Saving the past

[Redman]

This place has no appropriate smiles.

[hcbph]

Good to save what you can.  Happens I grew up in a farming environment and we had a large barn with pegged mortise and tenon joints holding the timbers together for the framing, but that wasn't the big thing.  The neighbors lived on a family farm that had been in the family for generations.  They had a barn that was said to have been built with timbers salvaged from the Chicago Worlds Fair before 1900.  There were massive timbers in it of all kinds of species.  In my youth, I helped them many times putting hay bales in the barn in the summers so I had a chance to see some of the structure inside.  I saw timbers of oak, maple, cherry, walnut and others I couldn't be sure of what species they were.
Story was the Great Grandfather and Great Great Grandfather bought a load of lumber salvaged from the building at the Worlds Fair (1893 I assume) to build the barn, it was shipped in by train and transported to the farm by horses and wagons.  Back then they'd have barn raisings where all the farmers and people with talents in building post and beam construction would get together and help put a barn frame together.
Unfortunately none of the last generation of kids wanted to farm so the farm was ultimately sold upon the owners widow retiring.  The buyer wanted to put in a large machine shed to hold his farm equipment and the barn was offered to some local teachers that salvaged buildings.  When the final day came and it wasn't all gone, apparently the new owner torched the rest to clear it out.  My Dad was still alive then and was able to get a few pieces of wood out of it but he said the majority of the large timbers were burnt up regardless of species.
Such a shame to burn up 100+ year old timbers that averaged anywhere from 8" to 10" square and some were probably 30' or more in length at a minimum.

[justdraftn]

Ok, we have a box w/a shape and the two sides cut off.
We have a tambour door assembled.
Back to the box carcass.  Need to cut out the cavity that the tambour
will ride in.  I don't have a pic of this box but another one.  Same process.
The entry needs to be joined back together w/a spline.

After the case is back together, need to cut off what I call the track sides.
These will eventually be glued back on to the side pieces.  This is the track the
tambour will ride in.  I learned early on, these are very delicate.  The inside edges need
to be sanded....really well.  I carefully clamp them in my vise to sand each edge.
This is my aray of custom sanders to accomplish this. 



Now, check these w/the already assembled tambour door.....very carefully.
The track sides for this box fell apart as they came off the band saw.  I decided to trash these.

So, what to do?  Cut off two more track sides.  Remember, that extra width I decided to let ride?
When it looks….and feels good, glue the track sides back to their paired side.




Now, need to create the interior of the box.  I have been doing cubies as opposed to drawers.
Drawers seemed to take up too much room.  Not sure what these will be used for.
Suggestions.  Again, all the surfaces need to be sanded.  Cubies get spindle sanded.
the interior of the tambour cavity gets sanded w/my special tools.  Again, check...check and
check how the tambour rides in the cavity.

[justdraftn]

Finished the sanding on the tambour.  Really took my time on this one.
Each edge of each slate has to have the edge knocked down, so it will
glide not just in the track but in the case cavity.  The rough edges have to be
sanded on each side of each slate.

Test...test.....test in the track.  Should just be smooth....fluid.

Bringing it back together.
I love pipe clamps.  So forceful.  They can crush it... or snug it to .001".

Looking good, so far.



If you want an external drawer, this is the time to create it.
It is just the mechanics of a standard band saw box drawer.
"Back" is off.  "Front" is on.  Cut out your drawer blank.

No external drawer here.  I want just the full solid sides.

[justdraftn]

The tambour is finished.  Dry clamped and tested....multiple times.

...and all back together.

I noticed that all the rubbing of the sides had brought out some
of the original oak color from under the weathering.  Got to thinking...
how to bring that out.  So, I took the power washer to the next
piece for the next box.  What do you think?
Before

After

[Timberwolf]

In the late 1700s, somewhere in the forests of Indiana, an acorn fell from an oak tree.
Over the next 100yrs, it grew into a massive tree.  Sometime in the late 1800s, a man cut this
tree down and hewed it into a beam to build his barn.  Over the next 100yrs, it nurtured him
and his family and farm and who knows who else.  Sometime around 2005, the barn was torn
down.  The wood found it's way to some guys in Colo. that buy these old barns and repurpose
the wood for their business.  This and many other beams and misc wood were deemed unusable.

This wood came into my hands as firewood.  Over the course of 6wks,  I took a little over
5 cords of wood off their property.  As I was cutting this stuff up, I was just amazed at this
incredible OAK fire wood.  In Colo....oak firewood is unheard of.  Believe me, it is fantastic fire wood.

Once I got it home and had some time to actually look at what I had,  I was shocked. 
Pinned mortise and tenon joints, created w/hand tools.  Hand carved oak dowels.




 Some of this wood was so hard, I had to leave it.  I couldn't cut it
and it was too heavy to move by myself.  I have 4 chains for cutting firewood. 
It would take all four chains to cut a  truck load.  All had to be sharpened
in prep for the next haul.  This is how I got this wood.
I have hundreds of pieces of this wood.

As this man's adz stuck this wood, over and over, what were his thoughts? 
As the sweat of his brow fell on this wood, did he see his hope and dreams in this wood? 
Did he feel his comfort and security in this wood? 
If only this wood could talk.
 My goal is to try and save some of it.  I have already done that w/boxes like this kitty box and
this yen/yang box. 




I like them, but it does not show the real story of this wood.
What I really want to do is save the wood w/the hewing marks on it.  To me, this
is really touching the true past, the true story of this wood

........................
Make some picture frames with it showing the adze marks.

[justdraftn]

The box is finished.  Very pleased w/the effort and outcome.  Not the easiest box
I have built.  Used all the tips and tricks from all the boxs that came before this one.
.....isn't that the way wood working works? 








This box is going to my wife's cousin.  He just finished saving and restoring the
100yr old court house in Madras, OR.  He is a true believer in saving the past.
I hope that in another 100yrs, someone holds this box in their hands and has
some idea what it is and where it came from.

Just curious...was this post in any way helpful to anyone?
Did it give anyone any ideas for things to build?
Would you use this as a cell phone stand?
Thoughts/comments/suggestions welcome!

[Bucko]

Fantastic find and darn nice uses of the wood, I once saw an attractive book end set made of a mortise / tenon barn beam joints

[Bill Wilson]

Just curious...was this post in any way helpful to anyone?
Did it give anyone any ideas for things to build?
Would you use this as a cell phone stand?
Thoughts/comments/suggestions welcome!

Well, not sure I'll be doing anything like that in the near future, but it was sure cool to watch your progress on this. 

Truly a unique and creative project.  Saving and highlighting the character of the old wood was great.  Thanks for sharing this.

[FrankAtl]

Just curious...was this post in any way helpful to anyone?
Did it give anyone any ideas for things to build?
Would you use this as a cell phone stand?
Thoughts/comments/suggestions welcome!

Very much so! Always enjoy build posts as well as repurposing wood. We need more build posts around here.

Thanks!