Choosing Oak for a Timber-Frame Build
If you are building or repairing with traditional methods, the oak you choose matters as much as the joint you cut. Here is how to think about oak for a timber frame, and how we supply it.
Green or air dried
Most traditional oak framing is cut and worked green, that is freshly milled and still wet. Green oak is easier to work and shrinks and settles into its joints as it dries in place, which is how a frame tightens over the years. Air-dried oak is more stable from the start and suits joinery, trim and anything you do not want to move much. We can supply both; tell us which the job needs.
Section and length
Frames want heart-of-oak in honest sections: posts, beams, braces and plates. Tell us the sections and lengths on your drawing and we will cut from the right log. We also sell whole trunk sections and large structural rounds for reciprocal and round-wood framing.
Through and through
We mill through and through and keep the boards in boule order, so you can follow a log board by board and match timber across a frame. For a build where the grain shows, that matching is worth having.
Character is normal
Oak for traditional work is not meant to be flawless. Knots, medullary rays, a little shake and movement are part of how English oak behaves and part of its strength. We cut honest timber, not graded-and-planed stock.
Where it comes from
Our oak is Devon oak, locally sourced in the Exe Valley near Exmoor, most of it wind-blown, storm-damaged or removed for safety, milled here rather than chipped or burned. It is tracked from the woodland to the stack, so you know where your frame has come from.
A note on grading
We sell the material and the story honestly. If your build needs structurally graded timber signed off for load, that is a job for your engineer; tell us and we will cut to the sizes they specify.
Send us your cutting list or your drawing, say whether you want it green or air dried, and we will tell you what we can cut and quote collection or delivery.
