I am certain the saw marks on the hewn/sawn purlin I mentioned previously were mill sawn. I do not blame anyone for questioning the unusual.

I will pay more attention to the length of sawn timbers I see. I know the circular saw at the water-powered mill on Sanborn pond in New Nampshire can cut 40 feet, but not comfortably: the log would need to be perfectly centered on the carrage which would likely add time to the sawing process. Also, the sawyer commented on how much harder getting a 40 foot log out of the pond as compared to even a 36 foot log.

The book "Early Loggers and the Sawmill" has several photos of large logs being hewn into cants where they fell. The explination is that more timber could be fitted into the hold of a ship if it was squared. One of the photos is of four "choppers" standing on a log "prepairing the tree for the hewers". The choppers had it hewn pretty smooth with there felling axes.

Another reason to hew logs square is they were also floated in "cribs" or assemblies of rafts to a distant destination by a steam tug boat. The raftsmen lived on the raft during shipment, including cooking over a fire built on a sand pile on top of the timbers.

The reason is not so clear for the purlins I mentioned since they probably were not shipped too far or floated in a raft. There were very wayney which I know are not too hard to hew poles just taking off a few inches of wood. This house was located right next to a sawmill.

Jim