Catalog No. 12 · Autumn 2026

Timber-frame bents, pavilion kits and barn salvage, cut by hand in Lancaster.

We frame in hand-hewn white oak and Douglas fir, peg every joint with riven oak trunnels, and send each kit out with a numbered cut list. The siding, beams and strap hinges in our yard come from 19th-century Pennsylvania barns, graded one piece at a time.

Size a bent Read the joinery specs

What comes out of Warehouse D

Line I

Hand-hewn white oak & Douglas fir bents

Single bents or full frames, laid out square-rule and cut with chisel, slick and boring machine. Tie beams in 8×10 and 8×12, posts in 8×8 and 10×10.

Hewn faces on request · S4S or rough-sawn

Line II

Mortise-and-tenon pavilion kits

Pergolas, grill pavilions and event halls shipped as numbered, pre-fitted frames. Your crew raises them with a lift and a mallet, no hidden steel brackets.

Stamped drawings available through our engineer

Line III

Reclaimed 19th-century barn siding

Red-painted and grey-weathered boards pulled from Lancaster County bank barns, de-nailed, kiln-sterilized and sorted by face, width and length.

Sold by the board foot or by the wall

Line IV

Hand-forged iron hardware

Strap hinges, pintles, king-post stirrups and timber plates forged by our smith next door, finished in linseed and beeswax or hot-dip galvanized.

Made to your timber sizes

Plate I · Preliminary sizing

Timber-frame bent span, board-foot & snow-load calculator

Pick a species, a clear span, the bay spacing and your roof snow load. The calculator sizes a king-post tie beam, counts the oak trunnels and totals the board footage for an open pavilion frame. Use it to plan a budget. Your permit set still needs a licensed engineer.

Tie beam

8×10

Calculating…

Rafter thrust per bent

—

Horizontal tension the tie carries

Oak trunnels

—

1 in. riven white oak, 10 in. long

Frame board footage

—

Nominal, before overcut

Cut list for the frame you selected
Member	Qty	Section	Length	Board feet
Turn on JavaScript to build the cut list.

Plate II · Elevations

Two bents we cut most often

King-post bent. The tie beam holds the rafter feet together, and the king post hangs the middle of the tie so it can carry a loft or ceiling. This is the bent the calculator sizes. Good for pavilions, sheds and grill shelters up to 36 ft.

Hammer-beam bent. Short hammer beams cantilever off the posts and curved arch braces carry the load up to a collar, so nothing crosses the room at head height. We cut these for event halls and chapels, and we always engineer them one at a time.

Plate III · Pavilion kits

Standard pavilion kits

Every kit can be resized. These are the frames we cut most, with typical lead times from signed drawings to the truck.

Mortise-and-tenon pavilion kits
Kit	Footprint	Frame	Construction	Lead time
Queen Street Pergola	12×16 ft	3 bents / 2 bays	Douglas fir, open purlin roof	6–8 wk
Conestoga Grill Pavilion	16×20 ft	3 bents / 2 bays	White oak king-post, metal roof over cedar decking	8–10 wk
Pequea Event Pavilion	24×36 ft	4 bents / 3 bays	Douglas fir king-post with scarfed ties	10–12 wk
Susquehanna Hall	30×48 ft	5 bents / 4 bays	White oak hammer-beam, no interior ties	14–18 wk
Octoraro Studio Frame	14×18 ft	3 bents / 2 bays	Douglas fir, enclosed with SIPs or stud wrap	8–10 wk

Plate IV · Yard inventory

Reclaimed beam & board inventory

What is on the racks this month. Board feet are nominal, figured as thickness × width × length ÷ 12. Anything marked as a structural candidate gets a fresh grade stamp before it goes into a load path. How we grade salvage.

Reclaimed stock on hand, 2026-10-28
Lot	Piece	Section	Length	Pieces	Lot total	Origin	Grade
BB-1884-03	Hand-hewn white oak sill	10×10 in.	24 ft	2	400 BF	Strasburg Twp. bank barn, c. 1884	Structural candidate, regrade on order
BB-1891-02	Pit-sawn white oak tie beam	8×10 in.	26 ft	3	520 BF	Lititz forebay barn, c. 1891	Structural candidate, regrade on order
BB-1879-11	Hewn American chestnut purlin	7×8 in.	18 ft	6	504 BF	Manheim bank barn, c. 1879	Architectural / non-bearing
BB-1887-06	Hewn eastern hemlock plate	8×9 in.	30 ft	2	360 BF	Conestoga Valley barn, c. 1887	Architectural / mantel stock
BB-1882-14	White oak threshing-floor plank	2×12 in.	14 ft	48	1,344 BF	Upper floor, Leacock Twp. bank barn	Floor Select, kiln-sterilized
BB-1895-01	Red-painted white pine siding	1×10 in.	12 ft	220	2,200 BF	Forebay wall, Ephrata area barn	Weathered face, nail-hole character
BB-1873-09	Hand-hewn white oak post	9×9 in.	16 ft	4	432 BF	Drumore Twp. tobacco barn, c. 1873	Structural candidate, regrade on order

Shop notes from Caleb Bridger

Oct 2026

Why we still bore pegs by hand

A drawbore only works if the hole through the tenon sits about an eighth of an inch closer to the shoulder than the holes in the cheeks. We mark that offset with an awl after the joint is dry-fit and bore it with a T-auger. A machine could do it faster. It would also do it the same on every joint, and no two pieces of oak shrink the same.

Sep 2026

Snow load is the number to ask about first

Most people tell me the footprint and the look. I ask where the frame will stand. A 24 ft pavilion in a 30 PSF zone and the same pavilion in a 70 PSF hill county are different frames. More thrust, deeper ties, more purlins. Run your numbers in the calculator above, then send them to us.

Aug 2026

The Leacock threshing floor

We took up forty-eight white oak planks from a bank barn near Intercourse this summer. Two inches thick, twelve wide, worn hollow where a century of flails and wagon wheels crossed them. They are sterilized and stacked. If you want a floor with a story, it is in lot BB-1882-14.

Field guides from the mill

Visit the mill

We are in Warehouse D at 312 N Queen St, a few blocks north of Penn Square in Lancaster. Come see a bent on the floor, pick boards off the salvage racks, or bring your drawings. Write to mill@bluebarnhousestore.org for quotes and yard visits, or to Caleb directly at caleb@bluebarnhousestore.org for frame design questions.