With the tenons cut on the ends of the deck beams Liz assembles the deck.
This joinery is a mixture of modern and traditional techniques although construction methods varied so widely throughout the Arctic that the word “traditional” can refer to dozens of different building techniques. I simply use whatever is strong, fast, and easy.
The compound angle mortise and tenon joinery here is actually pretty easy with the system we use and the tolerances we are working to. The nice thing about skin on frame building is that slightly loose joinery is actually beneficial, and working to 32nds is a lot easier than working to scribe lines. It’s also pretty simple to carefully slide a Japanese saw through the joint a few times if the fit isn’t quite right.
After the deck beams are in place we peg the tendons vertically and diagonally to lock in the shape. Then the ends get cut square and we scribe the stem for later installation.
Next we cut the ribs to length and round them over to prepare for steam bending the following day. This video shows about 5 hours of work although it usually takes us twice that long when we are filming!
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