The warmth and safety of the cave provided Lin Feng with great comfort after the initial survival crisis was resolved.
But as time went on and his control over the forest grew stronger, a deeper desire began to grow in his heart.
What he wanted was not just a place to live, but a place that could truly be called "home".
A building into which he poured his heart and soul, bearing his unique mark, allowing him to truly take root.
He began planning to build a wooden house on a slightly elevated, sunny, and water-rich flat area.
Once this thought arises, it spreads like wildfire and can never be extinguished.
However, a huge problem arose before him—he had no nails.
In this primitive world, the products of modern industry were unattainable luxuries. Without nails, how could massive timbers be firmly joined together to build a house that could withstand wind, snow, and wild animals?
Just as Lin Feng was racking his brains over this, even pacing anxiously on the snow.
In his mind, that familiar, mysterious torrent of information surged forth once again!
This time, the influx was not of knowledge about traps, tanning, or herbs, but of incredibly clear images and principles about ancient wooden architecture.
Mortise and tenon joint!
These two words resounded in his mind like a morning bell and an evening drum.
Countless exquisite mortise and tenon structure diagrams, as if deeply engraved into his memory with a carving knife, clearly emerged: dovetail tenon, pipe tenon, shoulder tenon, wedge tenon, through-beam type, raised beam type... various connection methods of brackets, beams, columns, and rafters.
Its mechanical principles, manufacturing process, and even the applicability of different types of wood in different structures were all instilled into his consciousness in an unquestionable manner.
Lin Feng was first stunned, then overwhelmed by a huge surge of joy.
He didn't know where this knowledge came from, but it was a godsend, no, a stroke of genius!
With this ingenious mortise and tenon technique, nails will no longer be an insurmountable obstacle!
He even had a sense of absurdity, that he was once an old carpenter who had been immersed in this craft for decades, but had only temporarily forgotten these skills, and now this primeval forest had awakened them again.
"Hahaha! Heaven has not forsaken me! This new world is embracing me!" Lin Feng couldn't help but roar to the sky.
After the initial excitement subsided, Lin Feng quickly calmed down and began making preparations.
When building a log cabin, the most important thing is the materials – a large quantity of high-quality timber.
He turned his gaze to the tall, straight trees deep in the forest.
This tree has a hard texture, straight grain, and a special adaptability to the strange light of this world, growing exceptionally thick and strong, making it the best building material he could find at the moment.
However, logging was undoubtedly a catastrophic undertaking for Lin Feng, who only had a Swiss Army knife.
Therefore, he needs to make a stone axe.
The process of making a stone axe is quite complicated.
He first selected a piece of obsidian that was pure and without cracks.
The stone edge is struck directly with a stone hammer, and the conchoidal fracture characteristics of obsidian are utilized to peel off stone flakes, initially forming the shape of an axe. One end is reserved for a handle, and the other end forms a wide blade.
By the stream, Lin Feng used rough sandstone as a whetstone to grind obsidian axe blanks with water.
He first smoothed the axe surface and adjusted its symmetry, then focused on grinding the blade, gradually thinning it from the axe body towards the edge to form a sharp wedge-shaped blade.
He selected a hard and resilient hardwood trunk and cut it to a suitable length.
One end is shaped into a handle suitable for gripping, while the other end has a groove carved or a flat surface cut to fit the shape of the axe for easy installation.
Lin Feng first embedded the axe head into or pressed it tightly against the axe handle. Then, he took a softened animal leg tendon and tightly wrapped it around the joint between the axe head and the handle.
Finally, the heated and melted resin is evenly applied to the animal sinew. After the resin cools and solidifies, the various parts are firmly joined together to form a sturdy and durable stone axe.
Looking at the obsidian axe in his hand, Lin Feng was extremely excited; this was a logging marvel.
Next, he selected a tree with a diameter of about forty centimeters, which was the limit he could currently handle.
He took a deep breath, swung his stone axe, and chopped fiercely at the base of the tree trunk.
"clang!"
The stone axe struck the hard tree trunk with a dull thud, sparks flying. Only a shallow white mark remained on the trunk.
Lin Feng's pupils contracted slightly; the hardness of this tree was beyond his imagination. But he was not discouraged; instead, his eyes blazed with even greater fighting spirit.
He adjusted his breathing, his arm muscles tensed, and he poured all his strength into the stone axe.
"clang!"
"clang!"
"clang!"
One time, two times, a hundred times, a thousand times...
The blade of the stone axe wore down and cracked from repeated chopping.
He stopped and patiently re-sharpened the axe blade with another, harder whetstone.
Sweat soaked through his simple leather jacket, quickly freezing into frost in the frigid air.
His arms ached so much he could barely lift them, and his thumb and forefinger were numb from the shock, but he only rested briefly, drank a few mouthfuls of snow water, and then gritted his teeth and continued.
He recalled the logging techniques that came to mind: no longer brute force, but rather alternating V-shaped cuts made from both sides around the base of the trunk.
This allows for more effective concentration of force and makes it easier to control the direction in which the trees fall.
He also tried using fire. He lit a small pile of dry branches at the wedge, using the heat of the flames to carbonize and brittle the wood before chopping it with a stone axe, which indeed improved efficiency considerably.
However, this requires precise control of the heat; otherwise, it could easily ignite the entire tree or burn away the useful timber.
"Crack... Rumble!"
With a sickening cracking sound, the massive tree canopy, laden with snow, collapsed like a small mountain, sending up a cloud of snow and mist.
A large tree fell down with a crash.
Lin Feng stood to the side, panting heavily, but a victorious smile appeared on his face.
This is not just the fall of a tree, but the first cornerstone in building his home.
The next challenge is how to transport these heavy logs back to the selected building site.
Each log here weighs hundreds of kilograms, and the difficulty of dragging it through the snow-covered forest is unimaginable.
Lin Feng once again demonstrated his amazing wisdom and perseverance.
Using the principle of leverage, he moved the log little by little with a sturdy crowbar and stones as fulcrums.
For the thinner branches, he would cut them down, tie them together, and drag them back step by step like a boatman, using animal skin ropes to secure them to his shoulders.
He also made a simple "sled".
Two thick, curved branches are used as the sled's slide. A platform is fixed on top with vines and thin wooden strips, logs are placed on it, and then the sled is pulled by ropes.
Although the friction is still enormous, it is much less strenuous than dragging it directly on the snow.
Even so, transporting a single qualified log takes him most of a day and almost all of his physical strength.
He would often set off before dawn and not return to the cave until the last of the three suns had sunk below the horizon, dragging his exhausted body back with his "spoils".
Even during breaks between logging and transportation, he did not forget to perform preliminary processing on the logs.
He carefully peeled off the bark with a stone axe and a stone scraper, then scorched it with fire.
His knowledge told him that wood with bark is prone to insects and rot, and dries slowly.
After peeling the bark, he would elevate the logs and place them in a well-ventilated area to allow them to air dry naturally for a period of time, in order to reduce the internal stress of the wood and prevent it from cracking and warping in the future.
This process is tedious and arduous, filled with sweat and pain.
His hands were covered with calluses and new wounds, his shoulders were marked with bloody welts from the ropes, and his back ached from carrying heavy loads for a long time.
But he never considered giving up. Every time he saw another log piled up on the open ground, his sense of accomplishment grew, and his belief in building a "home" became even stronger.
At the same time, he was also preparing for the foundation.
The site he chose to build his house was a relatively flat piece of land that had been carefully cleared.
To prevent moisture and ensure stability, he dug and transported a large number of stones of different sizes from the nearby hillside, preparing to build a stone foundation.
He had no cement, so he could only rely on the weight of the stones themselves and careful stacking to ensure the stability of the foundation.
He even began to think about drainage, leaving shallow drainage ditches around the foundation.
After half a month of hard work, Lin Feng finally stockpiled enough high-quality logs to build a small wooden house.
Most of these logs have already undergone preliminary air-drying and are ready to be harvested.
Next comes the most crucial and challenging part of the entire project—the creation of the mortise and tenon structure.
Lin Feng sat cross-legged by the fire, stroking a piece of wood the size of his palm in his hand.
In his mind, countless exquisite mortise and tenon structure diagrams rotated like a revolving lantern.
He needs to choose the most suitable connection method based on the tools he has and the characteristics of the wood.
He decided that the overall structure of the log cabin would be "well-shaped", that is, made by layering and interlocking logs.
This structure is relatively simple, suitable for a "beginner" like him, and the use of rough materials makes the most of the logs he painstakingly felled.
At the corner joints of the logs, he plans to use a variant called "saddle-shaped tenon" or "pipe tenon". This tenon and mortise joint can not only ensure a firm connection, but also fit the shape of the round logs well.
For the roof beam frame structure, more complex beam-column mortise and tenon joints and rafter mortise and tenon joints are required.
Let's get right to it.
Lin Feng selected a relatively straight and symmetrical log as the first "base log" for the wall.
He carefully measured the expected length and width of the cabin—about five meters long and three meters wide, a comfortable space enough for him to live in alone.
Then, he began to make the first mortise and tenon joints at both ends of the log.
He didn't have an ink line, so he could only carefully draw lines on the logs using charcoal sticks to mark the positions.
Then he took out a newly made tool: a "bone chisel" made of hard animal bone and a wooden mallet.
"Thump, thump, thump..."
Lin Feng gripped the bone chisel tightly in his left hand, aimed it at the drawn lines, and swung the wooden mallet in his right hand, carefully tapping the end of the chisel.
The hard wood fibers were painstakingly removed bit by bit by his meticulous carving. This was a task that demanded immense patience and precision.
The depth, width, and angle of the mortise must be strictly controlled; otherwise, the tenon and tenon will not fit together properly.
Fine beads of sweat appeared on his forehead, but his eyes were unusually focused, as if the whole world consisted only of the bone chisel in his hand and the wood in front of him.
The details and essentials of mortise and tenon joinery in his mind guided his every move like instinct.
For example, when chiseling the mortise, chisel from both sides toward the middle to avoid the edges of the mortise from cracking; when nearing completion, use less force to carefully refine it and ensure the inner wall is smooth.
It took him nearly two hours to get the initial shape of a single mortise.
He touched the inner wall of the mortise with his hand and repeatedly measured it with his homemade calipers until he confirmed that it basically met the requirements.
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