Hello Ken:
I thought that I would get a response and I appreciate your comments. Our area here will never catch up historically to your very old buildings age wise, but then again how far back do we go for good advice, and how many years should a building stand to say one construction method is better than the other. It sure all boils down to keeping the roof water proof for all those centuries, rather than how many pins are in the braces.
My advice to a novice beginner still stands, and I repeat that the late 18th century barns, houses, school houses, drivesheds, shops, and yes even smokehouses that still survive in this area the majority do not have pins in any of their braces, and as long as the foundations are firm, and the roofs have been maintained they are yet standing true and straight. I have run across 2 barns in all my time that had one pin in either end of the braces, and the braces were vertical sawn 4" by 4" in cross section. Even in the oldest barn that I viewed, which by the way had all hand hewn-- timbers,-- 4" by 4" studs--and 4" by 4" braces there was no pinning evident. Now taking this alittle further these people came from Germany 300 years ago, and I find it hard to believe that pinning braces would all of a sudden be dropped when they arrived here in Upper Canada--what do you think?