There have been a few posts about reclaiming old posts and timbers with
the following caveat; remove all nails before sawing. Well this only
makes good sense. My question is, even if the nails are removed, could
there be sufficient residual corrosion in the holes to shorten the life
of planer or jointer blades used to finish up the resawn pieces?
That's all, just a question, but someday I might get lucky enough to
reclain some old/used stuff.
Marc

"marc rosen" wrote in message
oups.com...
There have been a few posts about reclaiming old posts and timbers with
the following caveat; remove all nails before sawing. Well this only
makes good sense. My question is, even if the nails are removed, could
there be sufficient residual corrosion in the holes to shorten the life
of planer or jointer blades used to finish up the resawn pieces?
That's all, just a question, but someday I might get lucky enough to
reclain some old/used stuff.
Marc

If there are visible debris in the holes you could drill the holes out
larger to remove the debris or cut the holes out if they are near the edge
of the board. I do this with unwanted knots so that I don't take a chunk of
the knives by hitting the knot.

I pretty much assume that I'm going to do some damage to the cutting edges
of tools when I work with reclaimed wood... nicked the iron on my L-N 7 on a
bit of metal that I missed in a piece of reclaimed old growth pine a few
weeks ago. That really annoyed me as the plane was only a few weeks old!

John

"marc rosen" wrote in message
oups.com...
There have been a few posts about reclaiming old posts and timbers with
the following caveat; remove all nails before sawing. Well this only
makes good sense. My question is, even if the nails are removed, could
there be sufficient residual corrosion in the holes to shorten the life
of planer or jointer blades used to finish up the resawn pieces?
That's all, just a question, but someday I might get lucky enough to
reclain some old/used stuff.
Marc

Yes you will harm the blades somewhat. It not the residue in the holes so
much as the little pieces of nail that get missed. Buy a lumber wizard, and
use it religiously. Purchase an extra set of blades so you don't have
downtime in case of a booboo.
Good luck Lyndell

"marc rosen" wrote in message
oups.com...
There have been a few posts about reclaiming old posts and timbers with
the following caveat; remove all nails before sawing. Well this only
makes good sense. My question is, even if the nails are removed, could
there be sufficient residual corrosion in the holes to shorten the life
of planer or jointer blades used to finish up the resawn pieces?
That's all, just a question, but someday I might get lucky enough to
reclain some old/used stuff.
Marc


I'm one of the old timber posters...another thing to consider is when we
process new KD Beech, we often find plenty of bullets. The lead isn't too
bad on the tools but it makes me think that the old timbers are also full of
bullets. Take down my building and you can HAVE all the old timber!

"marc rosen" wrote in message
oups.com...
There have been a few posts about reclaiming old posts and
timbers with
the following caveat; remove all nails before sawing. Well
this only
makes good sense. My question is, even if the nails are
removed, could
there be sufficient residual corrosion in the holes to shorten
the life
of planer or jointer blades used to finish up the resawn
pieces?
That's all, just a question, but someday I might get lucky
enough to
reclain some old/used stuff.
Marc


It's worth the effort, IMO, but ... old wood can sometimes have
debris in it that is not visible. It's not unusual, depending on
where it came from, to come across pieces of barbed wire,
staples, nails, all kinds of things that the tree simply grew
around over the years. So, there's a certain amount of gambling
to it but in general I think it's worth the gambles.

Pop

"Pop" wrote in message
It's worth the effort, IMO, but ... old wood can sometimes have
debris in it that is not visible. It's not unusual, depending on
where it came from, to come across pieces of barbed wire,
staples, nails, all kinds of things that the tree simply grew
around over the years.

Wouldn't a decent metal detector be capable of finding all that stuff, metal
anyway? I don't own one so maybe they're not as capable as I've been led to
believe?

"Upscale" wrote in message
...
"Pop" wrote in message
It's worth the effort, IMO, but ... old wood can sometimes have
debris in it that is not visible. It's not unusual, depending on
where it came from, to come across pieces of barbed wire,
staples, nails, all kinds of things that the tree simply grew
around over the years.

Wouldn't a decent metal detector be capable of finding all that stuff,
metal
anyway? I don't own one so maybe they're not as capable as I've been led
to
believe?

I've missed some stuff with my metal detector... things like broken screws,
nails, staples, chunks of rust, and small tacks. These kinds of things leave
little nicks in the knives... not great but not terrible either if you view
these tools as dimensioning tools and not as finishing tools.

John

Current metal detector technology is that good but you won't find it in the
typical cheap wands that woodworkers usually have. Look at $500.00 or more
and you will get something that won't miss stuff. A friend of mine (a
prospector) just bought one for $1200.00 that will even identify what kind
of metal.

"Upscale" wrote in message
...
Ok, thanks for that information. I was under the impression that current
technology for (at least what is available (read affordable) to the
consumer) was more efficient that that. I guess that won't happen until
MRI
machines are down to the price of consumables.

I have found that even new wood that has sat around or has been poorly
looked after tends to have dirt and small stones embeded in the wood that is
hard on planer blades. Best keep two sets at least. One for rough work and
one set for finish work. It even pays to power wash some stuff.
"CW" wrote in message
k.net...
Current metal detector technology is that good but you won't find it in
the
typical cheap wands that woodworkers usually have. Look at $500.00 or more
and you will get something that won't miss stuff. A friend of mine (a
prospector) just bought one for $1200.00 that will even identify what kind
of metal.

"Upscale" wrote in message
...
Ok, thanks for that information. I was under the impression that current
technology for (at least what is available (read affordable) to the
consumer) was more efficient that that. I guess that won't happen until
MRI
machines are down to the price of consumables.

I haven't posted for a while so this is in the nature of a test.
I had a bunch of old maple flooring from a renovation I did
that had different finishes and fasteners from almost 100 yrs.
and I used a cheap detector to find and remove the metal.
It was the finishes that I believe caused the most damage.
I wore out a set of knives, but had them resharpened. The
rollers took a hit as well. They had rubber covers which were
torn by the crud on the boards. The wood was very nice and usable
though and certainly well seasoned and the planer has been replaced
for finer work. I would use the old planer again to start if I found
some wood I thought was worthwhile, and then finish it further with
something else.
Norm on new yankee put old wood through a sander before planing it,
but the sander might introduce some grit.

"Norbert" wrote in message
...
I haven't posted for a while so this is in the nature of a test.
I had a bunch of old maple flooring from a renovation I did
that had different finishes and fasteners from almost 100 yrs.
and I used a cheap detector to find and remove the metal.
It was the finishes that I believe caused the most damage.
I wore out a set of knives, but had them resharpened. The
rollers took a hit as well. They had rubber covers which were
torn by the crud on the boards. The wood was very nice and usable
though and certainly well seasoned and the planer has been replaced
for finer work. I would use the old planer again to start if I found
some wood I thought was worthwhile, and then finish it further with
something else.
Norm on new yankee put old wood through a sander before planing it,
but the sander might introduce some grit.

Many paints will literally eat knives... full of silica! I had some
pre-primed finger jointed wood that I ripped on the table saw. To clean up
the cut edges I ran them over the jointer. I ended up with two hollows in
the knives--lined up perfectly with the paint! Another time I used old
knives on a thickness planner to remove paint from the surface of boards...
those knives were trashed by that experience.

John

"Norbert" wrote:

I haven't posted for a while so this is in the nature of a test.
I had a bunch of old maple flooring from a renovation I did
that had different finishes and fasteners from almost 100 yrs.
and I used a cheap detector to find and remove the metal.
It was the finishes that I believe caused the most damage.
I wore out a set of knives, but had them resharpened.

snip

Around here, it's belt sander time.

24 grit belts and a PC choo-choo makes quick work of that crap.

After it's clean, it's cutting machine time.

Lew