Wifey comes home and says "I have to go to Europe for business in October." After a few minutes on the computer I reply, "For 1200 bucks I can join you." Without missing a beat she says, "I would rather have a dining room table." So the dilemma now is what material to make it from. We are non formal family who now live in a home with a empty formal dining room. We would like some thing fairly rustic with straight lines but not the log furniture that is commonly found in a Montana millionaire's lodge. So besides a few family gatherings a year it will most likely be used as a dumping ground for my kids backpacks, school junk and packages from Amazon.


I have a growing interest in reclaimed materials and would like for the wood to have a history behind it. My first choice was repurposed oak floors from freight train boxcars, but at $25 per foot of 2X12 plus a six hour round trip drive the price is steep. (BTW, my wife works in transportation.) Skip sawn oak 2X material from old barns is also available for 8 per board foot plus shipping. However, for a little less ($7.25) and no shipping old growth, virgin river reclaimed cypress cut in the early 1900s is available. Probably the coolest is 100 year old cypress from the fermentation tanks of the Wild Turkey Distillery. That however, is $12 a board foot. My biggest question is if the cypress is too soft a wood for a dining room table? If the kids do homework on cypress will the writing telegraph through and forever remind our third grader that she once thought 8X2=18? Since it is going to be rustic I would prefer a finish that does not build-up a thick film but obviously need some protection. Any thoughts and opinions or suggestions for other materials would be appreciated. I live in central Texas so most of the reclaimed barn wood around here is pine.