Replies

1. 
   macalex | Jan 07, 2005 02:58am | #1

   I'm working my way through a truckload of reclaimed 140 year old floor-boards. They've had everything imaginable nailed, tacked, stapled and glued to them! I got tired of scraping off the old carpet and lino and denailing nail by nail, and now I run the face side thru my table saw and take about 1mm of the surface. That reveals all the nails and other metal, which I either punch in or prise out. I'm not retaining the old surface, obviously, because it's not pretty and its unworkable!

   The key question is: do you want the finished product to look like 'old', or are you just re-using some very nice old wood for a new purpose?

   The furniture I'm making (I'll post a picture soon) is clearly of recycled wood, but made as though the wood were new.

   Making new from old, but retaining the old surfaces, is much harder, I believe.

   Malcolm

   New Zealand | New Thinking
1. 
   mcmaster | Jan 08, 2005 07:26pm | #9

   I'm really trying to retain as much of the "distress" and features of the wood. I am trying to figure out some way of retaining the cutout from the old lockset / latch the was in place. The end result is going in the rec-room, and the kids will likely want to pick at it ! oh well ... I'll try and post the pic of the door I'm using before the stripping started ...

    

   regards ... Ian

1. 
   mcmaster | Jan 08, 2005 07:41pm | #10

   I'll try to add iics gere ! having trouble for some reason ..

   
2. 
   nikkiwood | Jan 07, 2005 08:13am | #2

   Really depends what look you are after, what kind of shape the wood is in, how thick the pieces are etc.

   Sanding as you suggest will work; but if the stock is thick enough, and you want to clean off the embedded dirt etc., giving it a light pass through the planer is another alternative.

1. 
   macalex | Jan 07, 2005 09:18am | #3

   "giving it a light pass through the planer is another alternative"

   ... but bloody risky!

   The reason I use a cheap TC rip blade and skim off a mm or two is to save my planer knives. I've done hundreds of metres of board so far with the same saw blade (it is getting a bit grunty now) and have only sharpened my POS Ryobi planer knives once.

   Recycled wood can be very expensive, even when its free!

   MalcolmNew Zealand | New Thinking

3. 
   Gretchen | Jan 07, 2005 03:01pm | #4

   How about NON-poly finish for a deeper richer look.

   Gretchen
4. 
   cherryjohn | Jan 07, 2005 04:17pm | #5

   I live in a house that is 225 years old.  I have a bit of old pine from floors and sub floors and old walls that I have acquired.  The stuff has a wonderfull color when it is aged that long.  It works much better than modern white pine.  I have made several pieces form the boards and beams.  Most notably 2 dining room tables, one for me and one for my son.  The boards still have the plane gouges in them from when they were hand planed back in 1779 so that had to stay.  All I did was lightyl sand the tops with a ROS with a worn out sanding disc then washed the boards with a damp cloth.  I didnt have any trouble with embedded nails in these progects but I will say I have gone through some planer blades in some other projects using old boards.  One of these days I am going to buy a nail finder

   Wicked Decent Woodworks

   Rochester NH

   " If the women dont find you handsome, they should at least find you handy........yessa!"

5. 
   cherryjohn | Jan 07, 2005 04:34pm | #6

   forgot to post the pics!......too early in the morning!  The pipe box picture gives you a good look at the patina and the old plane gouges on the dining room table top.  If you look closely you can see the rose head nails I used to fasten the top to the underside brace.  The towel cabinet was made from an old shutter that was in the basement and the sides were a bead board door I cut in half.  The door is about 120 years old , Id guess,  The face frame is old pine subflooring.  My wife wanted the "country casual" look in this piece.  A couple coats of Watcos Natural on this piece is all I did.  The table top was done with Waterlox Hi Sheen

   Wicked Decent Woodworks

   Rochester NH

   " If the women dont find you handsome, they should at least find you handy........yessa!"

   
1. 
   BG | Jan 07, 2005 05:48pm | #7

   Cherryjohn,

   With all due respect, I think you've taking this recycling of boards from your house too far.  Didn't you post a picture of your beautiful workbench....that showed holes in the back wall of your shop where your wood was stored vertically  ???...lol....

   BTW, I too was motivated to make a few of those pipe boxes...looks really nice...as does everything else...    

1. 
   cherryjohn | Jan 07, 2005 06:00pm | #8

   Aaaaaaaaaaaaa  BG, very obsevvent of you!  However you might read back and note that the "Old Bench" is resing in an addition to my shop I added just to house that relic.  However some of the boards did come from my shop when I had to do some structural work on it.  My shop was moved to this site sometime about 1850-60.  Prior to it being here it was the Captain Timothy Roberts house built circa 1730.  So I guees one might say I have the oldest wood working shop in NH.  There is another old bench in my shop that dates from about the time of the shop being moved so I suspect that this was a wood working shop at some point prior to thisWicked Decent Woodworks

   Rochester NH

   " If the women dont find you handsome, they should at least find you handy........yessa!"