timber framing has been practiced for centuries everywhere in the northern hemisphere. In North America, we still build most of our houses and many of our larger buildings of wood, but there are different ways of making the frame or skeleton of the structure. Whereas typical light frame construction today involves many slender sticks of wood simply cut to length and nailed together, a typical timber frame structure requires a much smaller number of stout posts and beams, shaped at their connections to lock together. Light frame construction, even when carefully done, is considered rough carpentry, and in dwellings it is always concealed by finished walls and ceilings. Modern timber frame work, on the other hand, is generally exposed, and timbers can be as finely prepared as the skill and care of the craftsman allow.