That is a great response Mark, I sure enjoyed your plan, and given the opportunity to lead a group I am sure that it would be a great display and one that many would enjoy immensely.

I have been retired now for a few years, but when I was active in my restoration and reconstruction role at UCV I took on many challenging projects over the years that necessitated a great deal of research and I might add head scratching. Not everything dealing with historic restoration is straight forward, solutions are found not only using research but I often called on other professionals in the field who might have knowledge or who could offer help.

I never handled or worked with logs larger than 36" in diameter so this exercise in talking about hewing logs larger than that I hope is helpful to those coming behind me.

One thing that I have found out though is that there is not much help out there when the going gets rough, Many for instance can say that they have hewn, but as you increase thesize and length of the logs then that is where the helpful information starts to dwindle.

My group at UCV put together many handson demonstrations and reconstructions, and I believe the most enjoyable ones were when we were hewing on the large 45' hemlocks and pine that ended up squaring 12" full length. Even the Amish folks would come with their families to watch, many saying that the tradition of hewing was disappearing gradually in their area.

Anyway thanks again for your reply, and I will leave you with one question:

Do you think that it would be possible to split off large planks in the order of 24 feet, and about 6" in thickness?

Maybe others could join in this chat as well

NH