Basic old tools

[Mortblanc]

Building rustic is a choice. Not one I would make, but that is up to you.

I have built several cabins at historic sites, using only the tools available before 1800. In fact, I helped build two frontier stockades complete with interior cabins.

What takes six weeks alone with hand tools can be accomplished in one week by two men with power tools.

But that is up to you.

The work is so tedious that at one historic site, where we had a palisade and 15 cabins to construct on a time sensitive building permit, we actually cut and notched logs at home with power tools and transported them to the site, where they were assembled using hand tools.

In todays word most of the cabin corners are notched and then drilled and spiked together, and the chimneys are lined with fireproof tiles, even on historic sites, due to local building and fire ordinances.

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http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Re...ennes.html

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http://www.historicmartinsstation.com/

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I worked both of theses sites back in the 1980s-1990s.

It is almost impossible to do the same now due to our environmental restrictions and insurance and building codes.

Open fireplaces, wood shingle roofs, no legitimate foundation (cabins were balanced on piers of stone), no way these places are going to pass building code inspections.