Awhile back, someone here had scrounged a place where old barns and farm houses were taken down and the oak beams were sizable, hand sawn likely. Well anyone in the oak/hardwood beams work that gets the chance on those repurposing jobs should take a look at this.
Back in 1972 they tore down an old school in my home town. All clear old growth beams and tongue and groove siding and wainscoting cut in the local saw mill. They didn’t have time to salvage it to make room for the new one so they piled it all up and burned it. I remember hearing at the time it was a million bucks worth going up in smoke. Hate to think what it would be worth now. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
I'm helping my contractor friend put an addition on his daughters house out of state. The original house is circa 1820's. We've pulled some old timbers/framing. I thought of saving some, but powder post beetles had damaged them pretty good. Damage was rather extensive on others. Looked like chestnut and oak. I like to repurpose wood, timbers, boards etc (is this is politically correct for "hoarding"?), but have to stop myself from taking them as i have wood from years ago still waiting for me to get to it. Limited space and storage too., Saw a guy selling log furniture while we were on vacation. I may try my hand at this in the future.
I just threw up a little reading that. I have a friend who somehow came in posession of a lot of wormy chestnut boards. He had his kitchen cabinets and an office desk made. Its just beautiful.
Your repurposing seeems appropriate to me, I grabbed a few free load of beams that would be comparable but not special like oak nor as old. I want to find this members thread for reference but he is a member here and I cannot for the life of me get the right title or set of words to get the pictures but my search seems to be too basic??? I don’t know if moderating would help me here since the search would be pretty hard. Thousands of photos exist here but he loaded up cut beams that were easily stove fillers. The ULTIMATE square wood if it were. I’d grab all you can, salvage of beams is the coolest if you have the trailer or truck. If there’s way to remove the bug damage, you could turn such pieces into mantles or shelves or wall setters where drinks can be set on. The possibility doesn’t really end. I mean they sell rounds of birch or just clean pine for 200 dollar night stands... must be rare wood! Go figure.
It’s the worm holes that give them character. Likewise I went through a phase in my woodworking where I wanted to try primitive/rustic. Never did get around to it tho.
