Rgator,
Where in Maryland are you building? I'm building a TF house in western Howard County.
I used DF for my frame. I don't have the breadth of experience that many here have, but I'll pass along what I'[ve learned.
First, steer clear of standing dead DF. I was lured in by the thought of using an environmentally friendly product, as well as the claims of highly stable timbers. What I got were extremely green timbers, full of wane/rot/wood borers. Even properly stacked, those timbers twisted and bowed like heck. A large portion of them ended up being unusable. That one purchase resulted in such a gigantic waste of time and money that it makes me ill just thinking about it. (BTW, their sample was beautiful, clear, and dry as a bone.)
I purchased the second half of my timbers from Reliance Specialty Building Products. I was extremely pleased with both the level of customer service and the quality of the timbers. I ordered "DF, Kiln-dried to approx 19% MC 1" from surface, S4S to full dimensions, #1btr FOHC no wane, select for appearance."
I certainly agree with others that this material is a little hard to work, but I didn't find it THAT difficult. I've been working these timbers by myself over a period of 14 months. Because of that, I needed timbers that were a bit more stable. I wanted to have some level of confidence that these timbers will fit together when the time comes.
If the timbers were going from chisel to frame in a couple of weeks, I could see where green timbers would have an appeal.
I've got plenty of scraps around, if you want to get an idea what the actual product (and not a selected sample) is like.
Jon
