Brad's statement was in reference to the evolution of timber framing. As longer timbers diminish in availablity, (Something that happened in Europe and is slowly happening in North America)one must find ways of spanning distances, without timbers long enough to span them... the evolution of the hammerbeam if I understand correctly.

I do remember Steve Chappell saying that god makes the best scarf joints (in other words any full length timber will always be stronger than a scarf joint) and he stated often that he liked to build frames with only compression joints and no tension joints.

As I have stated I can't remember for sure if the king post that I posted a picture of is a half dovetail or not. However I would be very suprised, based on Steve's overall philosphy of Timber framing if it were not a dovetail. Having said all this I don't think I have as much knowledge of timber framing that Steve posesses in his little pinky.

Carlos