Words To Publish

Long years ago when settlers came to North America log cabins became a widely used form of construction. With vast wildernesses trees were a highly available source of building material. Many small cabins where built with only the use of an ax and a knife. In the 1700’s Scandinavian Settlers were the first to introduce handcrafted log homes to the continent.

Some of the handcrafted log cabins were built with fully round logs. The bottoms and tops were trimmed with the ax to fit more closely together. Then materials such as moss and mud were inserted between the log rows to help seal the weather out of the home. Many cabins on the eastern seaboard were hand hewn. The logs were squared on all sides and then stacked. This is also referred to as the “Appalachian Style”.

As times progressed so did the manufacturing of log homes. Uniformly milled log homes appeared with the industrial age. By the early 1920’s the first milled log homes were being made and sold. The less intensive labor and quicker building timeframes took milled log homes into preeminence over handcrafted log homes. Today the words “log home” refers directly to the milled. When referring to a totally hand made cabin, the term “handcrafted” is inserted before “log home”.

Nationwide, across the United States, about two out of every ten log homes are handcrafted. In the Northwest, the average is higher, averaging a rough 30% to 40% of homes being handcrafts.

One Green advantage to handcrafted log cabins is that only about 9% of the log is lost to processing. Milled homes loose up to 50% of the log to achieve the consistent diameter though out the length of the log.

Handcrafted log homes vary in diameter and log length. They take several more months of construction time and hand work time. Hand made homes also have the unique draw knife look to the hand peeled logs. Extra character is also instilled in each log through the hand scribing and full scribed corners.

For a unique home that has no perfect match anywhere in the world, the handcrafted log homes are the choice. Beauty, individualism, and history are built into each and every one.