HANK SILVER
OWNER
Hank Silver is an American timber frame carpenter who has spent close to two years working on the restoration of the Medieval roof framing of Notre Dame de Paris. His work on the Cathedral was the subject of a 2024 profile in the New York Times.
Born in New York City, Silver honed his craft in Vermont, where he learned to build barns and house frames using traditional mortise and tenon joinery. Eventually settling in western Massachusetts, Silver established his own timber frame workshop, Ironwood Timberworks, Inc.
Starting in 2018, Silver has been a member of the France-based volunteer crew, Charpentiers sans frontières (Carpenters Without Borders). CSF is a non-profit whose mission is the restoration of world carpentry heritage and the transmission of the skills and techniques to future generations of craftspeople.
Working alongside carpenters from all over the world, and employing only traditional tools and methods, he has taken part in uniquely rewarding projects - such as reconstructing a 12th-century castle bridge in Normandy, and re-building the roof of the chapel that houses the tomb of Leonardo da Vinci in the Loire Valley. Silver co-led the group’s 2019 project to build a hand-hewn blacksmith's forge in Maine - their first project in North America.
Silver is an active member of the Timber Framers Guild. He has authored several articles for the guild journal, Timberframing on a variety of subjects, including an historic survey of an unusual curved wooden bridge in Massachusetts. He has taught traditional American timber framing at Yestermorrow (VT) and The Heartwood School (NH), as well as courses on the French technique known as piquage (French scribing) in the US and Estonia.
In January of 2023, Silver moved to France at the invitation of Ateliers Desmonts, where he worked as a lead carpenter on the reconstruction of the 13th-century roof framing of the nave of Notre-Dame de Paris at the company's workshop in Normandy. Starting with 600 oak logs, the crew hewed some 1100 beams using medieval-patterned axes. The wooden joinery of the truss work was then laid-out and cut, and the entire frame of the nave test-fit in Normandy before being dismantled and shipped to Paris. Silver then oversaw the assembly and installation of the frame on-site at Notre-Dame de Paris. After completion of the nave in March 2024, Silver continued work on the cathedral, installing the oak roof deck on the nave and south transept.
Silver currently resides in France.
For more information about these international projects visit:
