Chestnut (can you tell me more about this wood)
#8
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T
hanks!
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#9
Chestnut, real american chestnut is scarce today.  A bug killed all or at least nearly all of the american chestnut trees in the first half of the last century.    Its a lighter colored wood, pale white to darker tan, fairly uniform in color from what I have seen.  I had an old church pew a while back that was all Chestnut.  I used it for various projects over the years and gave some of it away.  It was fun to turn but a bit boring to look at being so uniform in color.

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#10
If I remember correctly, It is a fungus that ultimately kills them but, the fungus is carried by a beetle; much like Dutch Elm disease has wiped out the American Elm. They grow and look beautiful for a few years and then die rather quickly. My understanding is that there is a university somewhere that keeps planting them in hopes that they will come up with a resistant variety. If you find any lumber today, it will likely be full of worm holes made by the beetle larva. If you find some without the worm holes, you will have struck gold.
Up until it's demise, the nuts were a major food source for both animals and people.
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#11
There are a few trees in the wild yet that seem to be immune to the killer. I know of a couple near me. I've read that the studies being done are focused on building a new population based on those natural survivors. The few sample of old chestnut lumber I've seen are very similar to white oak in texture

And that is all I know (or at least think I know) about chestnut.
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#12
I went to an auction several years ago ... they were selling 4' long by 12' long banded blocks of 4/4 8" chestnut boards. There we about 10 of them and IRRC they brought around $25/BF ..

I really wanted some but had not place to put a whole brick.

The Chestnut I have seen is really close to WO ... Stanley made the boxes for the 45 from it ... not really anything special about the appearance ..
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#13
(12-11-2021, 03:57 PM)kencombs Wrote: There are a few trees in the wild yet that seem to be immune to the killer.  I know of a couple near me.  I've read that the studies being done are focused on building a new population based on those natural survivors.  The few sample of old chestnut lumber I've seen are very similar to white oak in texture

And that is all I know (or at least think I know) about chestnut.

Work has been going on to breed an American Chestnut with an Asian Chestnut which isn't affected by the blight. Not sure what's happening with it now but it's been going on for years.
Neil Summers Home Inspections




I came to a stop sign and a skanky tweaker chick in a tube top climbed out of the brush and propositioned me.  She looked like she didn't have any teeth so I counted that as a plus.


... Kizar Sosay





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#14
I inspected a chestnut house built in the mid 1700's. Pretty cool to see. The attic floorboards were random width chestnut. Some as wide as 20 inches.

Joists...


[Image: NnPxyCW.jpg]


[Image: I1RK6MS.jpg]

attic flooring:

[Image: RDN7qhL.jpg]
Neil Summers Home Inspections




I came to a stop sign and a skanky tweaker chick in a tube top climbed out of the brush and propositioned me.  She looked like she didn't have any teeth so I counted that as a plus.


... Kizar Sosay





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