Reclaimed Wood Series
What exactly is "reclaimed" wood or lumber, anyway? Good question, that. Here's as good a definition as I've seen, courtesy of Wikipedia:
"...processed wood retrieved from its original application for purposes of subsequent use. Most reclaimed lumber comes from timbers and decking rescued from old barns, factories and warehouses, although some companies use wood from less traditional structures such as boxcars, coal mines and wine barrels."
Given the superabundance of timber forest resources in the U.S., builders from settlement days through the Industrial Revolution made great use of lumber to literally build the Country; it was strong, cheap, and boy was there a lot of it. Sadly, as we now know, the resources were hardly as infinite as they must have seemed back in the day. Nowadays, certain species have been depleted or even decimated, and the only source for modern usage of such species is reclamation. Think recycling beams from old barns or factories, or even fences, or perhaps think on the fact that companies pay thousands of dollars searching for and surfacing old logs (felled pre-1900) from rivers and lakes that slipped off of transport barges or rafts and have been stuck in cold mud for centuries.
I am not buying and tearing down old barns - nor am I donning scuba gear to hunt for submerged giant logs (though I would if I could). I DO have sources, however, who do such things, and I am always sniffing around old structure renovations for door sills, beam cut-offs etc., that are not wanted by the owners. The trick here is to develop good contacts, keep the metal detection gear handy (old cut nails and bolts are no fun to encounter with power tools), always be open to new sources of wood (see the "GOT WOOD?" page for discussions about wood wrangling), and be ready to deal with some very hard wood when turning.
"...processed wood retrieved from its original application for purposes of subsequent use. Most reclaimed lumber comes from timbers and decking rescued from old barns, factories and warehouses, although some companies use wood from less traditional structures such as boxcars, coal mines and wine barrels."
Given the superabundance of timber forest resources in the U.S., builders from settlement days through the Industrial Revolution made great use of lumber to literally build the Country; it was strong, cheap, and boy was there a lot of it. Sadly, as we now know, the resources were hardly as infinite as they must have seemed back in the day. Nowadays, certain species have been depleted or even decimated, and the only source for modern usage of such species is reclamation. Think recycling beams from old barns or factories, or even fences, or perhaps think on the fact that companies pay thousands of dollars searching for and surfacing old logs (felled pre-1900) from rivers and lakes that slipped off of transport barges or rafts and have been stuck in cold mud for centuries.
I am not buying and tearing down old barns - nor am I donning scuba gear to hunt for submerged giant logs (though I would if I could). I DO have sources, however, who do such things, and I am always sniffing around old structure renovations for door sills, beam cut-offs etc., that are not wanted by the owners. The trick here is to develop good contacts, keep the metal detection gear handy (old cut nails and bolts are no fun to encounter with power tools), always be open to new sources of wood (see the "GOT WOOD?" page for discussions about wood wrangling), and be ready to deal with some very hard wood when turning.
The "Reclaimed Heart Pine" Series
Representative Gallery
About Reclaimed Heart Pine
Time was the Long-Leaf Yellow Pine (Pinus palustris) grew in forests that covered 140,000 square miles (National Wildlife Federation estimates 90 million acres) of America, from southeastern Virginia to Florida, west through Louisiana to east Texas. Nowadays, only sparse remnants can be found - perhaps over as little as 3 percent of the original range. Why? Well, the Long-Leaf Pine grows to be huge (up to 120 feet tall) over the 200 to 400 years it takes to fully mature - often 3 or more feet in diameter. Insect and rot-resistant, and straight as a stick, the Long-Leaf was once the go-to wood for just about everything anyone wanted to build, like ships, railroads, factories...you get the idea. By the 1920s virtually all of the virgin stands of Long-Leaf were long gone, replaced in subsequent decades by faster-growing but nearly as imposing species of pine for commercial reasons.
Ok, so that's the Long-Leaf Yellow Pine (Alabama's State Tree, by the way), but what is "Heart Pine?" Heart Pine refers to the heartwood of the tree, which is the non-living center of the tree trunk. The lighter colored "sapwood," which is the living part of the tree that transports nutrients etc. Builders of yesteryear (and woodworkers of today) much preferred the Heart Wood, for its strength, insect and mold resistance, and beautiful reddish color, and so when a Long-Leaf Pine was felled, it was the Heart Wood that went to the navy yard, or the railroad company, or the bank barn (or the fenceposts!). Most heart pine found today is from the Long Leaf, which is considered a high quality timber tree to this day. The three facts that make Heart Pine special to me are:
1. the trees from which it is cut could live for 500 years
2. a single inch of heart pine requires roughly 30 years of growth, and
3. they're not really making it anymore...
Ok, so that's the Long-Leaf Yellow Pine (Alabama's State Tree, by the way), but what is "Heart Pine?" Heart Pine refers to the heartwood of the tree, which is the non-living center of the tree trunk. The lighter colored "sapwood," which is the living part of the tree that transports nutrients etc. Builders of yesteryear (and woodworkers of today) much preferred the Heart Wood, for its strength, insect and mold resistance, and beautiful reddish color, and so when a Long-Leaf Pine was felled, it was the Heart Wood that went to the navy yard, or the railroad company, or the bank barn (or the fenceposts!). Most heart pine found today is from the Long Leaf, which is considered a high quality timber tree to this day. The three facts that make Heart Pine special to me are:
1. the trees from which it is cut could live for 500 years
2. a single inch of heart pine requires roughly 30 years of growth, and
3. they're not really making it anymore...
The "Reclaimed American Chestnut" Series
Representative Gallery
About Reclaimed Chestnut
Another previously common wood for building barns and other structures was American Chestnut. Beginning in 1904, a chestnut blight spread across the US killing billions of American Chestnuts, so when these structures were later dismantled, they were a welcome source of this desirable but later rare wood for subsequent reuse. American Chestnut wood can be identified as pre or post-blight by analysis of worm tracks in sawn timber. The presence of worm tracks suggests the trees were felled as dead standing timber, and are post-blight lumber.
The "Reclaimed Black Walnut" Series
Representative Gallery
My sources for these pieces are almost exclusively collectors of wood from old homes and barns, as well as some industrial buildings dating way back to when walnut beams were commonly used in such structures. Occasionally, a nice surprise such as the (solid!) walnut porch column pictured below will come my way. The other photo shows a corbel and its joinery cut-off from a solid walnut beam taken from an old industrial building. The writing refers to the fact that is has been de-nailed, so no nasty surprises later on the lathe.