jshaw,

Thanks for sharing your experiences, and for the follow up post. Sounds like you had the best intentions in specifying standing dead timber. Just remember no good deed goes unpunished.

FWIW, 30 degrees twist does seem very extreme, but 3/4" of bow in 16' is not insurmountable. I had some oak posts with that much bow and was able to use them. depends on whether they will be held back in place within the frame by other timbers, after you convince them to be there with ratchet straps and come-alongs. You are right though, it makes for an interesting raising when some of your post bottoms have to be strapped down to the sill, because the top plate is crowned 1". And a standing seam metal roof will really tell-on-you if you use rafters and purlins with lots of crown. Slate roofs will hide a lot though.

Good luck.