what to do with a larger piece of chestnut ??

[steven mendez]

Hello Hello,
First time poster here, but very eager to learn the woodworking.
I am very new at this and like to make reclaimed projects. I purchesed a large piece of chestnut 7" wide 4" thick and 5 foot tall. heavy as heck. when i purchesed it ( for 50 bucks ) I told the gentelman i was going to have it cut into 3/4 slabs and he looked at me like i was crazy.
question is, would you guys try and use it like it is, maybe polish it up and make something or would you cut it and use it for more than one project?
Thanks for the input.

steven mendez
fryeburg maine

[Jim Becker]

If that is really chestnut, it's worth a bundle...wink, wink...nod, nod...

Most folks would never cut a slab thin like that as it wouldn't be in scale with how most folks would use a slab. After working it flat and smooth, you'd be left with between 1/2" and 5/8" thickness. A substantial slab like that would quite often be cut to 8/4 (2") for use as a table top or similar, for example. Your formatting is a little messed up (site issues require you to come in via http rather than https to solve the formatting problem at the moment), so I think you meant it's 4" thick now. So maybe halving that would make more sense than cutting it into thin slabs, particularly if it has nice figure. But without photos, it's really, really, really hard to give you opinions on how best to use this particular piece of wood.

[John K Jordan]

Hello Hello,
First time poster here, but very eager to learn the woodworking.
I am very new at this and like to make reclaimed projects. I purchesed a large piece of chestnut 7" wide 4" thick and 5 foot tall. heavy as heck. when i purchesed it ( for 50 bucks ) I told the gentelman i was going to have it cut into 3/4 slabs and he looked at me like i was crazy.
question is, would you guys try and use it like it is, maybe polish it up and make something or would you cut it and use it for more than one project?
Thanks for the input.


The HUGE question: is it American Chestnut? The real stuff, the stuff that doesn't grow any more, the stuff almost impossible to find, the stuff woodturners and woodworkers would die for? Or is it Chinese Chestnut, common, give-away wood, OK but also makes good firewood. :)

If American Chestnut, don't get in a big hurry, think about it a while. Learn on some other kind of wood. I've got some pieces almost that size that I've had for over 5 years while I think about what to do with them. Do you do any woodturning? Is it "wormy" chestnut? Chestnut works and finishes beautifully but wormy is better. I have some 4/4 wormy chestnut I guard and use a bit at a time for small things, such as these:

376290

It won't go bad if you store it for a while. My stock came from a log buried in the mud under a creek for maybe 1/2 a century.

Tell you what, If it's American Chestnut, I'll drive up and take it off your hands, give you the $50 back, and just for fun bring some nice slabs of walnut, cherry, and oak for you to play with. ;)

JKJ

[steven mendez]

<p>

The HUGE question: is it American Chestnut? The real stuff, the stuff that doesn&#39;t grow any more, the stuff almost impossible to find, the stuff woodturners and woodworkers would die for? Or is it Chinese Chestnut, common, give-away wood, OK but also makes good firewood. :) If American Chestnut, don&#39;t get in a big hurry, think about it a while. Learn on some other kind of wood. I&#39;ve got some pieces almost that size that I&#39;ve had for over 5 years while I think about what to do with them. Do you do any woodturning? Is it &quot;wormy&quot; chestnut? Chestnut works and finishes beautifully but wormy is better. I have some 4/4 wormy chestnut I guard and use a bit at a time for small things, such as these: 376290 It won&#39;t go bad if you store it for a while. My stock came from a log buried in the mud under a creek for maybe 1/2 a century. Tell you what, If it&#39;s American Chestnut, I&#39;ll drive up and take it off your hands, give you the $50 back, and just for fun bring some nice slabs of walnut, cherry, and oak for you to play with. ;) JKJ Thank you Gentlemen, I would like to think it is american chestnut. The 88 y/o gentleman i got it from said to me &quot; they dont grow anymore &quot; I coud have been duped though. i will go into my setting and remove the link from my signiture sorry bout that.</p>

[steven mendez]

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here are a few pictures, can you guys tell what it is by these pics? from the pictures i see on the internet the end grain looks different.

[John K Jordan]

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here are a few pictures, can you guys tell what it is by these pics? from the pictures i see on the internet the end grain looks different.

Could be, it's ring porous. But it's hard to tell from an sawn end of an old board - the details of the end grain are obscured. The appearance and color of a species of wood can vary as much as the the appearance of humans.

Try these:

http://www.hobbithouseinc.com/personal/woodpics/chestnut.htm

http://www.wood-database.com/american-chestnut/

Then, to take a closer look follow the instructions in section #7 on this page to prepare a clean end grain sample:
http://www.wood-database.com/wood-articles/wood-identification-guide/
In particular, look for dendritic latewood pore arrangement and compare to the end grain photos on the two sites given above.

Note the "Still stumped?" box that follows section #7. You can send off a sample and get an ID at no cost.

I thought you said it was 7"x4". It looks closer to 2" thick. Since this board contains the pith and is cracked all the way down the length it's usefulness will be limited regardless of what wood it is. Even so, it would still be good for some things if it's real chestnut.

BTW, you are still getting the crazy character codes in your messages. The messages should be easier to read if you log into SMC with this URL: http://www.sawmillcreek.org/forum.php

JKJ

[Jeff Ramsey]

The American Chestnut is actually not extinct. Breeding efforts have been going on for years in order to breed a blight-resistant strain of tree. Those involved from Penn State are convinced that eventually the tree will flourish once again. A 100' tall American Chestnut would be nice to see. For more information, see this:

https://phys.org/news/2017-05-american-chestnut-slower.html

[Jim Becker]

Yea, PSU and others are doing good work with American Chestnut and others to solve the genetic riddle and provide a strong going-forward path for the species. They have learned a lot from examining trees that managed to survive the terrible problem that led to near extinction and it's very promising it appears.

[steven mendez]

Thanks for the links JKJ. as for the weird language on screen I logged in with the link you provided. I see what you mean about the pith and the crack. Lesson learned on my end. This is the first time i bought anything like this so i am glad i only paid 50 bucks for it. I do believe that at some point i will use it and make something nice. Sorry about he dimensions but as you can see from the pictures its actually 11 wide 4 thick and 5 foot tall. I believe it is chestnut but for my sanity and for clarification I will take a sample and sent it to the forestry lab for identification. Thanks all.




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[Mike Manning]

The American Chestnut is actually not extinct. Breeding efforts have been going on for years in order to breed a blight-resistant strain of tree. Those involved from Penn State are convinced that eventually the tree will flourish once again. A 100' tall American Chestnut would be nice to see. For more information, see this:

https://phys.org/news/2017-05-american-chestnut-slower.html

Wouldn't that be grand? Won't be something most of us will ever see but heartening to believe it's possible! Thanks for sharing the link.

[Tony Joyce]

Based on what I can see in the pictures, I would say with some confidence that it's Pine. Probably Heart Pine. The pictures are not consistent with any Chestnut I have or any I have used.

[Bill Orbine]

Based on what I can see in the pictures, I would say with some confidence that it's Pine. Probably Heart Pine. The pictures are not consistent with any Chestnut I have or any I have used.

I'm afraid I'm going to have to agree that the wood is not Chestnut. The lumber looks more like douglas for rather than pine.....but we need better pictures, I think.

Still.....I don't think you wasted your money. People love big distressed lumber and I for one have a customer who needs something like what you have. 50 bucks?

[Jim Becker]

Yea, that cut edge says "d fir" to me...which is wonderful stuff in its own right. I pay about $7.50 a board foot for vertical grain D-fir.

[Mel Fulks]

Heart pine

[Andrew Hughes]

No need to send out a sample just cut about 1 inch off the end. And smell the end of the board your nose will tell you if it's a conifer.
If the smell is repulsive then maybe Chestnut :)

[John K Jordan]

...Sorry about he dimensions but as you can see from the pictures its actually 11 wide 4 thick and 5 foot tall....

Ah, that makes more sense!! That's a respectable chuck of timber regardless of what it actually is, useful for lots of things even after the cracks are cut away. I would probably cut it into turning squares and blanks.

JKJ

[Mark Wooden]

Do you have a block plane, or any plane really- clean off about 12" of a face and edge and then post a pic. A flash pic of old end grain for i.d. is a ring toss. By that reckoning, the pile of boards I have in my shop are heartpinedougfirwhiteashchestnutwood. ;-)

[John K Jordan]

Do you have a block plane, or any plane really- clean off about 12" of a face and edge and then post a pic. A flash pic of old end grain for i.d. is a ring toss.
By that reckoning, the pile of boards I have in my shop are heartpinedougfirwhiteashchestnutwood. ;-)

Ha! I'll have to remember that. I have some nice tubs of of poplarsoftmaplestainedhollybirchsweetgumunknownexo tic turning blanks.

Stephen, also, try to get a clean end grain picture to eliminate the saw cut smear on the rings. A clean cut on the end grain can show instantly if it is actually a ring porous hardwood, the easiest and most significant tell.

The article I mentioned is a good place to start but better is the book "Identifying Wood" by R. Bruce Hoadley, still available. He includes a decision tree of descriptions and macro photographs of end grain for common hardwoods. (Positive ID on conifers is a different issue.)

Hoadley shows how to use a single-edge razor blade to clean up the end grain for examination. All that is really needed is a small piece that shows several rings - I usually cut a block about 1/2" long and maybe 1/4" to 1/2" wide, only thick enough to hold onto. Sometimes a small sample of old wood can be soaked in water or even boiled to make it easier to shave cleanly. He recommends a 10x lens which I do use, although I do have a low-power stereo microscope which makes things easier. This lighted magnifier is the absolute best I've found, and cheap too!:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CMDIOBK/

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I found this magnifier so useful I bought several for the shop, house, and as gifts.

JKJ

[Danny Hamsley]

I agree with several others. It is a yellow pine. From the color, it is heart yellow pine, probably longleaf. It certainly is not chesthut. Chestnut is ring porous with large earlywood pores and small latewood pores all filled with tyloses.

[steven mendez]

I&#39;m afraid I&#39;m going to have to agree that the wood is not Chestnut. The lumber looks more like douglas for rather than pine.....but we need better pictures, I think. Still.....I don&#39;t think you wasted your money. People love big distressed lumber and I for one have a customer who needs something like what you have. 50 bucks?
Well looks like the guy pulled one over on me, but shame on me. thats why the forums are a great place to learn. I am sure that i will be able to find something to do with it. who would have thought that there are 115 species of pine and over 1000 tree species in N.America alone.. geeeze lasta lot of different woods to keep in ones head.

[Mike Manning]

Well looks like the guy pulled one over on me, but shame on me. thats why the forums are a great place to learn. I am sure that i will be able to find something to do with it. who would have thought that there are 115 species of pine and over 1000 tree species in N.America alone.. geeeze lasta lot of different woods to keep in ones head.

Steven,
A couple of days before Xmas I went to look at an old red & gray Craftsman 6-drawer top chest. The seller was an 83-year old lung cancer survivor. He was proud to tell me he was the original owner. He'd bought that tool chest in 1954 in Corpus Christi. I spent about two hours there talking. I ended up taking home 3 vintage Craftsman toolboxes. Before I left and after getting a feel for the young fellow I felt I could tell him that the tool chest as made in Oct '72. He was very apologetic and explained he didn't intentionally lead me astray. He did keep trying to tell me that it was '54 and why. Long way of getting to my point, he may very well have thought it was Chestnut and now he can't tell the difference anymore. I'd bet if you took it back to him and said it's not Chestnut he'd give you your money back. I hope you get some of that Chestnut one of these days for sure! Good luck and I think you've been a good sport about it.

Mike

[Joe Cowan]

It looks like heart pine. Probably a beam from a barn etc that was salvaged.

[steven mendez]

Steven, A couple of days before Xmas I went to look at an old red & gray Craftsman 6-drawer top chest. The seller was an 83-year old lung cancer survivor. He was proud to tell me he was the original owner. He&#39;d bought that tool chest in 1954 in Corpus Christi. I spent about two hours there talking. I ended up taking home 3 vintage Craftsman toolboxes. Before I left and after getting a feel for the young fellow I felt I could tell him that the tool chest as made in Oct &#39;72. He was very apologetic and explained he didn&#39;t intentionally lead me astray. He did keep trying to tell me that it was &#39;54 and why. Long way of getting to my point, he may very well have thought it was Chestnut and now he can&#39;t tell the difference anymore. I&#39;d bet if you took it back to him and said it&#39;s not Chestnut he&#39;d give you your money back. I hope you get some of that Chestnut one of these days for sure! Good luck and I think you&#39;ve been a good sport about it. Mike
Yes that could be the case. I do not take it to bad, just for the fact of my own ignorance with different wood species. Ido think it is some very pretty wood and will put it to good use sometime.

[John K Jordan]

...who would have thought that there are 115 species of pine and over 1000 tree species in N.America alone..
geeeze lasta lot of different woods to keep in ones head.

That's funny! The number of species is overwhelming. What's worse, every locality has different names for many of them - for example "Ironwood" is widely used for woods that are very hard. Often even the wood importers and dealers don't have a clue and make up a name or use one that might be similar, sometimes just for marketing purposes. The worst are probably the exotics - I read that botanists are still discovering new species in the tropics.

At last count I had well over 100 distinct species in my turning stash, maybe 130 or more. This doesn't count a bunch I've marked with "??". Fortunately, they are all useful for something.

JKJ

[Derek Cohen]

Can you resaw the board to 2" thick panels and make a Nakashima-style tabletop? Dark butterflies would look great against the light background.

Regards from Perth

Derek