To go along with this thread and one that I have had to deal with in the past was the actual hewing of large diameter timbers.

The large timbers that I refer to in the forgoing posts were very large round timbers, I suspect the logs that they were produced from would have to have been somewhere between 40 and 50 inches in diameter to square out perfectly square the final timbers required.

these timbers would be placed on a work bed of 6" square to begin the process of squaring and if I were to stand there and look at these huge logs their tops would have been close to level with my eyes.

I ask for comment now on how you would proceed if you were given the task of hewing these timbers, and the only tools that you had to use were historic tools of that time.

NH