At 10:59 AM -0400 5/14/97, Roger Birkhead wrote:
>Siding is certainly not something you want to gamble with.  Spend the
>money and buy some good quartersawn clapboards.

	Amen to that.  Some years back, in the long process of rebuilding
our c. 1853 post-and-beam Greek Revival farmhouse, we replaced the 1950s
vintage asbestos shingle-type siding with commercially obtained cedar
clapboards.  In removing the asbestos crap, we discovered that it had been
installed over the previous layer of clapboards, which we also removed
before wrapping the frame (studs of real 2x4s of solid oak tenonned into
the beams) w/ Tyvek and installing the new clapboards.  A few pieces of the
latter, buried in the bundles, were flatsawn, and they have warped, peeled
paint, etc. MUCH worse than the rest.
	BUT:  I couldn't bear to toss or burn all the old pine clapboards
we had removed in this process.  Some were weathered nearly clear through,
others had knots, and other pieces were destroyed in the removal, but I
managed to salvage some.  This stuff had been sawn c. 1/2" thick, with no
taper.  It is *well seasoned*.
	Long story short, I'm now staring at my first hand prepped and hand
dovetailed box, made from that ancient pine, planed to c. 3/8" thick, which
now functions as a floppy disk file next to my New Tool.  Looks good, is a
piece of the house, and has a function.
		Tom Holloway