Old barn finally fell

[wishlist]

This big old barn was built over 100 years ago and finally fell , well half of it anyways .
I’ve been wanting to get a beam from the barn for the sugarhouse but it just wasn’t safe to do . Checked the barn today and right on the south side was this beam laying in the snow all by itself . Perfect !
Amazing how they built these barns back in the day . I was able to remove 2 of the hand made pins/dowels ( if that’s what they are called ) . I believe the beam is oak but I can’t be for sure . No smell when I used the chainsaw to shorten it . Very tight grain and heavy as a rock !

Installed the beam in the sugarhouse and put my collection of old syrup tins on it .
Oldest tin I have is 1939 .

 

[ctyankee]

Treenail (the dowels) is the term I know. Hope you or others can use some of the other boards, lumber etc. Reclaiming, repurposing is viable. In New England chestnut was used a lot for barns. Nice job making maple syrup!

 

[clancey]

I am thinking the wood was very hard from those days for when I had the small back portion of my house getting a new roof and I asked the roofer if he needed to put plywood down first and he in the mist of the job looked at me as if I was nuts saying: "In the old days the wood was so hard and so good that I cannot even get the nails out of it holding the shingles and this is a job in itself--the wood is fine and does not need plywood over..." House-1926 era...But your shelf looks pretty hanging there holding your tins...clancey

 

[bholler]

This big old barn was built over 100 years ago and finally fell , well half of it anyways .
I’ve been wanting to get a beam from the barn for the sugarhouse but it just wasn’t safe to do . Checked the barn today and right on the south side was this beam laying in the snow all by itself . Perfect !
Amazing how they built these barns back in the day . I was able to remove 2 of the hand made pins/dowels ( if that’s what they are called ) . I believe the beam is oak but I can’t be for sure . No smell when I used the chainsaw to shorten it . Very tight grain and heavy as a rock !

Installed the beam in the sugarhouse and put my collection of old syrup tins on it .
Oldest tin I have is 1939 .

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Looks like oak to me. Many here are chestnut. But you have radial rays that chestnut wouldn't have

 

[bholler]

I am thinking the wood was very hard from those days for when I had the small back portion of my house getting a new roof and I asked the roofer if he needed to put plywood down first and he in the mist of the job looked at me as if I was nuts saying: "In the old days the wood was so hard and so good that I cannot even get the nails out of it holding the shingles and this is a job in itself--the wood is fine and does not need plywood over..." House-1926 era...But your shelf looks pretty hanging there holding your tins...clancey

Some of that is from the tight growth rings but some woods also get harder with age

 

[wishlist]

The barn will get repurposed . I think even the old rusty slide tracks and wheels have value .
Oak is very common here so I agree with that . Must be the smell disappears with age tho . I do know that beam for the size is one heavy piece of wood ! I used the log tongs to drag it to the truck . Couldn’t get close to the barn because of the sap lines . Lol
Yea I thought about cutting them and splicing afterwords.

 

[Max W]

Some of that is from the tight growth rings but some woods also get harder with age

A time ago I worked on building two wood seawalls using 3X8” planking on 10x10 posts all salvaged from a mill built in the 1800s. The planks were some kind of yellow pine. The 10x10s weren’t exceptionally hard but you couldn’t drive a 60D spike through the 3x8 planks with a 3lb hammer. Had to pre-drill every one.

 

[Dune]

Trunnel from tree nails.

 

[Northern NH Mike]

We live in a small "Cape" that was built in 1860. There are 35' cedar beams in the front and back and 15' joists exposed in the open first floor. If we ever decided to rebuild on the site those beams are gonna be part of the new structure. So much history and character in that old wood. When the barn came down well before we bough the property they milled the remnants into floor board for the second floor. Those come as well.