Meet a Log Cabin Builder at the Big Build
On September 22, 2012, the National Building Museum hosts its annual Big Build: A Hands-On Family Festival of Tools, Trucks and Building Arts. To learn more about the building professionals who present their work at the festival, we talked to Craig Jacobs of Salvagewrights, Ltd., the man behind the festival’s extremely popular log cabin display. Bring your family to the Big Build to meet Craig and other building professionals in person.
National Building Museum Online (NBM Online): Describe the work you do at Salvagewrights, Ltd.
Craig Jacobs: Salvagewrights, Ltd., is a two-part architectural salvage business. One part is salvaging antique building materials and sometimes whole houses by dismantling and numbering. When we salvage a house we save everything we can, from the stone foundation to the roof material and everything in between, such as flooring, doors, and mantles.
The other part of our business is building with antique materials. Salvagewrights has built a variety of structures, from smokehouses to a plantation house. Sometimes we build by reassembling a structure we have taken down and numbered.
NBM Online: How did you get introduced to this line of work?
Jacobs: It started with an experience I had in college building a log cabin with master logsmith Peter Gott. A class in log cabin construction was offered for the January term. When I found out it was already full, I told the course administrator, "You don't understand. I have to take this class." She looked at me and replied, "Well then, I guess this class has 13 students rather than 12." I have always had an appreciation for antique tools and old building materials.
NBM Online: In the last year, what is the most memorable project you've worked on?
Jacobs: I would have to say the most interesting project of the past year has been working on timber frame structures at James Madison's Montpelier in Orange, Virginia. To help visitors visualize the areas where domestic and skilled slaves lived and worked during the Madisons’ time, Montpelier appointed Salvagewrights to build timber outlines of a detached kitchen, two smokehouses, and slave quarters in the South Yard.
Learn more about the Big Build
NBM Online: Have you lived in any of the structures you've worked on?
Jacobs: Not yet, however I do live in a 200-year-old log house.
NBM Online: On a log cabin restoration, how many people work on the project from start to finish?
Jacobs: Salvagewrights has 3-5 people work on a typical log cabin restoration project.
NBM Online: We can't wait to see you at our Big Build on September 22! Can you give us a teaser about your display and any demonstrations?
Jacobs: Salvagewrights will demonstrate building a small log smokehouse using traditional hand tools. This process will include debarking and hewing logs, notching logs, and splitting smaller pieces of wood using a froe and a mallet.
