" writes:
=20
Again I realized that pallets come in three kinds of wood. =20
- Hard wood
- Soft wood
- Fire wood.

Back in the late 1980s, early 1990s, when I worked in a warehouse and dealt=
with pallets, I usually saw only rough pine pallets. Its possible there m=
ight have been some other woods in there. But I was far less knowledgeable=
about wood back then

Standard shaped pallets are about 4 foot by 6 foot. Three 2x4s in the midd=
le with cutouts at either end of the 2x4 so forklifts can pick them up from=
the side. Bottom slats are about 3 of them. Top slats are the whole 6 fo=
ot length with a half inch gap between slats. All of these slats are rough=
ly 1x4s. Rough. So you'd be lucky to plane and joint them down to 1/2" th=
ick finished. And the 2x4 middle pieces, by the time you trimmed off the c=
utouts on the bottom, you'd end up with only a 2x2 6 foot long.

So, unless you need rough wood, and mostly small pieces, pallets really don=
't provide good wood to use. Especially not furniture.

I've made some very pretty boxes from pallet wood. Quartersawn white
oak, red oak, mahogany, teak, poplar and a few others.

I read somewhere that something like 60% of harvested hardwood is used
for pallets (the stuff that isn't clear enough to use for lumber).