Hi Hewer and Karl

Hewer, the barns of the pre-civil war era, in the eastern panhandle of what is now WV, have timber from mixed sources. The new timber of long length ie plates, ties and purlins, almost always was hewn and the shorter material 16 ft. or less was usually sawn. The layout method on sawn and hewn looks to my eye to be the same. The floor joist were rough hewn on 2 sides with the bark left on. Joined timber was finely hewn and of regular shape. I have a basic question about the finely hewn stock, was the timber rough hewn in the woods, shipped to the carpenter's yard and then finely shaped and smoothed or was the hewing and shaping a one time process? The species used most were mixed oaks and red pine, poplar and walnut was used to a lesser degree. Recycled timber was also used.

Axe work is evident in joinery along with auger, chisel and saw. I found at a local flea market a double bit joinery axe one bit is a mortise axe and the other bit is a double bevel hewer with a pole axe profile with the bit rotated out of alignment with the staight handle.

In my practice I rely on a number of templating jigs for direct cutting without extensive layout and layout fixtures. The simplest is a wooden tee square with sharpened screws set to mark mortise and tenon and another to mark gains. These scratch gauges can be set to any dimension, a slightly misaligned screw can be corrected with a file.

The modern interpretation of framing relies on the steel square and its 2" and 1 1/2" blades. The steel square became a commodity item after the civil war. The major problem with a steel square in a metal scarce world is wear. Striking lines with a hardened awl burnishes the edge, over time, wear will reduce edges and effect the scales. A carpenters try square is a more appropriate tool for striking lines. The blade is set proud of the body by a 1/2" allowing the carpenter to join the outside of the blade back into squareness.

For a while I have been using the "shoe box template system" I shoe box can hold a number of steel tapes each marked with felt pens to a typical layout of posts, plates or whatever. This will quicken layout and ease checking and keep the plans off the shop floor while work is going on. I believe a story pole system is quicker and more direct.

Karl these are more a personal view of m