Anna Kettle wrote:

On Wed, 15 Dec 2004 12:05:28 +0000 (UTC), "Michael Mcneil"
wrote:


Wayne oak is susceptible but heartwood is quite good at standing up for
itself.


I suppose I assumed that joinery would be made only of heartwood, just
so it doesn't twist and warp, which is important for opening window
frames



However most ancient oak timbers were creosoted and covered with
pitch or some other standard preservative.
500 years ago a tree cultivated for the purpose it was eventually felled
for, would spend a few years pointing downstream in a clean, fast river.
This would wash out all its sugars and starches. It might then have been
buried in mud.


My experience is in using oak for massive timber framing. Timber
framers today don't use timber which has been preserved, or soaked, or
buried in mud. What they do like to use is airdried oak, not kiln
dried


What would be saved buy not using preservative? Ten or twelve quid?
At what price?


maybe preservative will clog up the pores so the timber can't breathe
properly ... maybe it will become impossible to get the silvery
weathered oak effect ...


If you want teh silvery wetahering, leave it in te sun and don';t put
anything on it, and watch as teh silvery eathering gradually changes to
deep scoring weher teh softer parts rot away.

Alternatively limewash it and hop the bugs don't like the taste.

Which is I think what they used to do anyway.

Anna


~~ Anna Kettle, Suffolk, England
|""""| ~ Lime plaster repairs
/ ^^ \ // Freehand modelling in lime: overmantels, pargeting etc
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