I was wondering if anyone has milled cottonwood? I ask because that is what we have a lot of around here that would pass for lumber logs... I was thinking they could make really great "farm boards" that I could use for livestock shelters, barns, etc. without having to pay for regular lumber. A lot of our old buildings around here have cottonwood lumber. Talking to the old timers they tell me the trick is to build with it while it's green, otherwise you can't nail through it without drilling a pilot hole.
Yup I heard that years ago from Dad & several Uncles on both sides.Seen a fair amount of it inside barns/sheds.Still most everything around here except the earliest structural or barn timbers tended to be sawed White Pine,Doug Fir & very rarely Western Cedar.Earlier hand hewn or sawed stuff was normally local Red/White Oak,I've seen quite a bit of Black Walnut even, & also a few pieces of Maple,that was probably Silver or Red since Sugar/Hard Maple is found in the wild more to my NE. Cottonwood tends to warp/cup badly during the drying process usually though.But is pretty tough & strong for its density,thanks to the normally interlocked grain.
Cottonwood isn't bad stuff. I've milled some before for some lightweight projects. Just mill it a little extra thick or it "shakes" (comes apart).
Does anyone have the cottonwood species with the thick brown bark used for woodcarving? I'm looking to buy a box of it for my dad. Please pm me if you have some.
I asked the old timers the same thing and they said when you build with it then the boards dry in that position and don't warp if they are nailed in place. Essentially, they are restrained into that shape while they dry and therefore don't warp or shrink really. I was skeptical but they said it's the same as stacking the lumber to air dry... The weight of the stack helps to maintain the straightness while it dries.
Can you give me an example? Knowing nothing about milling are you saying that you would cut it into an actual 2"x4" so that it doesn't split when drying? Thanks!
Cotton wood is fantastic for Pallets. Shake is a delamination of the growth rings which makes milled wood become uniformly sliced firewood.
Many moons ago we bought a woods that had nothing other than cottonwood and willow. Well, there were just a few others but basically we were after the cottonwood. Although we had a special order for some weird stuff, quite naturally we also ended up with a lot of 1" boards. I'm not sure we sold any of those boards to any place because farmers in the area kept coming to buy it. Most will sticker the wood while drying but not all. Many made fences and put them up green. I don't know how they turned out but I would definitely wonder about using green wood.
