very wide pine boards

[Mike Mason]

I just purchased two old matching simple pine storage chests (not furniture quality) off of craigslist because I could see from the photos that they were handmade from very wide, perfectly clear pine lumber with very close growth rings. All of the boards are 7/8" thick and vary in width from 16" - 19". The longer chest is 59" long, the shorter one is 36" long. All told, there is 43 board feet of lumber, for which I paid less than $2 per board foot. I disassembled both chests and have stored the boards for a future project I have in mind (an antique reproduction).

Based on some scraps from a greeting card I found lodged between two of the tongue & grooved bottom boards (not included in the above-mentioned 43 board feet), the cast bronze swivel casters with wooden wheels (Payson No. 183), tooling marks from sawing, pencil layout marks, and the inaccurate crosscutting, I think that someone made these by hand right around 100 years ago.

Question: I doubt that the maker would have sourced specialty boards from a sawmill; these are just simple boxes with hinged lids, nailed together with butt joints at the corners - looks more like what a non-woodworker homeowner would do to make some cheap storage chests. Does anyone know when pine boards of at least 20" width and a full 7/8" thickness were commonly available at a lumber yard? I'm just curious, trying to gain some idea how old these boards might be. The seller bought an old apartment building and they were left behind, but that's all he knows about them.

[Steve Demuth]

In Wisconsin, any time in the last half of the nineteenth century, although tapering off toward the end. Old growth white pine flowed out of Northern Wisconsin from the time it was settled until it was mostly cut by the 1890s, with the peak being between the end of the Civil War and the 1880s.

[Richard Coers]

I seriously doubt they were ever readily available in a regular lumber yard. Transportation and handling would have always been an issue. There was a lot more local sawmills in the 19th century. You just went to where there was water power, and there was a sawmill on it. At least east of the Mississippi and west of the Rockies. Wide white pine was widely availiable in the Northeast. In fact a lot of attic floors had a lot of those boards just laid down. This place has up to 20" stocked all the time. https://www.binghamlumber.com/products/pine-13-wider/#product-start

[Tom M King]

In times before powered equipment like they had in the later 19th Century, it was easier to make and use one wide board than to make and join two narrower ones. Even then, when there was a plentiful supply of big trees, it was still less work overall.

[Mike Mason]

In Wisconsin, any time in the last half of the nineteenth century, although tapering off toward the end. Old growth white pine flowed out of Northern Wisconsin from the time it was settled until it was mostly cut by the 1890s, with the peak being between the end of the Civil War and the 1880s.

What is also interesting to me is that among the 43 board feet, there isn't a single knot, not even a hint of a knot. I've never personally seen lumber this clear and with such a high "growth rings per inch" count. The slotted head screws used in the loose-pin hinges are not hand made, and the many nails used in the butt joinery are wire nails, so I'm guessing it isn't terribly old.

[Richard Coers]

What is also interesting to me is that among the 43 board feet, there isn't a single knot, not even a hint of a knot. I've never personally seen lumber this clear and with such a high "growth rings per inch" count. The slotted head screws used in the loose-pin hinges are not hand made, and the many nails used in the butt joinery are wire nails, so I'm guessing it isn't terribly old.
When you had 4' diameter white pine logs, knots were way in towards the center. Welcome to the world of old growth lumber. It's like working with a historical artifact. I bought some birch from the bottom of Lake Superior decades ago. 35 rings per inch and a dated lumberjack mark on the log dated it to being a 300 year old tree.

[Mark Gibney]

What did you make with 300 year old log, Richard?

[Richard Coers]

I didn't harvest the log. It was a company that was diving for them. They had a Wood Mizer and kiln in a building at the south end of Lake Superior. I had 3 layers of 8/4 in my van around 1992. I paid $1,000 and made a conference table for a long term Sierra Club member. Most mellow birch I ever worked.