Oh how funny different things are called in different parts of the country.

 

On my Honeymoon, me and my bride went to Williamsburg VA and had a chance to talk to the carpenters down there at length. After a long discussion, we were able to deduce that down south they use the term shingle interchangably, where as in New England shingles are different then shakes.

 

Interestingly enough, the shakes they make down there are only 18 inches long where as in New England the shakes are 24 inches long and shingles are 16 inches long.

 

Anyway, I was able to see how they make shakes down there and was able to take a video of them doing so. It was cool to see a shake produced in under a minute, complete with 3 sides taper, and butt trimmed with froe and draw-knife and of course by hand. Its just daunting to think it takes 15,000 shakes to roof-shod the average sized home. (I was also surprised to learn that they never use shakes on the walls like we do in New England).

 

In the end it was cool to see, and while low-tech, I think I will stick with the 1800's shingle-mill we have. It runs off the PTO of a tractor, (orginally a waterwheel in the day), but as I told the colonial carpenters, it is scary as your hand runs up agaist the flat side of the blade when you are sawing the shingles out. You can use a shop vac to suction off the shingles, but then you have that loud noise as well as the sound of saw running, so while safe, it is too loud!!

 

I live about 15 minutes from Williamsburg and, as a carpenter and woodworker, have done a lot of work in the area. I know what you mean about different terminology in different parts of the country. We do use the term shakes but, in my experience, a shake is a single piece of wooden siding or roofing such as a "cedar shake". I have put cedar shakes on walls and roofs. Its very time consuming and no fun at all. Long pieces of cedar (or cypress, pine, fir) are called plain old "siding" around here. Smaller pieces, which are a different style, are called shakes. They are usually 6-10" wide, around 12" long, and tapered on 3 sides.

Having grown up here, I have been on many tours of Colonial Williamsburg and have even been commissioned to make a couple reproduction entry doors for private homes in the area. If anyone gets a chance to visit, do it. It is incredible to see how they did things back then. (Just dont get caught nosing around a cabinet makers bench when he isnt looking. They frown on that. Trust me.)

 

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Adam Welker
Red Car Construction and Fine Woodworking

i think that the difference is that shakes are hand split and shingles are cut on a mill, just my 2 cents

 

Paul that was my take on it too. Maybe it is just that the carpenters I talked to at Williamsburg did not differentiate between the two terms.

 

I do know that hand split skakes last a lot longer then shingles because the split allows the rain to follow the fibers and not get soaked into the severed fibers like shingles do. However shakes are far more rustic looking.