?? about working with barn board

[Jim Mackell]

I'm coming into some well seasoned and well used pine barn board. For those who have used it in various projects, what did you do to the wood as received? Trying to figure out if I want to plane the surface that was exposed to the weather or leave it alone. I think I want to plane and joint the pieces I will be using. Yes? No?? Maybe???

[Cody Colston]

Oops, I reread after I originally posted and I see that you have a "weathered" side to the wood.

My wife bought, yes bought, a couple of bookcase/hutch-type pieces from a local furniture dealer that were made of weathered wood. The problem was that there was no attempt made to hide the fresh sawn edges.

Unless you want to go to the design lengths that it will take to hide those new edges, I'd recommend planing it all down to fresh wood. My wife doesn't think so but IMHO, mixing the weathered wood with newly sawn wood looks tacky.

[Philip Rodriquez]

Check for nails and run it through a thickness sander or belt sand it. Old paint and nails will kill your blades. Also, be aware of the dangers of old paint.

[Mike Wilkins]

Nails and paint-not kind to jointer/planer knives. Old paint should flake off with a wire brush; I have used a belt sander with 80 grit paper to remove the initial paint/dirt/grime from some old boards. This is also an easier way to find any hidden nails/spikes/hardware just waiting to attack your planer blades.
I am not fond of the old, weathered wood look on furniture. The old boards that I re-used were planed smooth and finished with clear poly or shellac. And old pine may have a lot of pitch/resins that will gum up blades and bits so plan to do some cleaning afterwards.
Good luck and watch those fingers.

[Troy Turner]

Depends on what projects you plan on making with it. I'm like Cody, don't like the mixing of old and new, but sometimes I don't have a choice. If she says it's fine, well, it's fine :) Cut a couple of pieces, work one down, plane, joint, sand etc. and then just take a regular piece and ask her which one she likes better, if it's for her.

I've been doing frames mostly with mine so I don't worry with the exposed clean edges. Don't have enough to make furniture, but if I did, I wouldn't mix the fresh sides with the old.

[Matt Day]

I might depend on the project I'd use them for, but if the weathered part of the whole deal is the best part of it then don't plane/joint the wood, otherwise you'll just end up with pine boards.

If it's old growth pine with nice grain, then I'd probably plane/joint it and expose that nice old grain. Of course, check for metal and clean it up as best you can before sending sharp knives across it.

[Stephen Edwards]

IMHO, having worked with old barn wood a lot over the years, there are three main factors to consider:

How thick are the boards?
How deep is the weathering?
How old are the boards?

If you have 3/4" boards and if the "weathering" is deep in the weathered side of the board you'll end up with very thin boards if you plane them down.

If the boards are thicker, say a full 1" or thicker, then you've got some play room to expose some truly beautiful lumber, especially if the boards are old, and still end up with 3/4" finished boards.

In Southern Yellow Pine there is a huge difference in color between weathered boards that are old and weathered boards that aren't so old. If the boards are truly old and you plane them down to a smooth, flat surface they won't look anything at all like new SYP. The color will be much darker. It's beautiful!

I have no experience with the species of old pine barn wood that's from your part of the country. I'd suggest trying a piece of it to see what color is underneath the weathering. You may be surprised.

Should you decide to work with the weathered look, I've found that it's interesting to hit the high spots with a belt sander. It makes a nice contrast between the weathered, gray color and the color underneath. This technique also helps to make the piece look better with the fresh sawed edge cuts that will be exposed.

Even working with the weathered look, my preference is to have clean jointed/sanded edges on the edge cuts.

That's my two cents. Enjoy your projects!

[Tom Veatch]

+1 on the beauty of old pine. If the boards or thick enough, my approach would be to get rid of the weathering.

Add a double caution to the embedded metal problem. After very careful inspection and removal of old nails, etc. I still ruined a set of planer blades on a project for a friend and neighbor made from old pine reclaimed from his parents'/grandparents' old barn. Strongly urge using a metal detector before you apply any edged tool to reclaimed wood.

[David DeCristoforo]

Barn board... boy does that give me deja vu! We used to make tons of stuff out of barn board. It's been "out of vogue" for "a while" now... We used to "toast" the fresh cut edges with a propane torch and then hit them with a wire brush to get it to blend better with the weathered faces. Actually I recall a few pieces being set on fire when someone got a bit carried away with the torch...

[Dick Phillip]

I did two basement remodels in old barn wood. One I left completely alone, the other I put a sealer on. Both looked good. Don't forget to where a respirator while cutting it. There is some real nasty stuff in there.