@neotoy

There is something quite satisfying, isn't there? I have done more of this in my life that you can shake a stick at. If I valued my time at anything at all, the economics would never work out compared to going to a store that sells salvaged old growth and buying it.

I have a portable bandsaw, so I often start with large timbers, skimming a century's worth of paint off the surface and squaring them up, hoping I found all the nails first.

One particular timber, old growth western red cedar that somehow found its way into an old warehouse in the Bay Area, had a large bullet lodged in it. The tree had grown around it, been cut down, sawn into lumber, been incorporated into a building for 100 years, dismantled and is now part of the siding on my house.

These pieces of wood have stories.

(I documented the whole process with this particular timber. This reminds me to write a little story about it.)

@neotoy Agreed!

Reminds me of something a chemical engineer said a long time ago about oil: that it's too marvelous and useful a material to be burned for fuel!

@neotoy Hmm, yes. In the early 1980s I lived in a 2-1/2 story 17 room mansion, in West Los Angeles, built when it was the only house in the area in what is now called Mar Vista. 100% redwood, built in 1903, solid, immune to termites, immune to everything. Earthquakes caused some issues with the footings of ths house but it still stands today.

My father taught me about redwood back in the 1960s. Not easy to work with. You have to develop a feel for it. It's a very strange wood. Splinters are brutal. But insects won't touch it. Nothing touches it, from my observations.

@neotoy That's good work you're doing there.

Keep at it.