Replies

1. 
   Rennie | Jul 26, 2006 11:03pm | #1

   With wide pine like that I think I might look into Shaker blanket chests or tables. Might also make great headboards.

   Regard it as just as desirable to build a chicken house as to build a cathedral.
   Frank Lloyd Wright

2. 
   RickL | Jul 26, 2006 11:27pm | #2

   We do antique lumber and if the wood was outside it will need to be kiln or air dried. Kiln dried for furniture is around 8%, air dried a few points higher.  You can glue the wood to itself to increase thickness but not to a substrate as boards. The issue is different materials expand at different rates. Even plain sawn moves at different rates compared to quartersawn so keep that in mind as well.

1. 
   MarkMacLeod | Jul 27, 2006 03:02pm | #3

   Thanks for the suggestions gentlemen. I am going to ponder this pile of wood for a while but in the meantime it is all stickered in the barn. I find it amazing that the THREE layers of wood on this building had no boards less than 10 inches . . . . . and I keep remeinding myself that this was never good carpentry and the wood was just . . . . .wood.mark

3. 
   frenchy | Jul 27, 2006 04:34pm | #4

   MarkMacleod,

     I can buy 22 inch wide boards at my local sawmill. Heck 36" if I travel a bit   What species would you like?  Oak, black walnut,  Hackberry, Tamarack, pine, spruce,  well 19 species are available here..

     Neat thing is no nail holes to fill.

1. 
   jesse | Jul 31, 2006 12:33am | #7

   frenchy, there is good reason why we cut so many timberframes from reclaimed wood. And I guarantee it's not because it is cheaper (much more $$$).

1. 
   frenchy | Jul 31, 2006 03:25am | #8

   jesse,

         I Know it's more expensive.. much much more expensive. 

       I personally would prefer to put that character into the wood myself, but I understand the kind of person who's so impatient they need to buy that charcter.. 

    I also understand about the effects of drying.  I was sooo proud of how tight I made my joints.. Yet a few drying seasons later it was like I  was the sloppiest wood wroker on the planet.

     This was after I'd let the wood dry at least three years.. some timbers had four years of drying..

     I feel I got the worst of both worlds.. If I'd milled everything when it was green I wouldn't have had to spend an average of 8 hours per timber staightening them out and planning them smooth..  When I planned green  timbers I could plane several timbers before I needed to change the blades   with dried wood I replaced the blades at least twice per timber..  When I planned green wood It seldom took more than a half hour to plane everything and then sawing went a lot faster as well.

       I could knock out a  green timber planed, trued,  morticed, tenioned, etc in about an hour or so while dried timbers often took over ten hours each..

    The only thing easier was that dried timbers were easier to move..

    

    

4. 
   Jay | Jul 27, 2006 08:40pm | #5

   I took some old reclaimed pine and made flooring out of it.  It turned out really beautiful.  The floors are soft and distress incredibly easy, but my wife and I love the character that it adds.  I don't generally like the look of stained pine, either, but we stained the flooring a dark coffee color and the grain pattern en masse looks very nice on our floor.

   I also built a queen bed out of some old reclaimed redwood.  Terrible wood for furniture (it is incredibly soft), but it was an experiment and the wood had 'sentimental' value for my wife and I.  I love the character that old wood adds to your work.  It is something that I don't think can be replicated easily with chains, picks, and other kitchen utensils.

1. 
   GrGramps | Jul 28, 2006 09:56pm | #6

   There's a place near me in Zirconia, NC that deals in salvaged wood.
   http://www.wholeloglumber.com/index.htm
   When I visited the owner, he explained that most of the timbers that he saws are over 100 years of age and some over 200. I saw some that had recently arrived that were 16" X 22" and many were over 20' in length. The timbers come from old buildings that are being demolished in various parts of the country. Take a look at what is being built with this old wood.
   Roy