Cabin project.

I'm very seriously considering building a small cabin in my woods. Mostly as a project to play around with primitive woodworking and have a place to camp without messing with a tent.

Not sure if I'm going to do it on my property with ten acres or the family farm with one hundred acres. Probably mine just because it's easy to just go out and work on something.

Now what I wanted to ask all the nice historians here is something that always bothered me. Why is every cabin depicted as being a log cabin?

That seems extremely unlikely given that there are way better methods that were around at the time. It's a huge waste of wood first off. Not a big problem if you are literally in a woods I suppose but still not very efficient. It also looks like it takes a lot of effort to lift all those logs. I certainly would not want to do it alone and if I was going to make a permanent building it would not be my first choice.

If I do this I'm going to do it with mortise and tenon framing. Which was around at the time and takes very few tools. The beams can be hewed with an axe. The planks for the roof and walls can be made by riving logs.

Mostly I just want to play around with an axe and my tools in the woods. I'll be using historical woodworking methods but I'm not 100% on if it would be something you would find a fur trapper or homesteader making.

I

It's a huge waste of wood

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Yes it is!....But 200 years ago trees where everywhere.....big trees. The ability to saw logs into lumber was limited on the frontier....In towns where the had sawyers and carpenters you see better homes. log homes where easier to build.

Don't know what it's like where you live But I would consider Things like stone, cob, wattle and daub, or a combination of such materials....even clapboards.... Supplementing with stone can reduce the logs used....
If you are really ambitious you could build a one man sawing frame and hand saw your own lumber.
Logs can also be split several times.

Take a look around your area and see what structures where built in that area.

Now if you're not too picky and want something with the look and feel of a log cabin without the all the hassle.....look into cordwood construction...and it's something one man can build...

ADOBE is a wonderful building technique, IF you live in a fairly dry area OR it can work if you build a building with wider than usual eaves & GOOD drainage away from the building all around the structure. = Soil is everywhere & while "labor intensive", building with adobe is "low skill required", easy to learn to do, efficient to heat/cool & CHEAP to build.
Close cousins to adobe are COB (which Colorado Clyde mentioned) & RAMMED EARTH.

yours, satx

Another reason that log homes where built was, nails.....You don't Nails need nails to build a log cabin....Nails were made one at a time by a blacksmiths apprentice, and weren't cheap.....
Cob, adobe, stone, wattle and daub all have the advantage of fire resistance....

Another advantage of log construction is that one gets quite a bit of wall from a single log. Also, the logs don't need to be huge to build a cabin, and many of the abandoned back-country cabins I've seen were fairly small (12X12 +/- a few feet). Small spaces are easier to heat with wood.

Wattle and daub uses really small logs.. :haha:

In the book "The wind and the caribou" (supposedly based on a true story) Two men spent a winter trapping in the Canadian north...They stayed in an 8x8 cabin....They did all their skinning and processing of furs in the same 8x8 space.. :shocked2: They said; "hair was everywhere"

Random thoughts on your neat idea to build a cabin: Historical construction varies with when and where. Very early construction mirrored contemporary English and Dutch methods. I have watched a primitive cabin being built and the logs were not lifted per se but were slid up a ramp made of two logs leaning against the partially finished wall. A log cabin can be made with an axe & crosscut saw - timber frame (mortice joints) takes more tools, more skill & more help to lift & fit. That said, I do like the idea of a timber frame. Size depended on intended use, time & labor available. Several accounts describe temporary winter over quarters as three sides of logs & a canvas front. In some areas, a minimum size (16x16 comes to mind) was required as part of the process of clearing and "improving" land to be able to make a claim. Siding split from about 4' logs was one system when nails were available. Look at as many types as you can & keep us posted. I look forward to "cabin envy".

I've seen some old photos of combination Log and Sod homes in eastern Kansas Territory due to limited amount of timber. Alot of it is cotton wood which grows all over and the sod was several inches thick.

A lot of those sod houses were half dugout, you found an embankment and dug into it. The back wall was all earth and you could form a fireplace. The roof was flat and the walls came out on the sides- half dug out, half blocks of sod.
Your bio looks like you are in Ohio. If I was in Ohio I would think about what is pc for that area. You could do a sapling bark "long house"- that would be pretty neat. If you wanted a more permanent structure the early French fur trappers did the "piece on piece" type construction that used smaller logs that would be easier to handle than a full length log. Maybe do a half dug out and half "piece on piece" type structure.

You may also want to consider straw-bale construction & "facing the bales" with stucco, adobe or a Portland cement/earth mixture.

Straw bale structures go together quickly, are inexpensive to build, inexpensive to heat & cool, are resistant to fire & are long-lived, if carefully built.

yours, satx

The building that houses Jas Townsend's colonial kitchen is a straw bale house.

[youtube]lkpBqbxUGAo[/youtube]

INTERESTING. = Fwiw, there is a >3500SF, "Spanish Colonial" style, 2.5 story home made of bales & "faced" with a earth/cement stucco on a large farm in Smith County, TX that LOOKS as if it has been a part of the Texas landscape for CENTURIES.
(I'm told that the Mexican-handmade red clay tiles for the roof cost more than the rest of the house's exterior structure did.)

The exterior/interior walls/poured Terrazzo floor of the home was mostly built with a crew of "unskilled & semi-skilled day laborers" & the "lady of the house" acted as her own "general contractor".
(The home was completed in about 8 months from the time that the foundation was poured.)

The electrical, heating/air conditioning, plumbing, interior woodwork & the kitchen was "subcontracted" to professional tradesmen.

yours, satx

If it were me...going onto the back 40 to build a hunting/trapping cabin to play in on the weekends.....I'd seriously consider cordwood construction using cob or earthen cement as mortar.....Much of the structure can be built from dead or downed trees that are unsuitable for a log structure....you can also use dunnage species and save nice valuable timber.

It might not be 100% period correct but it makes more sense in the 21st century.

Some food for thought here.

http://www.ontarioarchitecture.com/Log.htm

And here:

http://www.northwestjournal.ca/PostCon.htm

Absolutely envy your project, and hope you will post a build along.

About 40 years ago I built a cabin in the woods by tearing down an old barn.....great way to get some nice (otherwise expensive) lumber. Including large post frame logs...It was a great cabin...

GOOD PLAN.

My 12x22 foot "rustic camp in the woods", an Adirondack, was built out of the remainder of a old "falling down" corn-crib, some "left-over" tin roofing from a barn construction project, some "woods cut poles", locally gathered rocks for the fireplace & VERY little cash.
(It's stood with little maintenance for well over 20 years & has been "camped in" by numerous friends/family members over the years.)

yours, satx

Wow that's a lot of good responses! I'll have to get back when I'm not at work but just a few clarifications.

I live in Ohio and the farm is 45 minutes away in Pa so anything that isn't good in cold wet miserable conditions is out.

I'm actually pretty good at woodworking and have wanted to try traditional mortise and tenon framing for a long time. So for the frame I'm going with that.

The walls and roof are going to be what I have to figure out.

I do know it's going to be be about 10"x10".

Guess I'd recommend Mr.Chickadee's YouTube channel.
https://youtu.be/uPaVWd3SKl4
Check out his videos..... :grin:

Consider making it in the Golden Ratio instead of a square, more comfortable to be in.

The ratio is 1.618:1

So a 10 foot wide cabin would be about 16 feet long. A 12 foot wide cabin would be about 20 feet long, etc.

The Nautilus cephalopod, the human body, dolphins, the planets and Greek architecture are examples of the Golden Ratio in use.

My next home will be post and beam construction with a hewn log cabin nearer the woods.