"Gerry" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 3 Feb 2019 13:54:17 -0500, "Jim Wilkins"
wrote:


The house I was raised in, was built with exterior walls of two
layers
of white pine planks on end. these planks were 24 to 36 inches wide,
2
1/2 inches thick and up to 20 feet long. The trees were cut on the
property and floated down the river to a water powered mill much
like
the Taylor Mill with the vertical saw powered by an undershot wheel.
This mill combined the saw mill, a planing mill and a grist mill. I
never saw the mill but remember well the stone fillled cribs of the
dam and flume. We used to use the cast grinding plates from the
grist
mill as a boat anchor.
The site was washed away in the early '50's when an ice jam combined
with driftwood in the forebay of the dam gave way and spread
everything downstream.

This private NH Christian high school teaches both male and female
students the skills needed to restore or duplicate New England
structures from the 1700 and 1800's in their original style.
http://www.turnermills.com/JesseRemingtonArticle.pdf

Last fall the fair had an exhibit of cutting pine planks as large as
yours with a chainsaw running on guides, like the Alaskan mill that
Northern sells but bigger. A couple of huge planks were still there
during the ham radio flea market a few weeks later.

My sister and her husband have repaired and extended their 17xx Maine
farm house using pegged post and beam construction, though not with
timbers that large.

I sized the bandsaw mill I built for 20" logs based on the largest
trees left in the neighborhood and have had to chainsaw slabs off the
stump end of oaks that had been leaning over the house to fit it.
Instead of full width planks I've been cutting each log section into
two 6" x 12" by 12' beams to store the wood in the form of shed
frames. The logs and rough cut beams (cants) dry evenly without
cracking too much if the ends are painted with melted toilet ring wax,
which unlike paraffin wax is flexible enough to not crack open as the
weather changes.

-jsw