Porsche_Jim,
Yes, I think you are visualizing what I am trying to describe. I tried to find a close-up photo to show you...but no luck. (I could text you a photo if you'd like; just leave a number in the private message place.)
I guess I should have clarified what I mean by Frankenhinges. This is the kind that spaces a bunch of single wraps all the way down the hinge line. You used to see them in the photos of the 1950's and 1960's on sport planes, rat racers, etc. I think they are overkill and buh-tugly. That said, they work fine, I'm sure. If you combine them with the thick, hairy Kevlar line that sounds so techie to some, then you have a monster turbulator that probably makes your control surfaces, well, turbulent. I'm sure that has appeal to some of the aero guys....
Instead, as you have deduced from my less-than-the-best description, if you glued a spruce, bamboo, or other harder material along both edges of a balsa stab and the elevator where they normally meet, and you drill holes directly opposite each other thru the glue-line, then you can pull the Spectra wraps fully tight. I actually use a small pair of needlenose pliers to cinch it up and avoid cutting my fingers. Along a small 1/2A elevator, I put in two hinges per side. Even on a .40-powered Quickie Rat I only use three "hinges" per side--just like I'd do with Klett plastic hinges. That means you only drill 4 or maybe 6 pairs of holes to do an entire split elevator. The holes don't need to be big. Just enough to thread three passes of .011" diameter line thru.
You don't need much of a spar. I've even used the thin basswood strips from the hobby shop. If you are worried about weight, just use a little softer balsa for the surfaces themselves--now that you have a spar to help carry the bending loads.
I'm not the paint and finish guy around here, but I have seen these sewn hinges relieved into the wood surfaces and then filled and painted over. They practically disappear.
There's lots of ways to do things and people develop methods that suit their tastes and skills. I'm just explaining a way--and the materials that go with it--that appeals to me.
The Divot