incorporating nostalgia in a desk
Bill Tindall, E.Tn.
I save any lumber that could be useful. When I built our house I had sawed 2 x10 poplar for the temporary stair treads. When they were replaced by ash treads I saved the poplar.
To clean up dirty lumber a cup wire brush on an angle grinder works well but makes quite a mess.
When it works out I like to incorporate wood that has significance into furniture I build . For example, I replaced some 4 x 6 cedar posts in a daughter's first house. I resawed these posts to make drawer bottoms for her furniture.
The poplar treads were cut from the center of the logs. The edges are rift grain and ideal for drawer sides. I found I could get the sides for the 4 and 5" desk drawers from the edges of some of this poplar.
The picture shows, front to back- a cleaned and planed tread ready for resawing, a tread before cleaning, and the cut-off from a cleaned tread.
