aemeijers wrote:
dpb wrote:
....
- sometimes it's harder to work owing to being much harder than new
lumber (fir or SYP are particularly noticeable in that regard). Again
that really goes back to point (1) of taking more time/effort (but
probably having better material).

I've taken 16- to 20-ft 2x6, -8, -10, -12's out of places that were
essentially knot-free. Imagine the cost of one of even one of them
suckers today _if_ you could even find it!!!

--

I'll add an 'AMEN' from the peanut gallery to the above. When I was a
wee lad, we used clear redwood for gutter boards and outside window
trim. Not even a rich man could do that today. When I think back to the
big scraps we routinely threw on the burn pile back then (every
construction site had one), I could cry. Who knew? Poster above is
correct about old wood getting hard as a rock- whatever the heck this
place is framed with, I can't drive nails in it, or drill it with a dull
bit. I just drill pilot holes and use screws now, to avoid trashing the
drywall on the wall behind where I am working.
....
In Campbell County, VA in the late '60s they salvaged an old school
house and were selling off the various beams, joists, flooring, etc,
etc., ...

I was inspecting a pile of from 3x to 5x beams from 12 to 16" deep and
16 to 20 ft long. It looked suspiciously dark and a little
surreptitious slivers w/ the pocketknife revealed what I
suspected--black walnut. I took it all for $1500 (a king's ransom then
for a newly graduated fella' w/ new kid and house) and ended up w/
something on the order of 5000 bd-ft of what virtually all graded 1C or
better walnut...

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