Brian:

I'm having the same problem as Tony - twisting hemlock. I'm building a 14' x 24' timber frame cottage using 8" x 8" hemlock. I have four 24' hemlock timbers which I'm using for the sills and the plates. Three of them are straight as a pin, but the fourth is starting to twist in the last 4' or so. I'm building it myself, and I don't anticipate getting to the raising stage until the spring.

Can you tell us a little more about the scribe rule technique? How much twisting can be handled in this way before I'm better off cutting the timber and splicing it with two shorter ones?


Bryson