Finnish Log Construction by Frank W. Eld

From April 10 to April 15, we had the honor of having Frank Eld from Idaho was visiting the Finnish Room  Committee and the Nationality Rooms Programs at the University of Pittsburgh. The Committee feels that it was perhaps the best event in the Finnish Room Project since the visit of Anna-Maija Ylimaula in 2005. There is now much more insight as to what should go into the Finnish Nationality Classroom in the Cathedral of Learning at the University of Pittsburgh.

 On Sunday April 13 before the SSWP meeting in the Room 1228 in Cathedral he gave a demonstration of Finnish Log Construction in America.

Mr. Frank Eld from Idaho has made a remarkable study and worked to preserve examples of log houses and farm buildings built in the distinctively Finnish style of log construction. Since a young boy, the son of a Finnish carpenter, he was fascinated by the painstaking concentration it took to prepare a log to place on top of another log during wall construction. Special tools and special skills were necessary to shape and fit the log while building the walls from ground up. This technique could be used to create tight fitting, long lasting log houses, smoke cottages, saunas and barns, as well as hay shelters where the corners were as well locked as in the other structures but the logs were not as tightly fitted so that air could flow through to keep the hay dry.

Finnish carpenters were highly valued in Finnish settlements. Mr. Eld has found their tradition in Idaho and other parts of US as well as earlier in the New Sweden Colony where Finnish settlers moved to continue their "Kaskiviljely",  slash-and-burn and build their traditional log structures.

Mr. Eld gave a demonstration with miniature tools and logs of how the logs were shaped and the special tools used. It left us with a great appreciation of his study and a deep feeling for the real heritage which has been passed to us.