Maple Wood Recovered from Old Barns

skierlawyer

skierlawyer

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I know someone who dismantles very old barns and sells the antique wood for a variety of uses. I spoke to him about it and he has a bunch of what he describes as very tight grain maple that is at least 100 years old. Could this be good wood to turn into cues or shafts?
 
It kind of depends. Wsa it water logged what color is it how straight is the grain? Heck I will buy a board just to see.
 
skierlawyer said:
I know someone who dismantles very old barns and sells the antique wood for a variety of uses. I spoke to him about it and he has a bunch of what he describes as very tight grain maple that is at least 100 years old. Could this be good wood to turn into cues or shafts?
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Where are barns made of Maple ?
 
Most barns were made of whatever was readily available 100 years ago.
 
Old Wood

When they tore down the Omaha stockyards my inlays took thousands of boards. They have property and were going to use it for fence but never did. I'm not even sure if it's maple. I'll grab a couple and take a look. Probably wouldn't work, but if it did I sure would have a lot:)
 
CamposCues said:
When they tore down the Omaha stockyards my inlays took thousands of boards. They have property and were going to use it for fence but never did. I'm not even sure if it's maple. I'll grab a couple and take a look. Probably wouldn't work, but if it did I sure would have a lot:)
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........my inlays .......................

sure can tell you got cues on the brain ;)
 
skierlawyer said:
I know someone who dismantles very old barns and sells the antique wood for a variety of uses. I spoke to him about it and he has a bunch of what he describes as very tight grain maple that is at least 100 years old. Could this be good wood to turn into cues or shafts?
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Age and specie sound good.
But, how they were cut is pretty critical.
 
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It makes absolutely no difference at all how the boards were sawn. None. Zero. Zip. Bupkus. Nada. If the grain is straight, that's all that matters. Every cylinder in the world is going to look the same as every other cylinder as far as grain.

A flat or plane sawn board with the growth rings parallel to the surface is a perfect board. If the barn wood is beams you will still want to give the center pieces some time to season.
 
I'll take it in any size.
I think if you cut it into shaft blanks you'll get more money out of it.
 
Paul Dayton said:
A flat or plane sawn board with the growth rings parallel to the surface is a perfect board. If the barn wood is beams you will still want to give the center pieces some time to season.
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Agreed.
I've seen boards where they were cut across the grain.
Not parallel.
Some dowels from waterlogged maple supplier even.
 
Quartersawing is extremely wasteful for the sawyer and mill. Yes, it makes it easier to select straight grained wood as the grain is on the face of the board but tyhwe fact is that mills all try to saw the wood with the grain. The piece you saw was an exception.

If you buy 8/8" lumber in most cases you can offset the centers and end up with straight grain.
 
I don't have any of this wood yet, I was speaking to one of my clients about it. He is Amish and lives in PA. He tells me he has 500-800 feet of maple and also lots of oak and other woods. He has an antique building material company that has tons of IRS debt, we were discussing a liqidation of assetts and the wood came up as his main assett. He tells me he sells a lot of it to people who make doors and things. I asked about the maple because I was thinking shaftwood, but I will inquire about what else he has. He will send me a sample cut to any size I want. is 1x1x31 what a cuemaker would want? Anyone willing to take a sample and make me a free shaft w/ ivory ferulle and morri tip, perhaps in exchange for an extra blank? I was not looking to sell this wood, but if there is interest I will inquire about pricing and may make some available.
 
Anyone willing to take a sample and make me a free shaft w/ ivory ferulle and morri tip, perhaps in exchange for an extra blank
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are you asking to trade,maybe a $10 shaft blank that you don't even know is good for a $200 shaft?
 
sorry if that cam across harsh,but most guys here buy shaftwood from 100 to pallets at a time and the price gets down pretty good when you buy in bulk.

i would say that if it turned out to be old growth rock Maple with 20+ rpi and zero or very little runoff then you might get $20 a piece for them since they are 100 years old.

most guys here are going to get $200 and up for a good shaft with ivory and Moori tip.

i would think that 100 year old beams are completely seasoned no matter how large they are.cut away.
 
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