felling
Select the type of wood. The trees were cut or felled often with a cross cut saw or axe.
skinning
To reduce the chance of insect infestation and deterioration of the timber, builders “skinned” or de-barked the laws with a drawknife.
prepping
Determine how many sides or “faces” of the log to hew. Typically log houses were built from logs that were hewn on two or four sides. At other times two sides were hewed and the other sides left rounded.
marking
To remove the excess wood on two faces, enslaved builders marked two parallel lines down the length of each side of the log as well as on the cut ends. The distance between these two lines determined the thickness of the finished hewn log.
scoring
A crosscut saw was used to cut across the outside of the log, between the lines to make it easier to chop out the sections of the wood in the next step which was juggling.
juggling
Using a double-bit axe or felling axe, builders chopped or “juggled” the sections of wood off the side of the log.
rescoring
In preparation for hewing, enslaved builders scored the log once again, this time with an axe. This process severed the wood fibers, which made hewing easier and made the finished log much smoother.
hewing
To give the log a more finished appearance, builders used a broadaxe to remove thin sections of wood from the faces of the log.
notching
Builders determined the type of corner notches at the same time they prepared the faces of the logs. When at least two of the sides of the logs were hewn, builders could use a half-dovetail, full dovetail, or “V” notch. This building exhibits “V” notches. Great precision was necessary when crafting the corner notches, as they were what truly held the building together.
chinking
Once the walls of the structure were erected, builders “chinked” the building, by stuffing small wooden blocks (or in some cases, rocks) into the gaps between each layer of logs.
daubing
Finally, once the chinking was secured in place, builders applied a mixture of sand, clay, lime, water, and often straw over the chinking on both the exterior and interior of the structure to seal it.
Finally, rafters, shingles, doors, windows and chimneys were added to finish the structure and make it livable.