What do you guys see?

I have only seen drawn or otherwise shaved pegs in frames around here. And they're always made of dense, virgin, heart pine (southern pine) never a hardwood. Most pegs seem to be hastily made -- "good enough" seems to be the rule of thumb on the shaping. Some are roundish, some are octagonalish, some are very tapered along their whole length, some are pretty well straight w/out much taper, some

I have seen evidence in these 40' kingpost trusses from the 1840's that at least some of the pegs were made from the waste blocks from the timbers -- there were some crudely shaved pegs with the end left square. On several of them, one face was water sawn and 3 were riven and on one peg, 2 adjacent sides were riven and the other 2 adjacent sides were water-sawn, which indicates it came from the corner of a sawn timber or plank. All of the wood in the trusses except the 42' long bottom chords was water sawn.



I have seen photos of old frames w/ turned pegs and I have heard of pegs shaped by driving them through a hole in an iron/steel plate. Have any of you guys seen these kinds of pegs? If so, in what building?

What different kinds of pegs have you guys seen in old work? are they tapered or straight? what is the point like? are they octagonal or rounded?