Tim - Thanks, I knew that this had to be wedged dovetail tenons, but since there was no telltale details in the the photograph, I thought that just needed to be clarified, on the off chance...
Carlos - Thanks also for your reply - and while yes, like Europe of say some five hundred years ago the eastern US was once largly denuded (the late 19th & early 20th centuries) and timber of length was in scarce supply, This is simply no longer the case, stems grow longer every day, and while the market for long timber is still underserved, this too is reversing. Long timber can be had if it is desired.
Before I learned that I could purchase any length likely necessary to residential design just forty or so miles away, (closer still now) I bought sawlogs of my needed lengths from local loggers and hewed what I needed.
One needn't necessarily - find ways of spanning distances, without timbers long enough to span them...
Finding the lengths necessary is a real and viable option, nor does it necessarily require trucking from distance.
I've spoken to this in previous posts, so I will not wax on about seldomn scarfing anything or almost always designing with continuous ties and plates...
