I’m cleaning out an area of an old horse barn to remodel a space for my workshop. The stalls are all built out of rough cut oak approx. 2″ x 6″, 8″ boards 10′ long and shorter pieces on the front where the sider doors are. They are obviously dirty and have oils in some of them from where the horses have rubbed against them. I started dismantling them and decided to cut one up, I took a small section and ripped it in half and then cut away the old face to see what lay beneath. It looks like its red oak not sure though. It doesnt have that dark red color of the new stuff that you see in the racks at a lumber yard, maybe its just the age of the wood.
There is also a newer area with stalls made with what i think maybe white oak 2″x 8-10″ x 11′ long roughcut.
Couple questions:
1. Does the longer that wood sits the harder/denser it gets? and if thats true does that make it undesireable to work with or is it better?
2. I’d like to take it to a local lumber mill to have some of it resawn into other thicknesses so i can plane to finish thicknesses (1″, 3/4″, 1/2″ or whatever). Do any of you think they would do this service for someone bringing in their own wood and not buying it from them. The wood is clean and far as nails or metal goes, I’m going over every piece as I take it off. Just want to make sure that my time is well spent doing this or not.
3. If it is desireable lumber I’d also like to sell some of it as well and was looking for suggestions as to its worth just selling it as it comes off the stall or resawn from the mill.
I am a wood miser and throw nothing away and I hope this wood is worth the trouble of saving it.
Any suggestions or advice is greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
John
Replies
Part of the conversion of our barn to a working shop was to remove the stalls, bins and gunked-up concoctions rotting in place since the 1830's. Most of the stalls and knee walls were Red Oak. I'd classify the wood as "utility grade" with widths no greater than 6 inches, plenty of knots, and warpage. I gave away the best of the wood (there were a few nice pieces). The remainder, most of it anyways, ended up in the woodstove. One reason, beyond the grade of the lumber, was that it smelled horrible! One hundred and sixty years of animal funk does not come out of wood easily - no matter what you do. It was noticeable on rainy and/or humid days.
Most mills will deal with reclaimed lumber but require that the wood be clean and free of damaging objects (rocks, nails, tar, etc.). If you bring them funky looking timbers that smell like hooves, you might get the cold shoulder.
Large, clear Oak timbers have some value. Boards, framing lumber and shorts... not so much. If the timbers are Chestnut - you've got something worthy of the effort required to reclaim them.
Regards.
Thanks for the replies, however this stuff isnt that old and the majority of it is 8" lumber only 6 of the 18 stalls are 6". I was told they are only about 10-15 yrs old and the other 7 newer stalls with the white oak are only 8 yrs old. So maybe the "funk" hasnt settled in, they really arent that bad as far as grim and nasty stuff goes.
The 4' piece i did clean up was pretty clear for the most part, only a couple small tight knots could be seen, but who knows with the rest of it. I was really hoping to be able to use it to make some pieces for the house.
Which brings me to my next question; being in the barn for approx 10 yrs is it dry enough to use for furniture projects? I also have another shed in which to store it, should I just stack it one on another or sticker it?
It seems there isnt really a bad funk from it and it looks pretty fair so maybe I got lucky and a good batch. I'll get a few pieces together and clean em up and take some pics ond post em here.
Thanks again,
John
The only way to tell if you got a good batch is to try it out. If so, I don't see any reason why you couldn't make anything you want out of it. After all, it's for your personal use.
Also, I sticker all my wood except scraps. More habit than necessity, I think. After ten years, the wood should be plenty dry to work with, unless you live in a very humid area, and even then it should be very close.
I'd recommend using a moisture meter to determine actual moisture content. Around seven or eight percent (more or less) is usually good.
--Dan
Dan,
Thanks for answering my question about storing it. I have access to some hardwood crating that I can rip into strips for stickers. I also plan on getting a moisture meter to check the moisture in the wood. I'm in Rochester, NY area so not that humid here.
Thanks again,
John
I'd have to say I'm with Beachfarm on this one. Oak is such a common wood that iin many parts of the country, it would not have much value when compared to the ease of obtaining new. Still, like you, I don't like to throw anything away. So I would probably keep it, at least for a while, just in case (unless it really did smell funky!).
--Dan
We have a reclaimed lumber yard and old oak, chestnut, heart pine is very desirable stuff with our clients. Wormholes, nailholes is considered character grade and get the highest prices. New wood is too common for our clients. We do the denailing here and use s bandmill to saw the timbers up. Blades are about $20 so if it gets destroyed it's not a major loss. Reclaimed lumber is a big business. If you look at the expensive desgn and architectural magazines you will see plenty of ads for such.
I've seen the ads for reclaimed woods. Some of the most beautiful wood I've ever seen, in fact. Over the years I have worked with a considerable amount of wormy chestnut, but that's all as far as reclaimed wood is concerned. Of course, with most reclaimed woods, new lumber of that species is extremely expensive, if it exists at all, and the quality of the new wood is usually rather poor. This is not the case with oak. Fortuneately, that is still pretty plentiful. So I would be more inclined to use new oak than reclaimed if the reclaimed wood was not particularly good quality.
I must say I'm a little jealous of you having that reclaimed lumber yard. There is nothing like that around my area. Here, reclaimed wood is usually the result of someone tearing down an old barn on a piece of property they inherited or something and discovering that the framing lumber was really something special. Since most of the old growth forest is gone, new lumber just doesn't have the quality it used to. I'd really like to have some of that heart pine.
--Dan
I also have a similar opinion as beachfarm on this one. 3 years ago, I gutted my horsebarn and turned it into my drying shed for rather large collection of hardwood. The timbers were large (10" x 8" X 20 to 25 feet long. They were white oak, and absolutely reaked of horse urine/smell. I sawed them up into smaller boards on a bandmill, and the freshly exposed lumber still smelled so bad, I ended up burning it. These beams were low to the ground, and exposed to the animals.
Red and White Oak are extremely common and inexpensive hardwoods. If you found a local sawyer with a small milling operation, you could duplicate the material without the headaches of resawing, cleaning, etc.... your wood.
Now, on the other hand, if you're looking for an adventure, then have at it. From a financial standpoint, better off not doing it.
Jeff
about 25 years ago my father in law(and a long time carpenter) built a butcher block table and gave it to my wife and myself as a wedding present
materials were oak, out of a barn------and my father in law enjoyed telling us how the table was so beautiful because cows had been pizzing on the lumber for 120 years----------------
anyhow-------(he said) he ran the stuff through a planer a few times------and after he took off about 1/4"----the lumber looked and smelled like it came from a lumberyard just last week-----brilliant,gleaming new.
so---my advice would be to cut a few pieces up-----and see for yourself.
still have the table--still use it every day.
stephen
Hey thanks to all for the replies and information.
Hazlett, i bet that table looks awesome, and what better wood preservative than 120 year old cow pee! lmao
Thanks again to you all for answering, I'll try to clean some up and post a couple pictures of the wood.
John
This forum post is now archived. Commenting has been disabled