Looking at some barn wood

[Rusty Nesmith]

I was talking to a guy that has some barn wood for sale. He has 7 pieces 7’ long, 12” wide and 3.5” thick. He said they are old, dry with no rot or cracks. He thinks they are oak or hickory. He wants around $100 for all of it. If it looks good I will buy it. That should keep me busy on the new lathe for a little while.

 

[Steve Tiedman]

Hickory sounds like fun! Given your region, which type of oak would be most likely? Enjoy your find.

 

[Rusty Nesmith]

Red oak is the most common around here.

 

[Lou Jacobs]

Boy, I’d grab it. You could re-saw it to 3/4” or 7/8” thick and have enough to lay a floor in a decent sized room.

 

[John Walls]

Sounds like a good deal if solid. Watch for metals, might have alot of nails/screws, etc embedded in it. I got to take down a small barn years ago, I use it in flat-work.

 

[John Hicks]

In the Virginia area, they used quite a bit of chestnut in barns; I had a bunch when we lived in Virginia from old barns they were tearing down.

 

[John Torchick]

Have turned pen blanks from pecan which is the first cousin to hickory. Take the wood before the seller changes his mind.

 

[Forrest Forschmiedt]

If it really is crack free, it could be a good score! I've been looking at a fair number of ads on Craigslist and the fb marketplace. Most of the barn wood or thick cut mantle boards have significant cracking through them. That price is very good compared to what others are asking.
If it does have cracks, it should be good and stable for experimenting with epoxy.
Dry hickory is going to be really hard and will give you lots of practice sharpening your tools. Hickory is about 50% harder than oak, which is closer in hardness to maple. If it's anything like the mockernut hickory I have been turning chunks of for a while, it can have some really nice colors and contrast between the sapwood and heartwood. I turned a bunch or red oak I got from a neighbor's tree last year. Oak's coarse, open grain is different to work with and it had neat color and character through it also.

 

[Donovan Bailey]

If it really is crack free, it could be a good score! I've been looking at a fair number of ads on Craigslist and the fb marketplace. Most of the barn wood or thick cut mantle boards have significant cracking through them. That price is very good compared to what others are asking.
If it does have cracks, it should be good and stable for experimenting with epoxy.
Dry hickory is going to be really hard and will give you lots of practice sharpening your tools. Hickory is about 50% harder than oak, which is closer in hardness to maple. If it's anything like the mockernut hickory I have been turning chunks of for a while, it can have some really nice colors and contrast between the sapwood and heartwood. I turned a bunch or red oak I got from a neighbor's tree last year. Oak's coarse, open grain is different to work with and it had neat color and character through it also.

Agree. Dry hickory turns about the same as a chunk of cinder block...and if you have a chunk that has knots/branches in it, well, it feels like you are hitting nails.

 

[john lucas]

Barn wood can dull a tool extremely quick. There is often a lot of silica in it. I had some.Oak one time that would dull a Thompson tool.to the poi t it would t eve cut in one pass across the surface.

 

[Mike Johnson]

I turned some 200+ year old hickory beams salvaged from an old estate, that was the hardest wood I have ever turned on my lathe.

 

[Emiliano Achaval]

I was talking to a guy that has some barn wood for sale. He has 7 pieces 7’ long, 12” wide and 3.5” thick. He said they are old, dry with no rot or cracks. He thinks they are oak or hickory. He wants around $100 for all of it. If it looks good I will buy it. That should keep me busy on the new lathe for a little while.

Is this the same wood from your other posting?

 

[Rusty Nesmith]

Is this the same wood from your other posting?

No.