Traditional Finnish Log House

My friend's grandfather cut his leg with an axe in the forest in Finland. He had a needle and thread with him so he stitched the wound and hobbled home. An injury like that is anti-survival.

Using hand tools is tiring if you're used to power tools. When you're tired, you slip.

Take your time.

A cabin like this can last a hundred years or more.


That's plenty of relaxing time.

Well, as soon as WWIII is resolved, these type of houses should be back in style with everyone forced to relearn the trade. Now if I could build one of these log houses into an A frame structure, I would be in heaven.

a reply to: Kester
I just sat through that film fascinated! Thanks for sharing. Fascinates me how they can achieve so much with basic tools.

a reply to: Kester
I remember watching this vid some years ago and thinking, man shaping those logs into squares instead of the traditional round logs houses you see, must take forever. Even debarking takes a while, but shaping each one, just doing that alone will double the time in building a log house. But ya cool video.

a reply to: Kester
I, too, was fascinated to see it go up. Some relatives of mine had a neighbor who was Finnish. His house wasn't built entirely with hand tools but a bunch of his Finnish family came over to help him build his traditional house. My relatives said it was an education to watch them build it. The grandfather came to pick the timber and the best site for the home.

We visited there just after they'd gotten the roof on and the floors set. Then when it was finished. He was still working on building his furniture but it was truly fantastic. His had what he called a "Russian chimney" to which he attached a small woodburning stove that kept the entire house cozy even in the coldest of northern AZ winters.

Thanks for posting...brought back some pleasant memories of those visits.

Oh man got to re watch this video, have some pine logs laying around which I cut down last year and debarked. Not much or good for a cabin, to small and skinny, but was thinking of making a pretty descent sized dog house out of it which more then a few dogs can fit.

On a miniature scale it would be much faster shaping those logs and everything else. Sometime this summer at least.

25 minutes long vid, but I kind of remember all the things necessary or the process. However probably half way through shaping the first mini log, ill be like, forget this, round is good.