Scott wrote:

>However, Pennsylvannia is full of farms.  Check the lumber section of your
>local "Trader" type rag to see if anyone is selling old barn beams.  A
>few months back I bought some old hand-hewn red oak, white oak, ash, and
>pine beams for under pennies per board foot.  It's a lot of work to resaw
>and thickness them, but it's hard to beat that price on thick stock.  The
>beams I got aren't worth a damn as furniture lumber - they're full of worm
>holes, but I think they add a bit of charm to bench legs (which is what I
>used one of the beams for).  You can see pictures on my home page.

I heartily second that motion.  A few years ago I built a timber frame
style base for one of my normite contraptions because the original steel
model was too flimsy.  I had a friend that had dozens of beams that he
rescued from a barn that was being dismantled and picked up half a dozen in
the 6X6 to 8X8 range.

After getting them back to the shop, I realized that they were chesnut!
What a blast it was working with this now extinct wood.  Planed like
poplar, had a consistency of oak and was about as dense as maple.  The
biggest challenge was getting all the nails out of the pieces that were
used as joists.  I ended up just planing them on my join*er which was
outfitted with carbide tipped knives because some of the nails were too
brittle to pull out.  Well worth the effort.

In addition, once you've worked with chesnut, you'll be able to immediately
differentiate it from oak there after.

Pete Taran

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Pete Taran
29951 State Route 26
Theresa, NY  13691

Coproprietor of Independence Tool, makers of high quality vintage
handtools.  Check out our webpage at http://www.intool.com

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