Jim. I dont see the harm in trying to know the ideal situation for the frame itself, regardless of whether the client is not going to realistically care about it or not. I feel that you must first know these conditions before you go about making compromises to them, based on ideal conditions for something, someone other than the frame. Also, when I said it may possibly be better to cut the frame just before the raising, I did not mean the day or two before, just not two years. More like two weeks or two months.Acording to posts by others, that may not be necessary after all. I do appreciate your input on the milling of timbers as you have much experience and I have adjusted my original ideas on waiting for the logs to season and have replaced it with cutting logs to dimension and seasoning the timbers 6-8 weeks. thanks tb

Here is a quote from A Timber Framer's workshop, by Steve Chappell:

"Curing and Seasoning
When we consider drying timbers, our real concern should be curing and seasoning. These terms are often used interchangeably, but I view them as two related, but distinct, aspects of the drying process.
Curing occurs in the early stages of seasoning, and relates to the initial reactionary phase of the wood fiber to being felled and milled into timbers. Once the tree dies and is milled, the wood fibers begin to relax and take on their natural shape. There is usually an immediate reaction to being milled in the form of crowning, warping or twisting, resulting from the inherent tension in the wood, but no shrindage will occur until all of the FREE WATER (moisture in the cell cavities) dissipates, and the BOUND WATER (moisture in the cell walls) begins to leave.
Seasoning is the longer term process of allowing the fibers to stabilize naturally as they slowly release the BOUND WATER within the cell walls. When the moisture content reaches equilibrium with the atmospheric moisture content (12% to 16%) a timber is considered to be fully seasoned...." The page goes on to say that "90% of the deformations due to natural stresses will take place within six months, however, the first eight to twelve weeks is the most rapid curing stage. It is during these early stages that the most dramatic changes will take place."

This is from page 139 of the book. I like the distinction between curing and seasoning, Curing being a reaction to felling and milling, And Seasoning being essentially more of the same but much slower, and now including shrinkage.

Thanks Mark. I actually have read the book many times, but I somehow was actually still thinking the opposite, that seasoning was the initial process, and curing was the longterm slower loss of its bound water. Thanks for the correction. tb

tb, it's sounds like you're thinking way too hard about all of this. I say that because I often find myself doing it.

I can only speak from personal experience and I agree with Jim on almost everything he's mentioned. However, I do believe that the 6-8 week timber curing makes a difference when initially cutting the frame and just after it's up. After that it does what it wants especially when you turn the heat up to 70 in the house. The 6-8 weeks seems to give the wood time to stabilize. If stored outside under cover, any moisture that's going to leave the wood will do it in that time frame, atleast until it's exposed to the dry house heat. I also do this because of the quote in Steve's book. I have no scientific evidence to prove this. I guess you'd have to measure moisture content on a daily basis for 8 weeks and of course the season would matter.

I cut the timbers for my house, sent them right to the planer and stacked them for 6-8 weeks under cover. Some much longer and it didn't seem to matter. The timbers only dried about 1/2" - 1" deep, the core was soaking wet. It took me 7 months to cut the frame, finished in February, raised it in July, and there was very little tuning that needed to be done. The frame was nearly flawless........... until I dropped the ball getting the roof on in time. This basically ruined the finish. So bad that I found my self sanding and oiling the frame again. It was miserable..... don't waste any time getting the roof on and getting it enclosed. That's the most important lesson I learned.

Mill, plane, stack (under cover)6-8 wks, cut joinery, raise frame, and get the thing enclosed ASAP.

Sorry, I meant to say seasoning in that last post. Thanks Mark. Also, I'm not critisizing for thinking to hard about something. For some reason I love to punish myself this way.... eventually the answer comes to me.