In a message dated 98-07-26 00:26:31 EDT, Bill Millios wrote:
snip snip for brevity....
<< In one of his books, Tedd Benson recommends using a peg that
 is two inches longer than the timber at hand.  That way, if the end
 of the peg starts to split, you can cut off the end, and continue
 driving the peg.  If your peg is the same size as the timber, then
 you have two problems - the first is that the starter taper never
 clears the other side of the timber (to be cut off), and the second
 is that if the peg starts to split, you're screwed.  You really can't
 back these out once you've got them in there.  Stuck, but good.

 Bill Millios
 who lurks here from time to time
  >>

Excellent points Bill!  (pun intended!)  They're even a b**ch to drill out!
Ship augers don't like cutting end grain much, especially compressed stuff!
DAMHIKT...only way is to drive them all the way through like the arrow that
got stuck in Gus's legbone in Lonesome Dove.
BTW,  talk about nontraditional  timberframing, have you ever seen Benson's
shop? Only wood handled thing in there is the pull chain for the terlet!  We
got a power scarfer, a power mortiser, a power tennoner, a power chamfer
burfl, a power hole-putter-inner, a power dovetailer, a power surfacer, a
power everything!
Nick, who always seems to be making some sort of points...