Thoughts on this Lumber?

[Strokes77]

So the man has these boards available. He says he doesn't know what they are, except he believes them to be hardwood. He says they were used to deliver tractor parts. Maybe to form a pallet? Anyway, what would be your thoughts on buying this stuff to resaw it into wood for various projects?

[gMike]

Have you got a metal detector? I'd be leery of lumber used to crate machine parts, too much chance of buried metal, grease, or other contamination.

[Strokes77]

gMike said:

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Have you got a metal detector? I'd be leery of lumber used to crate machine parts, too much chance of buried metal, grease, or other contamination.

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That's what I needed to know. Thanks.

[Dave Diaman]

I would guess they are pine and probably still pretty wet. Even if it doesn't have metal in it I don't think it would be suitable for anything you would use inside without a lot of drying.

[blackhat]

Depends what he's asking up front and how much effort to see them. Could be a start on a hella stout bench frame or similar, could be they are firewood grade. At 4" thick you could do a deeply saddled seat for a stool, a main plank for a shave horse....... Cheap enough, I would probably go and look and maybe throw a lowball offer.

[Bibliophile 13]

They look like pine to me, most like SYP. It's hard to tell from a single photo, though.

If you're looking for a rough-n-rustic bench top or table top, those would be great. But if they are pine, they won't be any better than the cleaner stuff you can probably get at a local home center. If you're planning on resewing them anyway, why bother with mystery wood? I would guess these are reasonably dry, though, if they were cut any more than a three or four years ago.

[EricU]

My experience with sawmills is limited, but I can't imagine you are going to find seasoned 4x11" anywhere. I think I could adapt my style of woodworking to incorporate those boards, regardless of what species it is. I agree with the metal finder though. There was a story in the back of FWW where they called a guy with a portable sawmill to cut up a large tree that had fallen in the yard. He refused saying "ersometelintsummers" Translation is that lawn trees have metal embedded, same with pallets. Seems inevitable that if you are resawing, it isn't going to go well.

[hbmcc]

Any repurposing of such material should be considered a labor of love.

[Admiral]

If they were free, maybe, just maybe I'd take them. Too many unknowns, life is too short to deal with garbage.

[GNP]

Admiral said:

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If they were free, maybe, just maybe I'd take them. Too many unknowns, life is too short to deal with garbage.

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Yep, I've tried to cheap out on lumber 2 different times. Came back to bite me both times.