Timber Connectors

The development of efficient shear-resisting joints is unquestionably one of the most significant advances in modern timber engineering. Timber itself is comparatively weak in shear and, owing to the lack of a suitable means of transmitting tensile forces in frameworks, orthodox construction in the past has restricted the use of timber to compression members and solid beams in spite of the fact that timber is from 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 times as strong in tension as compression.

Phillip O. Reece