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This Photo Instructable shows how you can dress up or enhance the look of exposed wood beam construction. This can be done without the high cost of having steel plates made and installed in place with large bolts, nuts and washers. You can do it with a few hand tools, some 1/4 inch mdf board and some wood dowels of a proper size all painted the way you want. Basic woodworking skill are all you need.
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Are these irons only there for show ???…
In which case it's somewhat of a pity.
From the Middle Ages to the mid 20th century, carpenters took great pride in building wooden frames without the use of any iron material. A good frame had to stand by itself… It's only when time and economic factors that prevented to hire highly skilled carpenters that iron came in the picture : to me (and many people around me) a wooden frame with iron fasteners has less aesthetics value than a frame with no iron at all.
Maybe it's the culture I live in … I dunno…
However the work is well done.
The FAKE plates and bolts are for show only. I built and installed them at the request of the owner who had the new beams installed on her patio and in her game room. I guess that she thought it would dress up the look of the beams. You can see from two or three of the photos how they looked to begin with which I think kind of looks plain. I think if the carpenters had used interlocking joints with wood pegs or someother custom joints that maybe they would have been left alone. Anyhow I am pleased with how they turned out and I think the owners are to.
Lester
I would have prefered wooden pegs as you may guess8
But I must say that the job you did with these plates is really neat in itself.
vincent