barnbeams for boat building

[longliner45]

were I live in Ohio they are tearing down the farms and building plats,right now barn beams are plentifull;they are white oak about1ft by1ft hand hewn .you cant drive a nail in um;I suspect 5 or 6 years they will be gone soom are 100 ft long,would they be anygood for boatbuilding ?

[PAR]

Depending on their age and condition (bugs and other beasties, etc.) in a word Hell Yes.

[lewisboats]

Drool, Slobber, Drool

[Ari]

It is very hard to bend wood that had been air dried for more than one year.Try to make planks out of it.You can cut into 2 inch thick plank and try to bend it. Any way that wood still can be use for the keel, deck,cabin..If two inch is too thick, just try 1 inch first. If you can get about 20 to 30 ton of that wood..make it into plank.. you can comfortably make a sail boat about 40 feet long. 70 feet long boat will need about 40 ton(tropical rain forest wood).

[mattotoole]

Originally Posted by longliner45

were I live in Ohio they are tearing down the farms and building plats,right now barn beams are plentifull;they are white oak about1ft by1ft hand hewn .you cant drive a nail in um;I suspect 5 or 6 years they will be gone soom are 100 ft long,would they be anygood for boatbuilding ?

Where? WHERE?!

[SamSam]

I've taken down 3 barns, 2 with oak frames and 1 with pine. The vast majority of the beams had numerous through and through mortises, a lot of them at 90 dergees to each other. Billions of nails that won't come out, and usually are rusted and break off anyway. Crosscutting dried oak beams ( with a chainsaw) wasn't too hard but I think it would be very hard to rip any usable amount of lumber from dried oak beams. They're also full of knots. Aside from all the physical problems, it seemed to me that the wood was innoculated with fungas spores or something and would blossom into a fuzzy greenish fur if left on the grass for a few days. Sam

[longliner45]

around here they are amish built .no nails all dows ,and well maintained though out the years yea,your right the guys with mills want to buy your own blades! I dont need em but if I were building a boat from scratch I thinkI would buy a mill and make my own boards.I just dont like the thought of balsa cores glassed over they may work or not but surly would be stronger than balsa,,,,we did use barn beams on the chines andthe part that secures the cap to the hull

[SamSam]

Originally Posted by longliner45

around here they are amish built .no nails all dows ,and well maintained though out the years yea,your right the guys with mills want to buy your own blades! I dont need em but if I were building a boat from scratch I thinkI would buy a mill and make my own boards.I just dont like the thought of balsa cores glassed over they may work or not but surly would be stronger than balsa,,,,we did use barn beams on the chines andthe part that secures the cap to the hull

Yes, the ones I took down were mortise and tenon with wood pegs, but all the siding was nailed on and all the roof rafters were nailed on so all the perimeter beams were full of nails AND mortise holes every few feet. Interior beams free spanning from side to side were the only ones that were fairly devoid of nails but they still had a mortise 6' or so in from each end for braces. The beams below the hay mow floor, down where the cows were, were always the biggest with the least amount of mortises, but the tops were full of nails from the floor above, and they were the ones that most seemed to be innoculated with spores and fungus. Barn beams are not good wood for building boats and are worth far more for just what they are, massive beams that aren't available anymore to be re-used in architecture and similar things. I have to back track on the problems of rip sawing them, in that they are sawed up for flooring, but it's got to be a bitch. If you asked about the beams, I have my doubts they are going to waste. I needed some at least 10 years ago and inquired at a beam recycler and was offered crappy beams full of rusty nails and mortise holes for $4-6 PER BOARDFOOT. At that rate you could build a boat in black walnut which is also a good rot resistant material. Sam

[longliner45]

yea your right! they are hard to work with.just thout it might help the guys looking for wood ,dont know what they will do?I dont know of any wood that will work for um,,,,,,,,,,,maybe black locust?

[longliner45]

also what about large transmission poles used by the power company they are ceder .we us them because they dont rot. they dont need to be treated. if they are usable they are everywere