SHOP NOTES

 

Both of my readers should know (and so would you, if you bothered to read my profile, though my two readers already know what I do for a living so I don’t know who I’m addressing this to, really, so never mind), my gig is historic restoration. Since my move from Arkysaw to Connetykit, I’ve been employed by a company known under dual names, Early New England Restorations and Deschenes and Cooper Architectural Millwork.

I’ve had perty much just one task to perform since coming up here; that of taking huge antique pine timbers, grading them, cutting their ends off to see the grain within, denailing them, and working with a crew to slice them into    1½” thick slabs. These eventually get milled into some of the finest antique heart pine flooring and trim elements the world has ever seen.

For those of you unfamiliar with the term ‘heart pine,’ I shall explain.

Southern yellow pine comes from several species, ranging from shortleaf, loblolly, pitch, and longleaf pine. There are others as well, but we will keep our conversation to shortleaf and longleaf.

Mostly available in the southern states’ lumber yards, shortleaf pine is heavy, dense, and wet, by which I mean it is loaded with sap and water. It is grown quickly on tree farms that are clear-cut every few decades and replanted with more shortleaf pine. Selective clearing during growth allows the trees more sunlight and nutrient absorption, leading to faster growth. This is also the downfall of this particular species.

If allowed to grow naturally, shortleaf would yield a strong, tight-grained wood that dries without warping or splitting. Unfortunately, the grain of modern yellow pine is wide and wet, loaded with knots, and is known for its instability during the drying process. This is due to the accelerated growth rate so companies like Weyerhaeuser and Deltic can reap greater profits. It is still stronger than fir or white pine, which are the main structural woods available up north, but its tendency to move after installation makes for less tight buildings in the end.

Enter longleaf pine.

Longleaf pine was used on a small scale throughout the first hundred years of the nation’s existence (it was a preferred wood for building but competed heavily with chestnut in the northeast), but after the Civil War, it was pretty much wiped out as a dominant species.

Growing much slower than its cousins, it achieved heights of well over a hundred feet and diameters of a 1977 Ford Econoline van, one with a V8 and seating for eight. Fuzzy dice were optional.

The building boom that followed Reconstruction pretty much doomed the species. Between 1870 and 1920, most of the stands of this noble species were cut and milled into structural and trim elements used in homes and commercial buildings throughout the country, mostly east of the Rockies. Demolish any turn-of-the-century building and you will find dark brown pine timbers that are as straight as when milled a hundred years ago. And just try and put a nail into one. No, don’t. It’ll bend. The wood is hard and dense, and takes nails reluctantly.

This wood is also very old. It was old-growth when cut a hundred fifty years ago, so much of it is between three and five hundred years old.

Known today as ‘antique heart pine,’ it is available mostly as reclaimed wood from demolished buildings, and is used for re-milling into trim elements. There are still stands of longleaf, but they are not the old-growth monsters of the past.

And another tidbit; ‘heart pine’ is actually a corruption of the term ‘hard pine.’ Shortleaf was known as ‘soft pine’ for obvious reasons, but time has corrupted the term.

Once sawn in a certain way, antique heart pine shows off its very tight grain as alternating thin lines of red and cream, which, when varnished (no staining is necessary), turns to a deep orange or red.

The resawing of this wood has to be done in a particular fashion to attain this pattern. ‘Quarter sawing’ exposes the grain in a way to expose the vertical grain along the most horizontal (visible) plane of the wood. There is considerable waste, as that which is flat sawn can’t be used in the same way, but even the waste gets used on other projects.

At DCM, we’ve been taking timbers from a 150-year-old woolen mill demolished near Boston, selecting them for quality, sawing the ends off to examine the grain, color, and amount of pitch, then bisecting them and denailing them using Japanese nail pullers and metal detectors. They are then loaded on a truck, taken to a small saw mill in Charlestown, Rhode Island, and cut into slabs. They are then brought back to the shop to be further selected, planed, and milled into some of what you see here.

 

 

                    Timbers at the scrapyard in Braintree, Mass. DCM timbers are in the background

                                            Selected timbers in the shop yard before separation

                                                
                                                                        Denailing

 
                                          More denailing (featuring Bubbles' lower half)

 
                                          Milling with the Sawmizer, featuring Richard

 
                                                                      Milling close-up

                                                                     Quarter sawing

                                      Slabs loaded on the truck ready to go back to the shop

                                      Very expensive (and accurate) molding machine

                           Very goofy (and accurate) finishers featuring Brian and Matt 

                    Cabinet doors destined for The Ocean House in Watch Hill, Rhode Island

                                             The result of quarter sawing, unfinished

             Half a finished arch for The Ocean House. Flash makes it oranger than it actually is

                           The Ocean House, Watch Hill Rhode Island, as seen from the ocean side

If you’d like more information of DCM, just Google Deschenes and Cooper. I’ll be posting more on our restoration work very soon.