Dirty wood

[Mark Wyatt]

That's a great thread title! :D

I've recently picked up some old pine which in a former life was a flooring joist. It's beautiful wood underneath, but it is coated with dirty, sooty residue.

I'd like to use this wood for my first 100% hand tool built project. This means my normal method of cleaning the wood, a belt sander, won't work.

What would skilled Neanders recommend as a replacement strategy for removing this grime?

[Robert LaPlaca]

Mark,

I am not a pure hand tool user by any means, but I usually use a stainless steel wire brush to dislodge any grit and then maybe a quick vacuum with the shop vac, before I face the board with the jointer.

[David Keller NC]

Presuming you wish to totally hand-process your lumber, you'll need a fore or jack plane. That doesn't necessarily mean a different plane than the one(s) you already own, just that it needs to be set up with a wide-open mouth and a heavily curved (cambered) blade. On mine, I've the blade ground and honed to a 10" radius. Others prefer an 8" radius, or a 12" or even 14" radius.

While it's true that dirt/grit will prematurely dull the blade in the plane, as long as we're not talking big chunks of gravel, a quick stropping will bring the blade back, and it will only take one pass to remove the offending contamination down to pristine wood. From there, it's 4-squaring with the jointer, and if need be, a smoother.

[Michael Faurot]

What would skilled Neanders recommend as a replacement strategy for removing this grime?

A scrub plane.

[Steve Southwood]

Scrub and vac about the only way. Of course, you can't use the vac either:) so, a shaker style broom?

[James Taglienti]

Honestly, i've used a lot of reclaimed lumber... I denailed it and ran it through a surface planer (heresy!) with some old blades... that grit and grime is rough on your cutters. I'd recommend a dust mask when you're working it, too... after removing just the first 1/16" or so the wood was fresh and I could switch to neander methods, of course

ps
watch out for nails and bits of metal, they can be everywhere you don't expect them. they can seriously damage a plane cutter (and your free time) and put chips and gouge around the mouth of the plane, right where you'd want them the least.

[Bob Strawn]

That's a great thread title! :D

I've recently picked up some old pine which in a former life was a flooring joist. It's beautiful wood underneath, but it is coated with dirty, sooty residue.

I'd like to use this wood for my first 100% hand tool built project. This means my normal method of cleaning the wood, a belt sander, won't work.

What would skilled Neanders recommend as a replacement strategy for removing this grime?

Scraping works. Get a nice hoe to do the initial clean up. Follow with a drawknife.

Bob

[Jim Koepke]

Do you have any junk plane blades lying around?

That is what I would use.

Junker tools to do the junker work.

jim

[Thomas Nye]

We lost our hunting cabin to a timber company that twisted the rules to suite their needs. We had to purchase a new cabin and were lucky to find one in the area. We stayed in the old one until we built a new one. When we went to tear down the old one, my father and I realized the entire cabin was made from wormy chestnut. From what I have read, the wood is rare and valuable. Not wanting to sell it, we kept it and have used the reclaimed boards ( several hundred board feet ) for projects. Many of the boards has nails in the end. I have since pulled all the nails from the boards. Since the boards are close to 100 yrs old, you can imaging the dirt and grime in them. I have used several different hand planes to smooth the wood, joint it and use it to make various projects from picture frames to end tables. Since the wood is so rare, I ONLY use it for that special project that I feel will benefit from the ancient wood.

[Greg Crawford]

Number 2 on the scraper. Inexpensive, easy to "sharpen", easy to control the amount of material taken off. You may even want to try it without a burr.

[Jim Koepke]

This is likely a little out there, but on one of the TV shows my wife loves to watch, Holmes on Homes, they used something like a sand blaster filled with ground up dry ice to remove mold from rafters and wood in a house.

Use with ventilation and proper breathing gear.

jim

[Mark Wyatt]

We lost our hunting cabin to a timber company that twisted the rules to suite their needs. We had to purchase a new cabin and were lucky to find one in the area. We stayed in the old one until we built a new one. When we went to tear down the old one, my father and I realized the entire cabin was made from wormy chestnut. From what I have read, the wood is rare and valuable. Not wanting to sell it, we kept it and have used the reclaimed boards ( several hundred board feet ) for projects. Many of the boards has nails in the end. I have since pulled all the nails from the boards. Since the boards are close to 100 yrs old, you can imaging the dirt and grime in them. I have used several different hand planes to smooth the wood, joint it and use it to make various projects from picture frames to end tables. Since the wood is so rare, I ONLY use it for that special project that I feel will benefit from the ancient wood.

I also have a limited quantity of wormy chestnut from an old house. It is beutiful wood, saved for special projects.

It can be a lot of work to reclaim old lumber (I've pulled over 10 pounds of nails and other metal from these pine boards so far), but the result is often worth it.

[Mark Wyatt]

This is likely a little out there, but on one of the TV shows my wife loves to watch, Holmes on Homes, they used something like a sand blaster filled with ground up dry ice to remove mold from rafters and wood in a house.

Use with ventilation and proper breathing gear.

jim

Wish my shop was big enough for a sand blaster! But, I wanted to do this "old school" anyway.

[Mark Wyatt]

Presuming you wish to totally hand-process your lumber, you'll need a fore or jack plane. That doesn't necessarily mean a different plane than the one(s) you already own, just that it needs to be set up with a wide-open mouth and a heavily curved (cambered) blade. On mine, I've the blade ground and honed to a 10" radius. Others prefer an 8" radius, or a 12" or even 14" radius.

While it's true that dirt/grit will prematurely dull the blade in the plane, as long as we're not talking big chunks of gravel, a quick stropping will bring the blade back, and it will only take one pass to remove the offending contamination down to pristine wood. From there, it's 4-squaring with the jointer, and if need be, a smoother.


Thanks for the tip. Sounds like a three part process:

(1) wire brush
(2) sweep it off
(3) use a beat up plane (one I don't mind damaging), put a cambered blade in it, and open the mouth.

I can do that!

[Mark Wyatt]

Do you have any junk plane blades lying around?

That is what I would use.

Junker tools to do the junker work.

jim


Dang! I just realized I passed up a beat up Craftsman number 5 clone at a yard sale last week that would have been perfect for this! I could have had it for $5 if I'd have asked.

Oh well, I'll just have to go to some yard sales this weekend and look for another. Darn. ;)

[Mark Wyatt]

Thanks for the tip. Sounds like a three part process:

(1) wire brush
(2) sweep it off
(3) use a beat up plane (one I don't mind damaging), put a cambered blade in it, and open the mouth.

I can do that!

All,

Thanks for the help. I applied the above three step process (with some sawing performed by a Stanley Shark saw (thanks to another thread a few days agao)) to go from image 1 to image 2 below on a small sample tonight. I used a recently found Stanley #4 frankenplane with a slightly and quickly cambered blade to remove the grit. Moved on to my other planes from there.

[Thomas Nye]

I also have a limited quantity of wormy chestnut from an old house. It is beutiful wood, saved for special projects.

It can be a lot of work to reclaim old lumber (I've pulled over 10 pounds of nails and other metal from these pine boards so far), but the result is often worth it.

It is beautiful wood. It has grain similar to red oak, only it doesnt seem as hard and has the unique worm holes. Nearly all the boards we saved were 1" thick and about 6" wide. All seemed to be in the 5-6ft range. Also had some 2x4's also. Perfect for that special project. It is alot of work reclaiming the wood, but it is so worth it when you see what beautiful boards your left with.

[bridger berdel]

I have a scraper for work like that. the handle is one I made, but the factory handles are fine. the blade is one sold for removing old paint. it has 4 sides, one or two of which are sometimes serrated. sharpen with a file, no stone no burnishing.

[Bryan Wuest]

Shortly after moving to San Antonio, I was cleaning out my barn that has a dirt floor when I discovered about 30 old window sashes. They were made from everything from Sycamore to Walnut and all covered in dirt, grime, spider webs, and some animal waste. I donned my rubber gloves and a respirator and moved them out in the sun where I washed them all down with 1/4 cup of bleach in a 5 gal bucket of water using a stiff plastic brush. I just laid them across my saw horses about 8 at a time and scrubbed, turned, scrubbed, turned, etc until all were clean. I got rid of every bit of grime and then left them in the sun for an hour or so to dry. This worked perfectly and I didn't have to worry about ruining a tool on grit and grime. This method also makes it a lot easier to see iron staining and other potential trouble caused by metal. Use a metal detector to be 100% sure but this gives you a place to start.