As we prepare to fabricate the privacy enclosure behind the carriage barn, the constituent parts are starting to fall into place. One of the most important is the material that we’re using for the pickets. Yet another tree-to-timber project, all of the cedar slats/boards that will comprise the fence pickets grew less than 150’ from where they’ll be installed.
An overgrown hedge that was most likely planted around the turn of the century, the leggy hedge stock had been neglected for decades and had begun to topple over. After several trees uprooted themselves, we begin to realize that the root balls did not offer the necessary, structural support, and we made it a decision to harvest the trees and mill them on site.
The rough cut lumber has cured in the carriage barn for over a decade and a half. At last it’ll be put to good use. Once again, serving as a privacy screen, this tree-to-timber cedar will live on as a handsome picket fence.
In recent months Tony has patiently transformed the rough material into smoothly planed lumber. Now he’s edging and dimensioning the planks.
In order to straighten the first edge (without a jointer) he is trimming one side of each board on the table saw, and then using the straight edge to trim off the other side. This is a laborious and time consuming project, but Tony is a human milling machine! He’s become a wizard with the DeWalt planer and table saw, handily transforming rough stock into handsome finish lumber.
I’m grateful to Tony for contributing so diligently to another heirloom Rosslyn project, augmenting this property’s historic heritage with a practical yet gracious design element created out of materials with an on site legacy half as old as the home itself. It’s a remarkable homegrown, homemade story!
In the short video below Tony is demonstrating his prowess as a human milling machine, assiduously advancing our tree-to-timber vision. Thank you, Tony. And thank you Glen for documenting this process.
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