yo BB, good looking bents.

Sounds like good methods. I know what you mean about those carpenters pencils. When I work with milled timbers such as those I tend to use a mechanical pencil sometimes even a drafting pencil with H lead. Ha!

FWIW, if I am working in feet during lay-out I usually "burn" a foot, if I am working in inches I "burn" 10". makes it less confusing and less room for simple math mistakes. By the way I always try to work in inches with decimals when solving lengths on paper, makes for more accurate geometric solutions.