Thanks for the reply, Randy.

Though I do feel a little bit mislead by the seller here, it's clear to me now that the fault was mine. They didn't deliver what they indicated they would, but I didn't specify any requirements.

As far as SD timbers being stable; that's the primary reason why I bought SD. But what I got were boxed-heart timbers at something like 30% MC..... and that's a long, long way from being stable.

(Really, that's my only beef with the SD folks. If they are going to brag about how stable their product is, they shouldn't deliver dripping-wet boxed-heart timbers.)

My timbers were straight and beautiful the day they arrived. No checks AT ALL. No twist or bow. There was more wane and edge damage than I cared to see, but that alone didn't seem like enough to complain about.

I got a little concerned when I stuck a moisture meter in them. But even then, I didn't see any reason to raise a complaint.

Now, even after careful storage, very few of them are not twisted. The worst of them are twisted nearly 30 degrees end-to-end. Some of the timbers that I laboriously straightened with a hand-held planer have twisted again with the change from winter to spring. Some timbers are bowed out 3/4" in the middle of a 16' beam. Raising day could be way too interesting.

I'm in the process of ordering the remaining required timbers (from a different vendor!), and replacements for the SD timbers that are now unusable. I'm getting FOHC, #1btr, selected for appearance, S4S, kiln-dried timbers for significantly less money than I paid for the rough, ungraded, boxed-heart, bug-infested, green, SD timbers 18 months ago.

In my experience, though buying Standing Dead timbers is an environmentally attractive concept, the reality is that you spend a lot more money for a far-inferior product.