Good Morning All,
I have been asked to reproduce and install some base moulding, chair rail and door casings in a local circa 1750 house preservation project. My intent is to use my collection of hand planes to reproduce the mouldings (I have samples of the original mouldings) and install all of the moulding with cut nails typical to the original.
My question is centered on the wood species…It seems to me that when this house was built here in Pennsylvania, (which was, at the time, the “frontier”), the builders would have used what ever species of wood was available to them locally or on site.
Are there any restoration carpenters or architectural historians on this forum that can advise what species of wood would be appropriate to use to reproduce these mouldings? I, along with a local historic site curator, believe the original moulding samples are Douglas Fir although another pine or even poplar would be easier to work with hand planes and both are native to this area of Eastern Pennsylvania.
One final point..the mouldings will be painted using original colors identified from the sample mouldings.
Thanks in advance for any advice you can share.
Replies
I've worked in a number of old houses near me, and I've seen mainly pine and poplar used as trim, especially for paint grade. I imagine some old growth, tight grain Doug. fir could have been used, but I'm not sure. Generally, you want a wood without a pronounced grain pattern for trim that's going to be painted.
FWIW, you may want to check of this guy's site. He has a lot of old trim profiles.
http://www.hullhistorical.com
(at least, I think that's the link)
I grew up in SE Pa, and have worked in the various stages of wood working for 30 yrs, and even did a stint in Col. Williamsburg, and have my own collection of wood planes.
More than likely, you are correct about species, except the fir, I'd bet it was Chestnut, not wormy because it was well before the blight. The Phila area cabinet makers were into Mahog, and Walnut heavily during those yrs, Walnut local, Mahog from ships coming in the Delaware Bay from points in the Carribean.
Poplar would be an excellent choice, and heartwood only ( you already know this if you ever planed sapwood by hand) as would Walnut, it too works easily with handplanes.
I used to have quite a bit of Chestnut ( 400 BF) from a funeral home in NE Phila, it was used for burial caskets back then, and Cypress was inter mixed in the lot I bought, again, that can resemble Fir in some ways. Being natually lubricious, Cypress is an absolute dream to work with handtools, when you can find the non-gnarly newer stuff, or nice decent old reclaimed.
And lastly, at Col. Willaimsburg, Longleaf pine was heavily used, today its called various names for marketing, Antique Heart Pine is basically all LL Pine , a Yellow Pine, BUT and very important but, reclaimed and found "Heart Pine" is LOADED with "hardend" resin, Amber almost in hardness, and when the wood was used for trim. and framing and whatnot, the resin wasn't solidified, so it was much easier to work than what you find today sold as antique wood.
So that said...
Chestnut is my first choice
POP and Wal. a close second
Cypess and HP right along behind.
Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
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"If Brains was lard, you couldn't grease much of a pan"
Jed Clampitt
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I live in Eastern Pa and do historic restorations as well. There were a variety of woods used in moldings during the colonial period of Pennsylvania. Many of the higher end homes actually used imported hardwoods such as mahogany. But you're right in that most of the homes used local woods that were so plentiful right in their own back yards. If it was painted, it was usually pine or fir. Often there were two or more wood species mixed with each other when they were painted. Each village had a sawmill with a woodworker and his helpers nearby cutting up lumber into workable sizes on a pit saw.
The old growth timbers from back then were very straight and stable, especially the heartwood, and the easiest to work would have been the coniferous. Most of the old moldings from the 1700's I uncover that had been painted were of clear pine. There would be an occasional knot, but the graining was always straight, very tight, and true.
If you're going to use hand molding planes, do yourself a favor and spend the time to sort through the lumber and get the tightest and most straight grain you can find. Look at the end cuts and try and find quartersawn or rift sawn. Sometimes I have spent 2-3 hours sorting through stacks of of sawn wood trying to find matching pieces. Always restack neatly though.
Poplar was used certainly and I have uncovered moldings from then made of the stuff, but a closer look always showed that the original finish had been oiled, probably linseed, and it got painted over later on. Other woods that would have been clear finished would have been all the hardwood species, walnut, maple (tiger maple was popular in gun making), oak certainly, ash, but a lot of these were furniture woods because of their resilience and strength. Hickory, ash, and maple were used for tools as well. The characteristics of each wood governed what they were used for, same as today.
Paint would most likely be linseed base or the casine (milk) paint. Both paints you can make yourself and I know that milk paint is now widely available.
Curious, where is this house and what kind of a house is it? History?
Sphere could tell you more on the subject. Lure him in. He's from this area as well.
Hmmm. The only Fir that I could positively ID as Fir, was from much later period, like after the railroads later. But I may have been in my own micro cosm around the Greater NE and Bucks / Montg. Co.
Old Towne and Alfeth's Alley area, was almost all Walnut , in the places I worked on. Even some of that was newer than 1750 tho'.
The Chestnut I had, was glued into casket planks in 1880, man that was some nice wood.Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
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"If Brains was lard, you couldn't grease much of a pan"Jed Clampitt
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You are right about the fir...I actually have found it but not that much. It's mostly pine. Hey I got a question.
Is longleaf the same as white? Properties? And Grandpa used to tell of pine that had a red tint to it, would that be the heartwood with the amber?I totally forgot about the chestnut. This area is loaded with it. The blight started in the early 20th century followed by the Dutch Elm disease.
LLeaf is a SYP.
As is Lob Lolly and Jack Pine.
You would see Red Pine ( more akin to white, than yellow) and of course Sugar Pine from farther north.
SYP gets redder as it ages, and the sap crystalizes, and can mimic Doug Fir to the un-trained eye. Doug has a different smell, and the summer wood is more "buttery" textured than the denser SYP summer wood.
Both get splintery and DF is less likely to cause a inflam, than the resin in SYP is.Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
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"If Brains was lard, you couldn't grease much of a pan"Jed Clampitt
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Warning: shaggy dog story follow re: lob lolly pine and resin.
In a previous life, I worked for a chemical company that would buy stumps from pulp wood production tracts in the southern USA. Keep in mind that these tracts have been producing timber and pulp wood for centuries.
When a pulp wood tract was cut, our company would go into the cut over tract and find the old stumps in the ground. The ideal stump was a lob lolly pine from a tree which had been cut at least 150 years ago - often all that showed above ground was a finger or wrist diameter stick of wood.
As a natural couse of events the sap will migrate toward the center of the stump, as the sap leaves the wood, the roots will rot away. This functions as a natural distillation / concentration process. Our company would dig / butt the stumps out of the ground and take them for processing. The pulp wood companies - GP and Weyerhauser mostly would be paid by the ton for stumps removed.
Once at the chemical plant, the stumps were washed, pulverized into match stick sized pieces, crushed to fracture the cell walls and then the resin extracted via a heat / steam / solvent distillation process. Some 250 useful and saleable compounds were contained in the distillates.
The leftover cellulose was burned to produce steam at the plants.
A 1/2" thick slice from one of these stumps was translucent -- sometimes from a really old stump you could read through a 1/4" thick slice.
I just finished laying a floor of reclaimed, antique, heart pine (Carlisle Wide Plank Floors from NH). This particular batch of wood was from a structure commissioned by King George of England and built in 1720.
Some of the planks were simply loaded with resin. I did not get any trim pieces which you can read through, but I had quite a few which you can see light through at 1/2" thick.
Wonder if the sap continues to migrate in the beams after sawing?
Jim
Never underestimate the value of a sharp pencil or good light.
Yep! To lead the shaggy dog further up the garden path...When I was in big pharma in the midwest in the early 90's, our corticosteroid synthesis could start from a variety of sources. One of those was "tall oil" which is basically a commercial grade resin cut.
Relatively advanced intermediates that led to things like hydrocortisone, testosterone, progesterone, etc... could be extracted out.-t
>>One of those was "tall oil" which is basically a commercial grade resin cut.<<
We made that!
The products from the pine rosin went into all sorts of products from toothpaste to asphalt.
JimNever underestimate the value of a sharp pencil or good light.
I didn't notice any shaggy dog hairs in there, but that was well worth reading
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Re: Sap still migrating, yes it can.
I worked at Tiger Moutain Woodworks in Highlands NC as a shop forman / custom furniture maker, we made a large variety of rustic type furniture, me and 3 other employees in the woodshop. We used a lot of reclaimed ( often by us) barn wood and natural logs. A lot of it was Heart Pine, and like you , I've seen thru some of the amberized stuff.
But, we made a tractor trailer load of furniture for Redfords Sundance Lodge, and some was HP table tops. We used a cat lac or poly, I forget which now, but when a table is exposed to sun and extreme heat, the sap can bubble up and pop off the finish. Not too good on a hundred tables.
You'll find alcohol and shellac will semi melt the resin and sort of seal it as a mixture, but some finishes can stay sticky a real long time.
I avoid it like the plague these days, its a sinus irritant like few others, and spliters fester, and it dulls/gums tools..clogs sandpaper, and is real good kindling..LOLSpheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Repairs, Remodeling, Restorations
"If Brains was lard, you couldn't grease much of a pan"Jed Clampitt
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>>..is real good kindling..<<
Georgia fatwood.
JimNever underestimate the value of a sharp pencil or good light.
You know....I knew that and it dawned on me as I was driving to work. But odd thing is now I remember only learning that a few years ago. The other thing is I realize I might have been looking at old long leaf when I deemed it to be fir.
Fir & hemlock were used in framing then as they are now. Makes more sense now.
Hello Jer,
Thanks for the advice. You have confirmed much of what I was thinking. The house I'm speaking of is the Isaac Meier house in Myerstown, Lebanon County PA located about midway between Lebanon and Reading on the banks of the Tulpehocken Creek.
My two boys beat me to it.
PA had a tremendous variety of trees native to the area back then.
But doug fir is a western species so I tend to doubt that was what you have. Some pines imitate the look. Red pine and heart pine ( longleaf pine) come to mind.
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Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime.
where ...
Excellence is its own reward!
I think you answered my question. Thanks. Yikes!!!! I gotta get to work!! It's good to be back.
I reproduced some casing and baseboard for the historic Oliver House hotel in Toledo, Ohio. I used medium density fiberboard. Yep, you read that right.
This moulding got a paint finish too. MDF is flat, cheap, easily machined and much more dimensionally stable than wood. Perhaps most importantly, it clearly demarks between original fabric and replacement, an important consideration in historic preservation work.
It's getting painted anyway, make some money on this job.
Kowboy
" I used medium density fiberboard."Repent my son, and sin no more
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
considering he's talking about paint grade trim, wouldn't that be
'repaint, and thin no more" ?
Eastern White Pine (old growth, close-grained) and Poplar, based on my experience.
Jeff