Hi Mo,
If you have a 63" softwood tree it is probably more than ready for timberframing. You could box heart, half or quarter the butt log on such a tree but be prepared for movement if halfing or quartering since this will release the internal stresses and the timbers will tend to banana in one or two directions. For softwood posts I would probably favour boxed heart especially if a lot of juvenille wood is present like Don describes above but if this were white oak then I would halve the timber (see my post on historic building photographs).
Timber from further up the tree will tend to be much more branchy with many more large knots and this should be box heart converted and will be much more difficult to work. Breaking down this kind of timber further will result in grading difficulties.
Regards
Ken Hume
