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Reclaim old doors for wood projects

Mrod | Posted in General Discussion on March 4, 2007 08:06am

Hi,

Any ideas/articles/tips on how a novice like myself could identify the type of wood from a reclaimed door?

There is a store near by that reclaims the materials from house demolitions and they have stacks and stacks of doors.

I can tell the difference between an MDF door and a wood door, but with them wood doors stained I am finding it difficult to ID the species. I think this would be a great way to get wood planks inexpensively. The shop has no idea.

Please advise.

THANKS!
Respectfully,
MRod

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Replies

  1. OldGuy | Mar 04, 2007 09:25am | #1

    If you havn't already, post this on Knots. I know there are books out there that will help identify various woods, but I don't have the title handy.

    Cheers,
    Paul

  2. Ragnar17 | Mar 04, 2007 10:12am | #2

    In what part of the country do you live?  That factors heavily in what species of wood was used on old doors.

  3. ronbudgell | Mar 04, 2007 03:25pm | #3

    Mrod,

    They will be covered in lead paint.

    Ron

  4. DanH | Mar 04, 2007 03:36pm | #4

    Well, one obvious hint is to check the latch and hinge mortises for possible raw wood. Use a small chisel to plane down to fresh wood on a hinge mortise, then wet the wood to see the grain approximately as it would look with clear varnish.

    But I've always been lousy at recognizing species, sometimes even my own.

    So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable Creature, since it enables one to find or make a Reason for everything one has a mind to do. --Benjamin Franklin
  5. CarpentrySpecialist | Mar 04, 2007 05:25pm | #5

    You might try...

    http://www.amazon.com/Encyclopedia-Wood-Tree-Tree-Valuable/dp/0816021597

    It was the only useful coffee table book I ever got as a gift.

    Best to you and yours, Chris.

    Some say I know too much? Can you ever?

  6. frenchy | Mar 04, 2007 06:34pm | #6

    Mrod, 

     You're doing it the hard and expensive way..

      look at pallets instead.. They are made of hardwood, normally oak..  sometimes you can get pallets made from some pretty exotic species when you're talking about products that come from overseas..  They can be free.

      The sawmill I buy from used to sell black walnut to the pallet mills.  (they didn't have a market for it back then) 

           When you are really ready go to woodmiser and make a few buddies with them.. some have wood extremely cheap.   Another source of cheap wood is a sawmill.  They sell a pickup load of slab wood for $25.00   Cherry, oak, black walnut, maple whatever.. it won't be nice long wide boards but what you salvage will be probably bigger than what you salvage from a door..

      Then comes  the final move.. buying wood directly from a sawmill.

    '  Wait untill they have a stack of wood ordered and not picked up.. I paid 10 cents a bd.ft. for fiddleback maple, and 15 cents a bd.ft for 6/4 ash  A door might yield 6 or 10 bd.ft. of good wood so if you can buy clean wood for only a buck, buck &1/2  then go ahead buy doors..

     Just so you know the railroads only pay 7 or 8 bucks for a railroad tie that is 9x8 and 9 1/2 feet long..before it goes to the creosote plant.. Railroad ties can be made from just about any hardwood.. Oak maple etc..

    1. andybuildz | Mar 04, 2007 08:52pm | #12

      look at pallets instead.. They are made of hardwood, normally oak.. sometimes you can get pallets made from some pretty exotic species when you're talking about products that come from overseas.. They can be free. <<<frenchy...been doing that for years now!! Katrina's about ready to kill me if she sees another pallet on the side of my van in the driveway...Most of it usually ends up for my garbage man...lol.
      I'll tell you a GREATTTTTTTTTTT source I found but don't tell anyone else...shhhhhhhhhhhhh.
      I was at my tile showroom a buncha years ago picking up some marble and it never came in on the truck.They told me if I wanted to I could go pick it up if it was an emergency. The warehouse was only twenty minutes away.
      So I go into the cycloned fenced yard and in one corner of the yard they literally had mountains of skids but btter'n that they had 4x4's that I guess seperated the skids...all from the rain forest...ugh...in S.America. Ready for the trash!!!
      There were names of countries burned into the wood.
      I picked out over two dozen 8' 4x4's///stuff I never even saw before...lots of Honduran cherry and mahogany..Zebra wood too I think it was.
      That night I thought I was gonna have to go to the hospital. My arms swole up like a baloon. something in one or more of those 4x4's I was highly alergic too..probably poisonous.
      I still have a buncha those those 4x4's hanging around. One is so heavy you'd think it was made of steel...probably iron wood...who knows.
      Tile supply houses!!

       

       

       

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFexyK8J1Iw

      http://WWW.CLIFFORDRENOVATIONS.COM                                   

       

      1. frenchy | Mar 04, 2007 11:34pm | #18

        Cool Andy, 

           The tightwad in me thanks you.. the guy who winds up doing the work hates your guts <G>

        1. andybuildz | Mar 05, 2007 12:21am | #19

          Ya know when I see these little 1"x1"x6" blocks of wood they sell in the catalogues for turning pens or whatever for like fifteen bucks a piece I figure I have a gold mine...lol
          BTW...I meant to ask you a few years ago...lol..how come you call yourself "frenchy"?

           

           

           

          http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFexyK8J1Iw

          http://WWW.CLIFFORDRENOVATIONS.COM                                   

           

          1. frenchy | Mar 05, 2007 01:49am | #20

            Andy,

             My last Name is Dampier pronounced Daampeeay (rhymes with chevrolet) Got tagged with it with by my first drill instructor in the Navy who couldn't pronounce any name more complicated than Billy-Bob and I let it stick.

              That's been 40 years now!

          2. andybuildz | Mar 05, 2007 02:30am | #21

            Got tagged with it with by my first drill instructor in the Navy <<Well there's another interesting fact about you.
            Who'd a thought you served in the military...certainly none of these neocons that fight with you!
            Pretty cool that you never throw that in anyone's face!
            Anddddd Nowwwwwwwww I know why you "really" hate fake work...lol.

             

             

             

            http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFexyK8J1Iw

            http://WWW.CLIFFORDRENOVATIONS.COM                                   

             

          3. DougU | Mar 05, 2007 06:04am | #22

            Andy

            I worked at Amana Refrig. for about a year, God I hated that place, anyhow, my job was to take the compressors off the pallets and prep them for the assemblers.

            The pallets would be sent up a conveyor belt to a giant shredding machine that would grind the pallets up for fire wood for another manufactuing plant down the road.

            One night I noticed the pallets were from S. America, the bottom skids were rosewood and/or cocobolo. I started tearing those off before they took the ride up the conveyor belt. We were allowed to take stuff like that home. I think I have somewhere around 40 sticks of the stuff ranging in sizes from 3 X 3 and 4 X 4 to around 36"-48" long.

            Pallets are a great  source of exotic woods, gotta remember, its just native wood to those guys.

            Dont know what I'll ever do with it but I got it when I figure it out!

            Doug

  7. calvin | Mar 04, 2007 06:59pm | #7

    remember that even in old doors, you are likely to find them being veneered.

    A great place for Information, Comraderie, and a sucker punch.

    Remodeling Contractor just outside the Glass City.

    http://www.quittintime.com/

     

    1. rez | Mar 04, 2007 08:12pm | #8

      This is a true fact and worthy of consideration. 

       

      every court needs a jester

      1. calvin | Mar 04, 2007 08:21pm | #9

        Thank you for the vote of confidence.  Would tend to think they are worth more as doors, but then again...

        just a dumb carpenter.A great place for Information, Comraderie, and a sucker punch.

        Remodeling Contractor just outside the Glass City.

        http://www.quittintime.com/

         

        1. rez | Mar 04, 2007 10:53pm | #13

          well, I can tell you something about old doors, like 60 some of them, and my reaction after handling them all numerous times until a final resting place wasn't from the species of wood. bwaa!  

           

          every court needs a jester

          1. calvin | Mar 04, 2007 10:56pm | #14

            Right.  Tonnage, rather than species.A great place for Information, Comraderie, and a sucker punch.

            Remodeling Contractor just outside the Glass City.

            http://www.quittintime.com/

             

          2. VaTom | Mar 04, 2007 11:22pm | #15

            They found a final resting place?PAHS Designer/Builder- Bury it!

          3. rez | Mar 04, 2007 11:25pm | #16

            ok ok Final storage resting place.

             be except for 20 I have about 10 miles away but that's ok as it only hurts when I laugh

             

             

            every court needs a jester

            Edited 3/4/2007 3:25 pm ET by rez

          4. VaTom | Mar 04, 2007 11:33pm | #17

            So you're hoping to only move them one more time?LMAO....PAHS Designer/Builder- Bury it!

      2. Piffin | Mar 04, 2007 08:32pm | #10

        LOL, In which folder can I find the false facts unworthy of consideration?Oh Yeah - the Tavern;) 

         

        Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!

  8. andybuildz | Mar 04, 2007 08:41pm | #11

    Hold a magnet to them..if it doesn't stick....it ain't copper : )

     

     

     

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFexyK8J1Iw

    http://WWW.CLIFFORDRENOVATIONS.COM                                   

     

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