What does our logo mean?
Old traditional European style signs:
In this picture, you can see the Getreidegasse in Salzburg, Austria. The signs you see are the traditional way of showing you what store you were actually looking at or what tradesman was working in that particular house. Most cities had certain areas for certain trades. To this day, it is easy to tell where you are in an old European city. You just have to look at the street names and they will indicate a certain trade that operated in this particular area of the city. For example, the name of this street in Salzburg is Getreidegasse and it means the street of flour. Since that was a very important item, the basic ingredient for our daily bread, it was also one of the most important streets.
The Timber Framing Sign: (Zimmermann)
As you can see on the set of tools, this would have been a timber framer's shop. You can see the saw, 2 different axes, a compass and a perpendicular. All of these tools are the essentials to perform the trade. To hang out a sign like this, you had to be a master timber framer. There were 3 categories of tradesmen. The apprentice, who normally lived at the masters house, and, depending on the master, sometimes had to pay for his education. The journeyman, who worked between 10 and 14 hours a day for very little pay, and, the most fortunate, the master who had it made. All of this started in 715 D.C. in Vienna, Austria where tradesmen met and organized the way the work would get distributed and developed from there on. In most European cities, organizations called the guilds were established. They had certain rules of who could perform certain trades and what could be sold in town. They also had certain obligations towards the town, one of them being the task to defend a certain section of the defense wall in case of an outside attack. How were you able to become a master? You needed to own a house in the town or have the money to purchase one; you needed to produce a master piece and pay for it yourself; you needed to be a journeyman and have traveled as such for at least 3 years and, after all that, you had to invite all the existing masters in town to a meal of various courses.
An impossible task and that was what it was meant to be. It was a system of complete exclusion which lead to an exodus of skilled craftsman to the new world once it was discovered.
An impossible task and that was what it was meant to be. It was a system of complete exclusion which lead to an exodus of skilled craftsman to the new world once it was discovered.
Guilds and their Signs on Buildings:
Every guild (Zunft) had its own space where the members and guests would meet. The sign pictured here is the one that was and still is on the House of the Guild of the Timber Framers in the town of Bern, Switzerland. If you look closely, you will see the tools of the trade. Because of these signs, any journeyman who was on the waltz (3 year journey required to become a master) knew where he was, once he saw this sign. Some of these guilds were very powerful and, behind the scenes, they ran the town.
The traditional work clothes (Kluft):
These are the traditional clothes (Kluft) that tradesmen wear on their 3 year journey (Waltz). Every piece has a meaning. The jacket has 6 buttons which stand for the 6 days of a work week. The vest has 8 buttons which stand for 8 hours of work each day. The golden earring was to be used for the funeral in case the person died. The wide pants were so that no wood chips would fall into your shoes. The twisted wooden walking stick is called a Stenz and was also used to carry the few belongings over the shoulder. The hat meant that the person was a free man which was an important detail not to be underestimated in those days.
Timber framers wore the color black. Stone masons wore grey and blacksmiths wore blue. This made it easy to find a certain tradesman on a construction site.
These were the people that built all the amazing churches and bridges and other wonderful structures we can still see all over Europe. They broke ground in many areas of the building trades.
Political movements within the Guilds:
Around 1400 D.C., we have a split in the guild organizations and see unions of journeymen called brotherhoods established. They were the first form of unions and cover their members in case of illness and poverty.
The 3 year enforced journey for young tradesmen created people with an open mind and a wide variety of skills. They had learned to do things in different ways along their travels. The journey is not a requirement to become a master anymore but it is still an option practiced today and actually has become an attraction for many young European tradesmen.
If you ever see one of them on the road, serve him a meal at your house and let him tell you a couple of stories. Ask him to do some work on your house. Before he leaves, do not forget to write a recommendation into his book of journey. It will come in handy in the next town he visits.
We hope that all of this was informative and that it helps you realize what that belt buckle or earring with the saw, compass and axes actually mean.
Thanks for your interest.
Richard and Martin
Timber framers wore the color black. Stone masons wore grey and blacksmiths wore blue. This made it easy to find a certain tradesman on a construction site.
These were the people that built all the amazing churches and bridges and other wonderful structures we can still see all over Europe. They broke ground in many areas of the building trades.
Political movements within the Guilds:
Around 1400 D.C., we have a split in the guild organizations and see unions of journeymen called brotherhoods established. They were the first form of unions and cover their members in case of illness and poverty.
The 3 year enforced journey for young tradesmen created people with an open mind and a wide variety of skills. They had learned to do things in different ways along their travels. The journey is not a requirement to become a master anymore but it is still an option practiced today and actually has become an attraction for many young European tradesmen.
If you ever see one of them on the road, serve him a meal at your house and let him tell you a couple of stories. Ask him to do some work on your house. Before he leaves, do not forget to write a recommendation into his book of journey. It will come in handy in the next town he visits.
We hope that all of this was informative and that it helps you realize what that belt buckle or earring with the saw, compass and axes actually mean.
Thanks for your interest.
Richard and Martin
