I picked some lumber from a demolition pile yesterday and one particular piece of true 2 x 4 was heavier than the rest. I took it back to the shop and pulled the nails out and made cuts for my next project. I crosscut the end off and saw the tight grains and knew this had some age on it. The piece of cutoff was 4 1/4" long. I counted about 115 rings in that section. I set the piece on the counter and used a string and pencil to figure the arc to get the approximate diameter of the tree. It was about 56" to where the arc swing was close to the grain. So if this was a piece from the outer part of the tree, it would be somewhere in the 9' diameter range. This is just a guess based on simple math. I believe growth rings are tighter towards the outside of the tree and it would be pretty difficult to tell the true age. I am no expert by any means, but based on this small chunk, my guess is that this tree must have been several hundred years old at the time of harvest. Can anyone weigh in here with their thoughts or experience? The grain is unremarkable other than the tightness of it. Any opinions are welcome as I am curious to know.
Jon, Douglass Fir is great wood. Yes, the trees cut that was be used to build many houses in this country were a couple of hundred years old when they were harvested, 30 to 75 years ago. There are many woodworkers that spend alot of time doing what you did, finding old fir lumber in old buildings and houses to reclaim that beautiful wood. There are many examples of fir finished naturally in flooring that looks beautiful. I have a photo of one we did on the computer at my office that I will try to post up here on Monday.
I do quite a bit of repurposing and really enjoy bringing life out of discarded wood. Fir is nice but it seems to splinter off the edges easily. Because of this I have a little difficulty fastening it together if the stock is too thin. I tend to sand the edges in a radius to prevent splitting off.
Don't see much around that's still in decent shape,but its great stuff when you are lucky enough to find it.. I have about 50 linear feet of 4 x 4 & 5 x 5 cut offs that are about a foot to 4 feet long.Saved them from the dumpster when neighbor had new roof put on his 1906 Craftsman bungalow in Nov. 2010 & the overhang/soffit was cut back.These were the outside beams/braces that supported the overhang.The roofing contractor did a great job - they installed new smaller braces made from 4 x 4 painted Western Red Cedar with pointed exposed ends -for appearances only since only about half of it is there now. But if you hadn't seen the larger original braces (house had the original very heavy clay tile roof until around 1992) you wouldn't know it was replaced. The wood I got was very tight clear vertical grain grain dense old growth stuff,guessing the trees were cut around 1900 or a bit before.I trimmed the ends,removed any mortices/tenons & decayed bits & have them stored on large river rock about a foot off the ground covered with a tarp underneath picnic table (no room in the shop) .Covered with 2-3 layers of paint,I figure they'll be great for resawing,some small boxes,various turning,maybe even small cabinet/furniture parts someday.Am gonna make them a small simple plant stand using a 3 foot 4 x 4 for the column & 2 smaller pieces about 2 x 5 x 5 for the top/bottom before too long. Beautiful orange-red material that really glows especially years after a couple coats of amber varnish is applied. Here's a couple small things I made many years ago from more of the same salvaged species.
One they forgot..... http://www.oregonlive.com/travel/index.ssf/2015/06/doerner_fir_tucked_deep_in_coo.html
That is nice work and color. I have a clear fir 5 panel door that I salvaged. The panels should make nice pieces for boxes. Fir smells great when cut in the shop.
Thanks. The candle holder was a chunk off a old growth 4 x 6 barn timber I grabbed while dumping some other stuff at the Guthrie County Landfill back in the early 90's some time. They don't let you scavenge stuff anymore,even if its 2 feet in front of you. I also took a 7 foot piece of heavy 3 x 5 bent angle iron with several holes drilled that was originally part of some old farm implement,thinking a drawbar maybe.With scrap steel/iron prices what they are the past few years,not many people dump it in a landfill now.I remember back in mid-late 90's it was $15-20/ton around here,so at jobsites all the scrap rebar,bolts,structural steel cut offs etc went right in the dumpster,even with gas $1.25 or less.Wasnt worth filling up your truck bed & breaking your back for 20 or 30 bucks. (But now I still do it for free hardwood logs ) The bench was a piece of a 50 yr old 8 foot 2 x 12 found in lower level of a local university dorm apartment building remodel in 2008.Also got a bunch of excellent 3/4 birch ply & 1.25" solid edge joined birch panels 3 foot wide & 5 foot long. Couldve grabbed a bunch of 2" solid core Birch fire rated doors,they mustve had close to 300 when all the inside demo was done.No more storage space here so I didn't even take a single one.They make great workbench tops for the right person.
Thistle, You, my friend, have what my wife refers to as, "the sickness". Which is anything (especially construction site demolition) that is destined for the construction dumpster, or in the dumpster, gets pulled out and saved. I got storage space that is packed and I have built many things out of "re-purposed material". We could be charter members of that fraternity. All the trim in my house, which is my last, was re-milled or throw out trim that was put together. Birch fire rated doors. Too bad. Lots of uses for those. Now, she is not too opposed to the sickness because just Saturday. We are at my niece's graduation party (her brothers daughter) and my nephew just bought a cabin in Northern Minnesota that needs work. So, yesterday my nephew came over with the trailer and I loaded him up. Flooring, trim, a nice screen door and the best, Trex decking for his dock. We had a job where we re- built 198 decks on a apartment building and had on each deck a fall off on the last piece of a 46" of Trex decking. Like I told my nephew, make the new dock 46" wide not 48" wide, or picture frame the sides. That is going to be a nice looking dock. I'll go up and give him a hand in a few weekends so him and I can knock it out. Like I said, "the sickness" is not all bad.
That looks great! There's an old barn at my sister's house that's got to come down soon - my Dad and I were just talking about it tonight. It's got some great hand-hewn timbers in it. It was added on to at some point, but we think the one 1/2 was original to the house, which was built in the 1870's. No idea what kind(s) of wood it was built from, but I can't wait to find out!
What's hard to believe is that there used to be huge Douglas Firs all over the west coast, and almost all of them are gone... Here's a few large trees we found a while back, 6-7' diameter...
