"Salty" wood question *LINK*

Re: "Salty" wood question

Ross Canant - NE Texas

>I have seen this wood before, but I haven't worked it. I can tell you that timber framing old wood requires far sharper tools than timber framing in green wood.

Re: "Salty" wood question

Garrett in Victoria BC CA

>Norm Abrams did a full show on this company and its operations, and built a project out of some of the recovered wood. As I recall - it was some time ago - there was no mention of problems with the salt dulling tools. Of course, there was also no time to determine the impact if any on the appearance over time. You might want to checj with Rod Peterson on the Main Board who has every episode of the NYW show, plus search the New Yankee Workshop website and send in a quetion.

However, I believe you would find that the lake water, and therefore the salt, does not penetrate very far into the log. What it does is preserve the log from rotting by "insulating" it from oxygen.

Cheers, Garrett

"The Empress" is a famous chateau hotel here in Victoria that was built a more than a century ago on what was then a tidal mudflat. The pilings were 100' long Douglas Fir logs. Needless to say, there was some concern about their current condition, so an expensive series of tests were undertaken including core samples. The finding was that these logs are as good today as when they were first driven into place, precisely because they are in an oxygen-free environment.

Cheers, Garrett

Re: "Salty" wood question

Pam Niedermayer - Austin, TX

>Yeah, the building pilings in Boston's Back Bay area didn't start to rot until the water level went down.

Pam

Re: "Salty" wood question

Clay Craig in Miami

>I think I would wonder, too. The site says: "Tests show that the poles often consist of more than 20% salt by weight, all the way to the core." So apparently the salt did penetrate these.

I don't know whether the salt would be more abrasive, but it would certainly be a rust iisue, I'd think.

Plus, salt is SO hydrophilic - their site also says: "The affinity of salt for water makes lumber cut from the piling more difficult to dry than "normal" Douglas Fir lumber (Trestlewood's experience has been that it takes about twice as long to kiln dry 4/4 (1") lumber cut from the piling as it does to kiln dry typical green 4/4 Douglas Fir lumber.)" I'd worry that even once dry, that salt is still there, and eager to draw back in more water. This could affect dimensions maybe, even in timber framing?

OTOH, they've been marketing a lot of this stuff for a long time, seems problems would have come up before now if there were such (though it looks like they've only been selling the "trestlewood II" - made from the submerged pilings - for a couple of years).

All that said, it is some pretty stuff - see below.

Re: "Salty" wood question

Ross Canant - NE Texas

>Browning Firearms had an issue with some gun stocks in the 60's made with 'salt cured' walnut. They ended up replacing a number of high end double barrel shotguns because of corrosion caused by the salt. I don't think tool corrosion would be an issue unless you left piles of sawdust on the jointer or tablesaw, but fasteners might be a problem (not in a pegged timber frame however).

Thanks, everyone, I'll pass it on

Corey Megal - Milwaukee

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