The world was shocked when Paris’ iconic Notre Dame Cathedral burned. Now, five years later, it’s reopened, and a Vermont man had a hand in bringing it back to life. “It kind of gives goosebumps, especially being there on site in París and the scale and the beauty of the Notre Dame,” said Will Wallace-Gusakov, of Goosewing Timberworks in Lincoln. Wallace-Gusakov is part of Carpenters Without Borders. It’s through that group he met people who are part of the company awarded the contract to reconstruct the famous cathedral’s roof. He spent six months in Normandy, about an hour outside of París, helping to rebuild Notre Dame’s nave using donated logs from all over France. “We were converting those logs into square timbers using axes. That’s called hand hewing,” Wallace-Gusakov said. “We spent months, a crew of 20 of us, months only hewing with axes, so lots and lots of work. Kilometers of hewed timbers, 1,200 of them, really high quality, beautiful oak.” Wallace-Gusakov said a lot of intention went into the project, down to the tools used. The axes used to hew were designed based on illustrations from the 12th and 13th centuries. “A group of really great French blacksmith companies came together cooperatively to forge about 60 of those axes specifically for the Notre Dame project,” explained Wallace-Gusakov. “Using those tools was great. It was amazing.” The Lincoln man has experience in French carpentry, having lived there in 2010 for a year-and-a-half and using hand hewing in his workshop in Vermont. “What I do here at Goosewing Timberworks, it’s not so different. We do sometimes hand hew here, which is using axes to create timbers,” he said.By the time he left France, the frame was nearly done. “The frame that we were doing for the nave was about 45 feet wide and 120 feet long and 35 feet tall, so it was massive scale, and we had already started to assemble bays of that as we were going,” he said. “I left in July and then I think by September the frame was completely, totally, done.” Back home in Vermont, his experiences in France are now influencing his work. “I think some of my designs in my shop here, I’m always designing and creating timber frame, so I think some of that aesthetic has migrated into the designs I’m coming up with,” he said.As a memento of his time in France, Wallace-Gusakov got an axe with his initials stamped on it.He does have plans to return to Notre Dame in March with a special invitation to visit the attic and see his work.
The world was shocked when Paris’ iconic Notre Dame Cathedral burned. Now, five years later, it’s reopened, and a Vermont man had a hand in bringing it back to life.
“It kind of gives goosebumps, especially being there on site in París and the scale and the beauty of the Notre Dame,” said Will Wallace-Gusakov, of Goosewing Timberworks in Lincoln.
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Wallace-Gusakov is part of Carpenters Without Borders. It’s through that group he met people who are part of the company awarded the contract to reconstruct the famous cathedral’s roof.
He spent six months in Normandy, about an hour outside of París, helping to rebuild Notre Dame’s nave using donated logs from all over France.
“We were converting those logs into square timbers using axes. That’s called hand hewing,” Wallace-Gusakov said. “We spent months, a crew of 20 of us, months only hewing with axes, so lots and lots of work. Kilometers of hewed timbers, 1,200 of them, really high quality, beautiful oak.”
Wallace-Gusakov said a lot of intention went into the project, down to the tools used. The axes used to hew were designed based on illustrations from the 12th and 13th centuries.
“A group of really great French blacksmith companies came together cooperatively to forge about 60 of those axes specifically for the Notre Dame project,” explained Wallace-Gusakov. “Using those tools was great. It was amazing.”
The Lincoln man has experience in French carpentry, having lived there in 2010 for a year-and-a-half and using hand hewing in his workshop in Vermont.
“What I do here at Goosewing Timberworks, it’s not so different. We do sometimes hand hew here, which is using axes to create timbers,” he said.
By the time he left France, the frame was nearly done.
“The frame that we were doing for the nave was about 45 feet wide and 120 feet long and 35 feet tall, so it was massive scale, and we had already started to assemble bays of that as we were going,” he said. “I left in July and then I think by September the frame was completely, totally, done.”
Back home in Vermont, his experiences in France are now influencing his work.
“I think some of my designs in my shop here, I’m always designing and creating timber frame, so I think some of that aesthetic has migrated into the designs I’m coming up with,” he said.
As a memento of his time in France, Wallace-Gusakov got an axe with his initials stamped on it.
He does have plans to return to Notre Dame in March with a special invitation to visit the attic and see his work.
