What free wood did you find today?

[Mr. Peet]

Had several trees taken down a few days ago. These are the few bits I kept.

Mulberry

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Standing dead cherry

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Ash, cherry, Norway maple and another flavor of ornamental maple (October Glory?)

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October Glory was a form of soft maple / red maple / Acer rubrum

I know now days people just use names to attract sales and fail to be truthful. I'd think yours is likely old enough to be a red maple. The foliage color was reason behind the name, the wood should be basically the same as others in the species.

Looks like a great pile of fun ahead of you ( a bit of work too).

 

[Tom Smart]

October Glory was a form of soft maple / red maple / Acer rubrum

I know now days people just use names to attract sales and fail to be truthful. I'd think yours is likely old enough to be a red maple. The foliage color was reason behind the name, the wood should be basically the same as others in the species.

Looks like a great pile of fun ahead of you ( a bit of work too).

Thanks Mark. That one was planted when we built the house 30 years ago. Half dead, girdled root ball like lots of nursery trees not properly planted. Sap suckers loved it, nice neat rows of holes the length of the trunk.

On the work end, yeah, I might have bitten off a bit much.

 

[2feathers Creative Making]

Is free wood really free? I had two live oak logs sitting by the mill for 6 months now… Not any more. Milled them into slabs to make a heavy duty work bench and a shaving/bowl horse. It’s some heavy stuff. I can barely pick up one of those 2" slabs. I’m going through my “Free Wood” pile and trimming it up so that MAYBE I’ll make something out of some of it. I’ve got two more live oak logs waiting and a huge live oak that went down two years ago. The trunk on it is about 3’ in diameter and will produce about 10 more logs like I milled here. This Free Wood is going to kill me….

Alan


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Yeah, just chopped 3 years collection of wood into firewood for Daddy because my 'want to' got out run by my 'need tos'
Still have 3 or 4 nice oak logs at his house to run my mill across and see if I can sacrifice a blade or two to the fence gods.

 

[Alan R McDaniel Jr]

That live oak does a number on blades, that’s for sure...

Alan

 

[Schroedc]

It's not exactly wood but was free. Work was scrapping out some assorted tooling. Nice chunks of old micarta for knife scales or some neat pen bodies.

 

[DLJeffs]

Grabbed a couple pieces of buttonwood while I was fishing on Abaco last week. Cool wood. Very hard and heavy. Supposedly doesn't crack or shrink, hence why they used it for making buttons. The lobster fishermen like to take a stash of it on their lobster boats when they're planning on staying out for a few days because it burns clean, hot and long. These two pieces are going to Jim ( @JR Parks ) since he spotted me a couple pens made from casuarina pine cones. The owner of the lodge I was fishing out of hates casuarina pines because of the damage they do to the shorelines.

 

[Alancw]

Mahogany tree cut down up the street today. Who’s crazy enough to take a cart there and have three guys stuggle to get it on. Take it home and trim it up. This is half the log. 32” across and 15” deep. And dumb enough to plan on mounting it on my lathe. Going to make sure my affairs are in order before I start.

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anxious to see the wooden bathtub you turned . . .

 

[Arn213]

It warms my soul to see all of the members here rescue free wood, giving it a new lease on life. I do find free wood here- down trees and rough hewn lumber from demolition of old interior buildings typically built in the late 1800’s in NYC that are architectural beams, post, sills, rafters, scabs, cross bracings, etc.. Regretfully, most of these don’t get a new lease on life, meeting it’s last fate with the demo dumpster. I cringed and shake my head just because most of there are virgin pine wood that has seasoned for a century plus. Some do get a chance due to the responsible demolition GC that knows the value and necessity for old lumber- these century old wood do end up in salvaged and reclaimed yards in different parts of the borough to be available in lots for sale. These aren’t just from interior demolition and they can come from bridges, parks, board walks, etc..

I wish I can take some of it, but you need room to store these and it is costly in NYC. I do peak at the dumpsters when I see a major demo of an old building interior- yeah, just to tease myself and shake my head that the lumber has met it’s final fate. These would make wonderful pine guitar solid bodies- there are luthiers here in NYC who dumpster dive to find old wood to build guitars out of…….Kelly Guitars in the West Village is one.

A stack of lumber in Dumbo Brooklyn at 2 corresponding corners…..

 

[Nature Man]

It warms my soul to see all of the members here rescue free wood, giving it a new lease on life. I do find free wood here- down trees and rough hewn lumber from demolition of old interior buildings typically built in the late 1800’s in NYC that are architectural beams, post, sills, rafters, scabs, cross bracings, etc.. Regretfully, most of these don’t get a new lease on life, meeting it’s last fate with the demo dumpster. I cringed and shake my head just because most of there are virgin pine wood that has seasoned for a century plus. Some do get a chance due to the responsible demolition GC that knows the value and necessity for old lumber- these century old wood do end up in salvaged and reclaimed yards in different parts of the borough to be available in lots for sale. These aren’t just from interior demolition and they can come from bridges, parks, board walks, etc..

I wish I can take some of it, but you need room to store these and it is costly in NYC. I do peak at the dumpsters when I see a major demo of an old building interior- yeah, just to tease myself and shake my head that the lumber has met it’s final fate. These would make wonderful pine guitar solid bodies- there are luthiers here in NYC who dumpster dive to find old wood to build guitars out of…….Kelly Guitars in the West Village is one.

A stack of lumber in Dumbo Brooklyn at 2 corresponding corners…..

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There is some truly righteous wood in those stacks! With all the emphasis in America on recycling, you would think wood would be towards the top of the list! It's a real shame that a good deal of it probably goes into landfills! Chuck

 

[Arn213]

There is some truly righteous wood in those stacks! With all the emphasis in America on recycling, you would think wood would be towards the top of the list! It's a real shame that a good deal of it probably goes into landfills! Chuck

You are absolutely right and we have to do our part as best as we can to preserve, conserve, re-use and recycle the material responsibly and collectively. In a perfect world and if I had the means ($,$$$,$$$/financial backing/partners/facility/woodworkers) I would reuse these as 1” thick, wide, tongue and groove floor boards. There are a lot of old residential and mixed used buildings here in NYC (and all over the country) that go through renovation to try to preserve or conserve the flooring or remove/replace. Wood flooring out of these old architectural timbers would add authenticity, charm and value to a renovated home unit compare to newly kiln dried wood flooring. You have to match it equally- old and old vs old + new. That is what I was taught when we were doing Historic Preservation and Conservation.

 

[2feathers Creative Making]

We did similar type salvage 30 years ago when it wasn't "green" you just used it cause you were broke...

 

[trc65]

When we moved to where we now live nearly 50 years ago, we lived for one winter in an old two story house, built with square nails and horsehair plaster. Thankfully, one winter only. When we went to tear down the house, saved every bit of wood we could. I'll never forget Dad using a chainsaw the drop the whole floor out of the largest upstairs bedroom. Left a two foot border to walk on, and just went around the room cutting. Got back to the doorway with the saw, hit it in a couple places with a sledge and dropped straight down in a cloud of dust.

All the joists and studs were Douglas for, and we used it for gates, feed bunks and shelving in the machine shed. Still have a little bit left that I occasionally cut for some small project or another.

Did the same when we knocked the old barn down, only it was all white oak. Still have quite a few 2x + boards out of it. Unfortunately, it is full of nails that can't be pulled, and most is warped/twisted. Still, lots of utility in short pieces once side with nails are ripped off.

The thought was never historic preservation, but rather as Frank mentioned, saving money and making the most out of every resource available. Just the farming mentality - especially for those like Dad who was a kid through WWII and grew up utilizing every last scrap as a way of life.

 

[Mr. Peet]

Sold a thousand linear feet of barn plank to a guy in NYC. He claimed "reclaimed" was a big market in the city. Now I wonder. However, that was under a different president.

 

[djg]

When I was at the mill, a guy who was a project engineer of a demo job in StL., brought in timbers from old warehouses. He had lumber milled full thickness and built a barn/shed out of it. Stairs to the upstairs was 4" thick threads.

 

[DLJeffs]

I think the cost of carefully removing and salvaging lumber is one of the biggest factors. Costs a lot more to carefully pull nails, unscrew screws, stack and sort, etc. versus bringing in the sledge hammers and wrecking balls. There was a place in Oakland when I was still working that sold salvaged lumber. They had some cool stuff sometimes but it was always just a crap shoot what they had. I got a bunch of plantation teak boards from there for less than $6/bd ft and built my wife's quilt rack using it.

 

[vegas urban lumber]

You are absolutely right and we have to do our part as best as we can to preserve, conserve, re-use and recycle the material responsibly and collectively. In a perfect world and if I had the means ($,$$$,$$$/financial backing/partners/facility/woodworkers) I would reuse these as 1” thick, wide, tongue and groove floor boards. There are a lot of old residential and mixed used buildings here in NYC (and all over the country) that go through renovation to try to preserve or conserve the flooring or remove/replace. Wood flooring out of these old architectural timbers would add authenticity, charm and value to a renovated home unit compare to newly kiln dried wood flooring. You have to match it equally- old and old vs old + new. That is what I was taught when we were doing Historic Preservation and Conservation.

i was able to resale the 200 sheets of 3/4" mdf, that was the bellagio's new years eve dance floor. it was given to me by the trade show/event company that held that contract. " so they didn't have to pay to dump it"

 

[vegas urban lumber]

I think the cost of carefully removing and salvaging lumber is one of the biggest factors. Costs a lot more to carefully pull nails, unscrew screws, stack and sort, etc. versus bringing in the sledge hammers and wrecking balls. There was a place in Oakland when I was still working that sold salvaged lumber. They had some cool stuff sometimes but it was always just a crap shoot what they had. I got a bunch of plantation teak boards from there for less than $6/bd ft and built my wife's quilt rack using it.

i have as well reclaimed the floor out of several semi trailers. it's 1 1/4 inch american hardwood butcher block, ship lap edge 11 1/2" wide by up to about 48 ft long. there are around 1200 bolts holding the wood down to the frame in a 53 foot semi trailer/dry van. only other place to buy it readily, than from me, is in Colorado and Oklahoma where they get $7 per linear foot. I sell mine for $4 a linear foot
here it is as a patio table top

 

[Alan R McDaniel Jr]

A friend of mine used to work for the local electric company. He was able to get a bunch of cross ties from old electric poles. He asked me to mill some of it to 1/2" lath to line the inside of his garage and gave me a bunch of it for my trouble. It looks like Douglas Fir and is beautiful rough cut. His garage looks great. I decided to build my shave horse out of some of it (current project, or one of them anyway…)… Heavy as the dickens. I’ve got a buch of short stuff (6’-8’ long) and two 4 1/2”x9” beams 24’ long. Don’t know what I’m doing with that yet...

Oh, and those big old bolts came with them. Go price some 1/2’x11” galvanized bolts!

Alan



Alan

 

[2feathers Creative Making]

The 8 foot plus posts are great for outdoor sheds. The shorter down around 6 foot are more problematic. But if you are building a shed, they are long enough to cross the doorways and window openings.

The shave horse needs a coat of sealer between you and the creosote treatment unless your skin is very insensitive...

 

[phinds]

I'm curious, Trev and Alan --- what good are the planks and beams w/ all those bolt holes?