Jessica Pierce-LaRose
07-16-2011, 10:24 AM
There's a lot of places locally selling reclaimed lumber locally; some pretty decent deals at some places and some really bad ones at others.
A couple places specialize in carefully taking down old timber-frames and barns and such so as to repurpose the lumber; some of this wood is from the 1800s and older.
Looking at some old timber frame lumber at an architectural salvage place, it occurred to me that hey, if I came on the right deal, I could probably get most of the base of a bench out of this stuff considerably cheaper than the cost of lumber at other places, and probably start with something dryer.
I'd most likely lose any time I saved on laminating legs because I couldn't "cheat" and partially make my mortises and joints during the laminating process, but with my jury-rigged setup, past experience has proven four-squaring a large piece tends to be a bit easier than prepping long boards for glue up, because the weight of things help them hold still better.
Anyway, financial concerns still keep putting off this project, but I'm keeping my feelers out and gathering supplies as I can.
My question, I passed on a couple of potential legs, because they contained the pith. Old-growth Doug Fir from a reclaimed timber frame structure. The fellow was trying to tell me that since the wood was pulled from a structure from the early 1800's, it would have stopped moving and I wouldn't have the issues with reaction and movement that I would if I say, bought a 6x6 at the lumber yard. While I would expect it to be a whole lot more stable than a new piece of construction lumber, my experience leads me to believe that cutting joinery onto the end of a leg with the pith running down the center like that is going to lead to issues. But I've never worked with something like this before, either. Am I being overly cautious, or am I correct in avoiding this wood for now?
A couple places specialize in carefully taking down old timber-frames and barns and such so as to repurpose the lumber; some of this wood is from the 1800s and older.
Looking at some old timber frame lumber at an architectural salvage place, it occurred to me that hey, if I came on the right deal, I could probably get most of the base of a bench out of this stuff considerably cheaper than the cost of lumber at other places, and probably start with something dryer.
I'd most likely lose any time I saved on laminating legs because I couldn't "cheat" and partially make my mortises and joints during the laminating process, but with my jury-rigged setup, past experience has proven four-squaring a large piece tends to be a bit easier than prepping long boards for glue up, because the weight of things help them hold still better.
Anyway, financial concerns still keep putting off this project, but I'm keeping my feelers out and gathering supplies as I can.
My question, I passed on a couple of potential legs, because they contained the pith. Old-growth Doug Fir from a reclaimed timber frame structure. The fellow was trying to tell me that since the wood was pulled from a structure from the early 1800's, it would have stopped moving and I wouldn't have the issues with reaction and movement that I would if I say, bought a 6x6 at the lumber yard. While I would expect it to be a whole lot more stable than a new piece of construction lumber, my experience leads me to believe that cutting joinery onto the end of a leg with the pith running down the center like that is going to lead to issues. But I've never worked with something like this before, either. Am I being overly cautious, or am I correct in avoiding this wood for now?