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Sometimes around here people will be throwing away pieces of decking wood only 15-25 years old.

I have been gathering this stuff and there are many gems to be found. Just one example using the bandsaw:

NICE looking wood nuhobby!! This is the exact reason why I'll try to salvage the tired looking, warped lumber on the ER 10 I'm restoring. I can't wait to see what a new surface is going to look like on mine.

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nuhobby wrote:Sometimes around here people will be throwing away pieces of decking wood only 15-25 years old.

I have been gathering this stuff and there are many gems to be found. Just one example using the bandsaw:

About 25 years ago the fence that went around my back yard was falling down. I ripped it all out and replaced it. A friend of mine (about 50 years my senior, who passed away a few years ago), asked if he could have the old fence, and I told him to come and get it. As it turns out, the only wood that was bad were the 2X4's and posts. He salvaged all of the fence boards by running them through a planer (after pulling all the nails)! They had started out as about 1 1/2 thick clear cedar boards, and after he planed them, he had nice 1" thick (beautiful) clear cedar boards. Why didn't I think of that??? I did knot have a planer at the time, but what an excuse, er, reason to get one!

Last summer I found 9 beat-up large pine shelving boards in a shopping-center trash bin. Some of them were almost black from years of warehouse use.

Slowly I am putting together a plan for them....

Here is a "leg" where one lamination luckily shows the 1968 date-stamp of this pine wood (I found that date-stamp more than once in the pile):
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Here is where I've put together some crack-free portions of the hardest parts of the pine, and have re-used part of the original metal-strip "breadboard end" stabilizers:
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More to come at a later date; LOML has me stripping wallpaper these days!

I here that 68 was a very good year for pine. Seriously I like the look of old wood.

The front doors of my home shop (Canada) are made form recycled pool decking from an above ground pool we 86ed when we bought the house.
Sorry about the distracting object in foreground. It's the only photo I have here(AZ) of the doors.

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Paul M

You may find that one of the pitfalls of recycled wood are hidden nails and screws. Pay close attention to any dark stains, as this may be where someone "burried" a nail that is just waiting for your band saw (or worse yet, planer knives) to strike. I can tell you from first hand experience that something as simple as a stationary staple will wipe out a set of high-speed planer knives beyond use. Funny story about that, the lumber industry was making a switch to plastic staples a few years ago. One vendor had manufactured plastic staples that were harder than their steel counterparts and was not too well received.

I have planed down a herd of "old" wood over the years. I usually wait until the planer is getting a little dull to do much of of it. I also usually set up outside in a breeze where I don't have to worry about what it might have been finished with (like lead based paint). I have yet to completely ruin a set of planer blades. A tiny nick or two yes. Most of the time just shifting the blades end wise so that none of the nicks line up takes care of any ridges until I get done with the used stuff. I sharpen my own blades and keep several sets. The Foley/Belsaw has fairly heavy blades and I have ground some sets several times.
I keep saying that I am "old school" and that applies to planers too. I subscribe to the old statement that "the planer is a dimensioning tool, not a finishing tool". I do not shoot for a glass smooth surface on every piece of planed lumber. As long as it leaves a surface that can be very quickly sanded to a ready to finish surface I just keep planing. Even if it comes out like glass I am still going to sand it so why sweat a few teeny little ridges on the surface.

After 20 odd years in the Lumber industry, I have seen a lot of seemingly insignificant objects do a real number on planer knives. The thickness of the blade really didnt make a lot of difference, since the cutting edges were taking the hit. Knife hardness really made a difference as the softer High Carbon knives seem to nick less severely than HSS.

Using an older set of knives is a wise choice as there is a bit of "heel" set into the knives that gives a bit of a thicker edge as well.

tkhudson wrote:After 20 odd years in the Lumber industry, I have seen a lot of seemingly insignificant objects do a real number on planer knives. The thickness of the blade really didnt make a lot of difference, since the cutting edges were taking the hit. Knife hardness really made a difference as the softer High Carbon knives seem to nick less severely than HSS.

Using an older set of knives is a wise choice as there is a bit of "heel" set into the knives that gives a bit of a thicker edge as well.

Just to clarify, my reference to the bigger blades was not to say that they would get nicked less, just that there are more sharpenings in them.
I figure that if I miss finding a nail driven into the surface it is my fault. If I hit something that the wood has grown around that comes under the heading of "surprise!!"