Seasoned or Green?

[Dana Stanley]

Ok so I'm studying up, rounding up my grand dads chisels, planes, mortise scribes etc. from 1913 or so. That is when he graduated Sloyed Training School so he could teach this stuff In manual dexterity classes! My hope is to be framing my mill shed by the spring time.
I thought I would need to let my milled lumber dry, but I am reading a book called Build a Classic Timber-Framed House by Jack Sobon, and Jack says you should frame it with green lumber, as seasoned lumber will just make it harder! My plan was to use Oak frame and pine for sheathing/siding boards, and roof boards, but he also claims that Pine is better for the frame, less shrinkage, and easier to work!
So what say's you folks?

[Brad_bb]

I tried pine for the exterior board and batten.  If you have carpenter bees, and I'm assuming in Mass you well do, they'll love to bore 1/2" tunnels in your pine.  I would not use Pine for exterior.

The following applies mostly to hardwood.  White pine is more stable drying if good quality.
Yes you can timber frame green.  But since it will take awhile, you will have timbers start trying on the outside and moving some.  Not a big deal.  Cutting dry joints is not really a big deal.  I cut a lot of timbers and keep them in my shed for a year before I use them.  It helps me because I can plane them to final dimension after they've done 70% of the movement they will do in that time period.  

There's two ways to look at it.  If you're a timber shop with a lot of guys cutting, and you cut the frame green, and get it up and assembled fast, that is great as it will dry as an assembly and all should be good.

The problem comes in when only one or two guys are cutting a frame.  You cut the joinery on the first timber, but it takes you a year or more to finish cutting the frame.  By then you could have enough movement from drying in your first timbers that you could have fit up problems.  You won't have problems with all the timbers, but significant with a few, and a little with a bunch of others.  

So in my opinion, do it the first way, or dry your timbers for a year so they are more stable, then cut the joinery.  Then, you'll have less movement come fit up/raising time.

[Dana Stanley]

Most homes around here have pine trim, and I haven't seen a lot of Carpenter Bee damage, but some insecticide in the paint may be the thing for that!!. Although  I did have them in my wall once. They bored in right up to the paper layer on the inside of the drywall. It was kinda freaky, I could hear and feel them buzzing just on the other side of the paper. 
My first project is only 12X14 so I should be able to that in the course of a few weekends.

[Jim_Rogers]

Cut the joints in green timbers, it's easier. Pine for siding is fine, it has been used for siding for decades here in the northeast.

Jim Rogers

[Dave Shepard]

Nearly four centuries, actually. 

[Al_Smith]

The big old farm house I grew up in was built in 1919 and the carriage barn was built before that .The little barn is oak timbered with pine car siding boards .After a zillion coats of paint in  100 years it's still fine .

[Mad Professor]

The big old farm house I grew up in was built in 1919 and the carriage barn was built before that .The little barn is oak timbered with pine car siding boards .After a zillion coats of paint in  100 years it's still fine .

Lead paint had it's virtues

[mike_belben]

I had to move from Mass to TN to find out what a carpenter bee is.  

They like to eat wood but i prefer to feed them starting fluid.  I just wish it was still 99cents a can.

[D L Bahler]

If carpenter bees are a concern, you can treat the wood with borax.