The chamfer was a bevel cut along the edge of a beam. A forty-five degree angle where the corner used to be. The chamfer took the sharp edge off the wood and turned a square beam into an octagonal beam. The chamfer was the carpenter's way of saying this beam is not just structure. This beam is worth touching.

The chamfer was cut with a drawknife. A blade with two handles that the carpenter pulled toward himself along the edge of the beam. The shavings peeled off in long curls and the curl told you the grain was right. A smooth curl meant the blade was going with the grain. A ragged curl meant the blade was going against it. The carpenter read the curl the way a sailor reads the wind. The drawknife was the oldest tool in the shop and the chamfer was the oldest decoration.

The chamfer stopped. That was the detail. The carpenter cut the chamfer along the beam and then stopped it with a decorative termination called a lamb's tongue. The lamb's tongue was a small curved shape where the chamfer met the square edge. The lamb's tongue took five minutes to carve and nobody standing in the room would notice it. The carpenter carved it anyway because the carpenter knew the difference between a beam that ends and a beam that stops. Ending is a decision. Stopping is an accident.

The chamfer caught the light. A square beam has four faces and each face catches the light the same way. A chamfered beam has eight faces and the chamfer faces catch the light at a different angle. The beam glows. Walk through an old barn with chamfered beams and the beams are not just holding the roof. The beams are participating in the afternoon. The square beam holds. The chamfered beam holds and shines.

They do not chamfer beams anymore. The modern beam is a laminated veneer lumber or a steel I-beam and neither one has an edge worth beveling. The carpenter who chamfered a beam was saying this building will be here for a long time and while it is here the beams should be beautiful. The steel beam says this building will be here for a long time and the beams will be hidden behind drywall. Beautiful and hidden are opposites. The chamfer chose beautiful. The drywall chose hidden.

See also: Rafter, Ridgepole