Barn wood furniture

[Ron Knutson]

Anyone with any info to help would be greatly appreciated. I have been doing custom cabinets and high end residential finish carpentry for quite some time. However a good friend of mine is doing a complete remodel and wants me to build them some barnwood furniture. I am curious as to the integrity of barnwood. Can it be machined without it ripping apart? Will it hold a fastener? Does it take glue? Should I build a box to be the inside of the cabinet and just skin it with barnwood? The last question is what I am leaning towards currently. Anyone that would be willing to enlighten me and share some of your knowledge with me would be greatly, greatly appreciated.

Thank you,
Ron Knutson

[Erik Loza]

Any idea what species it is? Down here, Longleaf Pine is the common barnwood and it's quite nice for furniture making but not sure what they use in other parts of the country. Whatever you decide to do, please be aware that barnwood is often full of all sorts of stuff. I've gone through hidden screws and even bullets in salvage lumber. Might be worth using a metal detector if you have nice bandsaw blades.

Erik

[Art Mann]

I use barnwood salvaged from a 19th century one room schoolhouse to CNC router carve rustic signs and it is all heart pine. The school collapsed when we tried to move it about 30 years ago so the wood was salvaged and used to build a tractor shed. We also had to buy some rough sawn Southern Yellow Pine to finish the project. Fast forward 30 years. A giant pine tree fell on the tractor shed (no tractor inside) and collapsed the structure. As it turns out, the long leaf heart pine is in as good a shape as it was when we built the shed but the SYP is rotted. The "dust' from the carving is partly a gummy residue, some of which requires removal from the grooves with a dental tool. Burning the scrap wood results in a thick black smoke kind of like burning car tires.

Our barnwood was in better shape after staying outside for 130 years than the SYP was after 30 years. How durable your barnwood is depends on the species and whether it was old growth or regrowth.

[Art Mann]

Here is an example. Click to enlarge. This sign is about 16 inches wide and about 7/8" thick. Look how closely the growth rings are spaced. This wood is 130 years old and has had nothing done to it except brushing with a stiff brush.

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Edit: The material is quite solid. The biggest problem with building furniture with it is that it smells strongly of turpentine until it has aired out.

[Richard Young]

You also need to smell the wood. You dont want wood that was used in horse or animal barns for the stalls. When you cut or plane it you will definetly notice a distinct odor.

[Lee Schierer]

In some parts of the country (Pennsylvania) they used Hemlock for barn siding and Chestnut or White Oak for beams. Just remember that any cuts will expose wood that doesn't have the patina of the edges and faces.

[Jim Becker]

I will add that your friend needs to understand that if you leave anything "naturally weathered", it's going to be a pain in the touckus to clean. Trust me, I know that from experience as our great room had many cabinets and a mantle made from natural barn wood. All that has subsequently been replaced and only the wainscot remains as barn wood now.

If you are careful with your machining, you can "clean it up" while retaining a good part of the weathered ambiance that's "soaked in". To do that, you'll want to take minimal cuts on the "show side"...just enough to clean and smooth it...and do any actual thickness reduction on the "no see" side. Also...be really, really careful about embedded metal. You need to get it out before any machining or cutting for both safety and to insure you don't damage any cutters. Sometimes you may only have a fleck of broken nail, but it can really do nasty things.

[Art Mann]

I agree with Jim. I never run barn wood through any woodworking machinery until I have gone over it carefully with a metal detector. I have been saved many times from a nail that was absolutely invisible to visual inspection.

[Ron Knutson]

Thank you all for the input. As far as the species, I have done some planing of some of the material and what I have completed so far looks to me like it is butternut. I will try to keep this thread updated and post some pics as time allows. I still think I am going to make a box out of some paint grade ply and then skin the outside with the barn wood. I think it will be a fun expierience and will give me a chance to explore some new and different methods.