Jay, I found an article about kerfing the beams Japanese-style. It sounds like they cut the beams down the least-likely-to-be-seen side (for instance, a cross tie would be cut along the center of the crown-up side) almost to the center of the beam to "localize" the checking along that kerf cut which is supposed to minimize checking on other faces of the beam? Am I understanding that correctly?
Also again is this to be done ASAP after the timbers are cut to dimensions?