Using American Chestnut

[Jon Farley]

About a year ago at a local auction I bought four large chestnut boards that had been salvaged from a barn that burned. They are all aout ten feet long, ten inches wide and about 7/4 thick. Today I cut off an end of one that had a split and planed it just to see what was underneath the surface. That piqued my interest in this lumber and I'm now interested in resawing it and using it up on a project in the near future. Does anyone have any suggestions for what type of project might be a good fit for this special wood (which by the way is loaded with small worm holes)? Also, does anyone have any experience working with this no-longer-existent species? Any input/suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Jon

[Jim Tobias]

I bought about 1500 board feet of it (along with some other stuff) from a guy
about 3 years ago. I have used it on several small projects. I also made a kitchen table out of it for our kitchen. Only drawback there is that crumbs will occasionally get in the wormholes. But a quick sweep of the vacuum takes care of that. It (wormy chestnut) is, without a doubt, the easiest wood I have ever worked. It literally cuts like hot butter and sands and finishes very well. It will soak up a fair amount of finish(oil, etc.) Check it out carefully for internal void area where the wormholes come together.
I have seen a lot of corner cabinets, display tables, etc. made from it. It has an extremely warm look to it after finishing.
Enjoy it, it will be a pleasure to work with.

Jim

[Darren Ford]

Beautiful wood, and now I hear its wonderful to work. Such a shame. Here are some quotes from some folks working on a cure. Sorry for the thread hijack....

Chestnuts are an unusually useful tree, and possibly a very important crop in the near future. The wood is lighter than oak, but strong for its weight and attractive, works unusually well, with the only fault being a tendency to split easily (which is great if you're making shingles or rails, but not so hot for furniture). It's as rot resistant as redwood or cedar, and has fibers that are quite desirable for paper making. The bark and heartwood used to be the USA's single most important source of tannic acid. The forest trees grow very straight and fast (30% faster than oaks), and when cut down, they grow back from the crown of the existing root system very strongly (coppicing). In the East, most of the first generation of telegraph poles were chestnut.

I'm not even going to get into the importance of chestnuts to early American life.

[Jim Becker]

Chestnut is a beautiful wood and when you come upon some recycled material like this, it's an outstanding opportunity. Since a lot of the recycled Chestnut has "features", it's particularly suited to furniture projects that such "defects" are a highlight, such as country styles and reproductions of early pieces. Norm Abram has used this material in that manner for several projects over the years and the results were outstanding.

I'm hoping that the folks working on re-establishing Chestnut in north America have success as this species deserves that chance. I'm also pleased that my alma mater (Penn State) is involved. It will take a long time, however, as for every x number of trees they plant, only a very few have the characteristics they need to rebuild the species with the resistance necessary.

BTW, if you get up to Bill Grumbine's Five Barns Picnic this summer, there is an absolutely lovely (and healthy) Chestnut tree on his property right across the road from the house.

[christopher webb]

hey jim , i love wormy chestnut, it is very plentiful here in the mountains of north carolina , in fact we have a orgination for the preservation of chetnut here and they study the trees and try to figure out a way to bring it back to life , my grandfather told me before he passed away ( he was a carpenter as well, and a cabinet maker ) in fact he helped to build the biltmore estate here in asheville , but anyway , his old house , where mine sits now , was built completely out of the stuff, anyway he told me that the reason that is was built out of the stuff was that years ago it was very plentiful , fairly strong , and cheap, people thought that because it had worm holes in it that it was bad, little did they know that years later it would be what is is today, i use it all the time in making kitchen cabinet fronts, alot of gun cases are made form the stuff, i have made a bunch of those , and i have also made alot of jewlery boxes out of them , you will need a metal detector when using the stuff, or be perpared to change your blades there are nails all in it seems like, as soon as my wife gets here with my camera i will show you a beautiful man's jewelery box i made form it with , wenge handle and spline joints of wenge, it turned out beautiful, we can buy it here in this area fairly cheap still , there were alot of barns and houses built out of it, one of the things is that you need to buy it by the thousand to really save alot , other wise it is very expensive , average is 10.00 bf, when bought by the thousand it can be bought for average of 2-5.00 bf......pictures to come , but enjoy it , it is a true wonder of woodworking .

[Jim Becker]

I haven't had the pleasure to work with chestnut yet, but I'd really like to do a piece for our home out of it...it would be perfect for the environment and a nice contrast to the walnut and cherry pieces I normally do.

[John Shuk]

Before I ever knew there was anything worth while about chestnut I pulled about 10 old telephone poles made of it. These poles were from the early 1920's and still very much sound. The company just decided it was time to pull'em. They wound up getting disposed of with all the other poles never to be seen again. I kick myself when I think about it.

[Bill Wiggins]

When I was young, we demolished some old barns. A family friend offered to use the floorboards to make us a large, dining room table (for our family of seven) if he could keep the remainder.

The result was a beautiful, wide, 8 foot long trestle table that I still use more than 35 years later. However, it did crack about 3 inches from the edge - 20 inches long. Perhaps in a future post I'll include a picture and ask for suggestions on how to fix it.

Bill (Wiggins) Smith
West Springfield, MA

[Jim Becker]

However, it did crack about 3 inches from the edge - 20 inches long.

A butterfly or other inlay will keep it from splitting more while retaining the character of the "changes over time".

[christopher webb]

speaking of butterflys.....is there a place where you can download a traceable templet of a butterfly ...i would like to have some that are all sizes...if anyone knows of one or maybe someone has a templet that would be willing to share ...many thanks...i need some of sevreal sizes if anyone has some , again thanks