Not a gloat yet ...

[Dave Novak]

I picked up the pile of oak in the photos below for $100. The story behind it is that it soposedly came from a 100+ year old barn and has been sitting in someone's garage for about 10 years. He claims he never put it to use because he never got around to buying a jointer/planer. Anyway, it's all roughly 1 1/8 thick. There's 12 pieces about 12" wide and 8' long (some that are fairly cupped), and various other's. It appears to have been used as siding on a wall because I found a few cutouts that are the right size for an electrical box. I've never delt with wood this rough before, but it will be a nice exercise employing my rarely used 12" jointer/planer combo. I guess step one is to get a metal detector. I suspect I should rip the boards with significant cupping in half to preserve as much thickness as possible. Any other suggestions for a newbie ? There's a lot of knots, which may be a little rough on the blades, but might look good on a rustic piece of furniture. We'll see i guess.

[Julian Nicks]

I would strongly suggest that you only plane the pieces you are going to use for a current project. Oak likes to move quite a bit. If you plane it all down and it cups again, then you'll end up with thinner than desired stock.

[Dave Novak]

I'm not doubting what you say, but that stinks. I was hoping to clean it all up, pick the best of the boards, and depending on what I get decide what to build. I would have guessed the movement would be minimal in wood this old, but like I said, this is the first time I've worked with anything this rough. Thanks for the advice.

[Randy Carnley]

I agree about milling only what you are using. I recently reclaimed some 100+ year old heart pine that was salvaged from our church renovation. I had great plans. Planed most of it down to size and within two days, most of the wider boards had cupped like crazy. I thought that after 100 years this stuff would be as stable as could be....not.

[Dave Novak]

I took one of the shorts and cleaned up one side. There's going to be lots of knots, but overall I'm pretty pleased. Grain pattern definitely has some "attitude". I'll have to figure out some sort of rustic looking piece. LOML isn't much of a rustic style fan, but one of my kids will think it's cool.