I had gone there looking for white oak to replace the seat slats of a park bench left behind by the previous home owners. The bench is mostly heavy metal castings (iron?) but the seats themselves are still wood. It deserves to be saved; maybe next year I'll have it media-blasted and properly painted.
When he was free (it's a busy place), I spoke to Jerry - who talked me into a couple of slabs of Iroko instead. The wood came out of their thickness planer looking very nice indeed; almost too nice to sit on. According to what I've read, it won't require a protective finish when used outdoors. In addition, apparently, Iroko trees are inhabited by malevolent spirits who can drive people mad and cause them to die suddenly. Not the sort of thing that comes up in a typical "suitable applications for wood" conversation, though.
These will have to be ripped to width, cut to finished length and have the edges eased all 'round. I found a 10" Freud ripping blade on sale for $36 to replace the abused finishing blade that came with my used DeWALT contractor's saw. Come to think of it, the saw itself has been slightly abused; nothing irreparable however.
I'll pick up some stainless fasteners for the job. Yeah, they are a bit more expensive, but this stuff will be sitting outside for the rest of its life.
No comments:
Post a Comment