old joist recycling suggestions wanted

[Samuel Mill]

We are remodeling an old bathroom in our 1894 Victorian cottage. In the process, I have reclaimed about a half dozen full 4-in x 6-in; x >=8' joists and quite a few shorter and smaller pieces. All are some kind of heartwood, almost certainly conifer (dense!). I don't really have any use for these intact, so I will most likely be milling them into 1-in (or thereabouts) slabs. I have no lack of projects that are likely candidates for the resulting boards. What I would like suggestions about are ways to preserve and make best use of the outside pieces, which have all the "character marks": darkening, spilts, bark remnants, etc. Thoughts? -Sam

[rob durfos]

put them up for sale on the woodweb

[John Thompson]

I had quite a number of joist I recovered from an old civil war warehouse here in Atlanta at one time. Larger than that and Doug Fir. I cut them down also thinking what you were thinking as they sat waiting.

When I decide on what I re-glued and made work-bench bases from them about 4" thick. I made around 6 bases from those joist a number of years ago and all are still as straight as the day I took them down as the recipients report.

Good luck..

Sarge..

[Greg Cole]

These are screaming to be used for a bench top & base.. Most likely they are old Doug Fir or Yellow Pine.
I'd most likely not cut them into 1x boards unless I truly couldn't find a use for the thicker stock.
I hunted around for a looooooong time to find material much like you have there for a bench top. I wound up with a stack of white oak 12/4 x 10" x 10' that I got for a song n dance.

FWIW.
Greg

[Richard M. Wolfe]

If you don't have any use for them, don't do anything with them. :) You talked about milling them to one inch. Sure as you did that you'd come up with a project that called for two or three inch material. If you just stockpile as is you will have up to the current dimensions for any projects and when you do mill them will have fresh faces to finish.

[Ed Labadie]

The outside "character" pieces would make a great fireplace mantle.

I salvaged 2 walnut hand hewn barn beams, my sawyer cut all the hand hewn outsides off first and saved them for me. They will be used on a mantle.............someday. :o

Ed

[Frank Drew]

If you don't have any use for them, don't do anything with them. :) You talked about milling them to one inch. Sure as you did that you'd come up with a project that called for two or three inch material. If you just stockpile as is you will have up to the current dimensions for any projects and when you do mill them will have fresh faces to finish.

I agree with Richard; don't resaw it until you have a project that needs a specific size material.

If the wood is Old Pine (southern longleaf pine or similar, also called Heart Pine in the trade), it's possibly wonderful looking stuff and bears no resemblance to the common yellow pine available today; it's very popular with the tonier set around here for cabinetry and custom millwork and even furniture. Plane a face or two to see what you've got; be careful with nails, though, it can be hard to find every last one (some break off) and they play hell with your planer knives.

[John Thompson]

If's it heart pine as Frank mentioned.. it will have somewhat of a warm, reddish tone to it. Heart-pine was still salvageable around the Atlanta area when old homes were torn down for progress. :rolleyes:

It is relatively hard and quite beautiful compared to southern yellow pine which is also abundant here and great work-bench wood.

Sarge..

[Mike Wilkins]

Leave them as is until a project presents itself. This is some wonderful timber and no stain or finish can make new pine look like this heart pine material.
Make sure, as others stated, you check carefull for nails/fasteners before introducing the lumber to your planer. Your knives will not like it at all.
Use sharp tooling, as this stuff is hard, maybe harder than oak. I broke the end of a chisel chopping some mortises one time in this stuff.
The only finish I have ever used is a low-grade shellac, I think called Buttonlac. Clear poly will give it some shine.

[Frank Drew]

Use sharp tooling, as this stuff is hard, maybe harder than oak.

Maybe not harder but certainly as hard; my shop was an old Southern Railroad depot, framed in Old Pine. Could NOT put an ordinary nail into that stuff.

[Samuel Mill]

OK - the consensus is "leave 'em alone until you know what you are going to do with 'em". Good advice, I'll take it - and thanks. After I posted, it had occurred to me that heavy, dimensionally stable stuff like this would be good workbench material - it just may end up as that. More about the wood itself - it is from South Jersey. The house was framed circa 1894, but not too very long after that the interior was extensively remodeled (including relocating curtain walls) and at that point, a great quantity of American Chestnut trim was added. These joists are damned dense - I'm no muscleman, but I'm no little wuss, either, and carrying a 4 x 6 x 8' chunk was a strain. Everything that went into this place seems to have been locally sourced, and I assume that the timbers are also, although there was a port here at one time. Anyway, thanks for the advice, it kept me on the straight & narrow... -Sam