Hi Everyone;
Thanks for your thoughts on counter-hewing.
Gable, I ocasionally see hewn/sawn timbers here in New England. The job I am helping with right now is a c. 1752 plank house with a gambrel roof with common purlins on Cape Cod. This house was very lightly built with hewn 6x6s pit-sawn in half to make 3x6 rafters. The purlins were hewn 6x6s but quartered to make 2.75 x 2.75s. The wood is pitch pine which powder post beatles love to eat (sapwood only) so there is lots of dust holding this house up!
Jim
