resawing barn beams

[ADAM GROSS]

This is my first post so bear with me. I have a stack of oak and pine barn beams that I have acquired and would like to resaw them. I have several projects including a pool table that I would like to use the material on. I'm going to purchase an alaskan sawmill to resaw the beams but have other questions. I was wondering if I should have the material kiln dried just to make sure the moisture content is low enough for furniture or if 100 year old wood is dry enough. I don't have a moisture content gauge. I was also wondering if the wood should be treated for insects if I don't kiln dry, becouse I think if I kiln dry the wood that should take care of the insects. Any information would be helpful on this subject. Thanks.

[Joe Jensen]

You will not need to have it dried. It will be VERY hard. My parents home was built in the 1880s and the fir studs are soo hard you cannot drive nails into them without an air nailer. They cut and work like maple or ash. I think 100 year old oak would be even harder.

[Dave Lehnert]

Just a note on the resaw. Get a metal detector. Bet that beam has lots of nails and screws in it. Mess up your chainsaw quick.
You would be surprised the amount of metal in a tree.

[Matt Woessner]

Adam,
Welcome to the creek. As to your question I don't think you need to kiln dry the wood. I made a workbench out of very similar material. I have not had any problems with shrinkage or splitting. I would acclimate the wood to your shop environment for a couple weeks before you start to work it. On the insects front do you have bugs in the beams? If you don't see any live bugs you should be ok, now if you have bugs in the wood then you could treat the bugs with a fumigant. Simply cover the stack with plastic and seal and apply the fumigant. This would probably be the road I would take. Check out the workbench I made with some old oak.
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=80071

[Jude Tuliszewski]

Not to mention that you will lose about a 1/4" for every cut you make. So if the beam starts at ten inches thick you will only get about 8 1" boards from it using the chain saw.

[ADAM GROSS]

I have started to denail some of the beams and they sure don't make nails like thay use to! Biggest problem has been the real rusty ones breaking off still in the wood.

Matt, your bench looks great!