I am ready to build a garden bench, and I thought I would build it out of white oak. However, white oak is hard to come by and rather expensive. Is there some other wood (red oak, pine, cedar) that I could use and maybe finish it so it would be weatherproof.
thanks for any input.
Replies
What about cypress?
Bob
Woods harvested locally tend to be less expensive than wood trucked in from across the country. Where do you live?
The open pores of red oak should eliminate it from consideration.
I think WO might just be hard right where you're at. We have an abundance. If you let us know what part of the country you're in, someone is bound to know somewhere to steer you.
Real trucks dont have sparkplugs
Down here in Austin TX, waiting for the cooler fall weather to get back into my garage. If you know a source for WO in the area, I would appreciate it.
Look up Frank Paxton Lumber in San Antonio. They are a wholesaler that likely supplies all the stores around you, and they retail through a "woodcrafters store" at the site.
I know through Paxtons in KCMO I can get FAS white in 4-8/4 and flat or quartersawn. All day long. Real trucks dont have sparkplugs
Cedar would be a good substitute, but aroun here, it's way more expensive than white oak. White pine wil rot rapidly outdoors. Yellow pine is somewhat more rot resistant, but can be cantankerous in that it has a nasty habit of warpng after it's been milled. As someone mentioned, cypress is a good alternative.
Never thought of cypress, but I might try to find a source.
thanks
What size stock do you want? 1x, 2x?
"I cut this piece four times and it's still too short."
Edited 9/24/2008 8:00 pm by highfigh
http://www.finelumber.com
Right there in Austin. There's a few up here in the Fort Worth-dallas
area if you're up to a road trip. Check out the ribs at Angelo's while you're in Cowtown.
Western red cedar is a good choice for outdoor furniture...I have made several tables, chaises and decks out of the stuff and it weathers well..I imagine it would do even better in Texas than Indiana...I'm currently working on a Japanese style outdoor bench in cedar...it's a bit difficult to find larger size pieces for the front and back legs that are not knotty.
Neil
In Austin, you should be able to get cypress relatively cheaply (it's harvested extensively in Louisiana), and it's an ideal outdoor wood. It is, however, relatively soft compared to white oak, teak, mahogany and other rot-resistant species.
If this bench is to be stained or left unfinished to weather to gray, and cost is a big factor, you might consider treated southern yellow pine. It's inexpensive, easy to come by, and if you buy the larger sizes (like 2X10s or 2X12s) and hand-select it at the lumberyard, it's relatively knot free. It will, however, be very wet unless you specifically buy kiln-dried stock which is not a common item at a home center.
However, since you're waiting for cooler weather, you can buy your boards at one of the home centers this weekend, then stack and sticker it carefully in your garage and weight the stack. It should be plenty dry enough to build with after about 3 weeks, perhaps sooner.
Red oak and pine are not good outdoor woods. I live in cedar country, Great Northwest, and while cedar is nice for outdoor furniture, I'd go for cypress in a minute just to have someting a little different.
Go here and choose any wood in the "resistant or very resistant" column. The woods are grouped by resistance to rot.
http://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/documnts/fplgtr/fplgtr113/ch03.pdf
Of course, any wood will work outdoors if it has a good coat of finish and the finish is repaired/renewed periodically.
Texas means Osage-Orange country. Locals probably call it hedgeapple. It will last forever outside. Even more rot resistent than white oak. When I lived in Kansas, I could buy it all day long for $2.00/bf. I like it so much, that I moved about 300 bf with me when I came to NY state.
http://www.ithacawoodworker.com
I've got a couple of pieces of that in my shop I was planning on making a couple of small smoothing planes with. I know it's good for that purpose (and a whole lot cheaper than boxwood or ebony), but I didn't know it could be obtained in sizes sufficient to make a standard size piece of furniture.
I once found a grove of hedgeapple trees that had over 8' of straight trunk and were a minimum of 24" in diameter. Hundreds of them.
The Osage boards that I typically bought were in the 8' to 12" width range.
http://www.ithacawoodworker.com
How many hedge apples did you hit with a baseball bat? Kind of a weird smell, isn't it?
"I cut this piece four times and it's still too short."
Edited 9/28/2008 1:47 pm by highfigh
How many hedge apples did you hit with a baseball bat? Kind of a weird smell, isn't it?
Yeah, they're fun to smash around. My dad was an old-time cowboy/farmer who was full of wives' tales. He swore that hedgeapples in the house kept spiders away. If you went into his house, you would find hedgeapples in every corner with spider webs growing all over them.
http://www.ithacawoodworker.com
I have relatives in SE Kansas and when we would go down there, I'd go out with my cousins and they'd show me around the area, which was small farms, etc. The land was defined by the hedgerows and hedge apple was all over. PULL!BOOM!
"I cut this piece four times and it's still too short."
I built a Lutyens garden bench several years ago using cypress. It has held up very well to the Georgia weather. I apply a deck-type penetrating oil once a year for a little added protection. Also, cypress is moderately priced here.
Good luck,
Dennis
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