Wood question, reclaimed flooring

dogwood dan

dogwood dan

Joined
Aug 19, 2011
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925
Dose anyone see a flaw in the below plan that I seem to have missed?

Thank you for your time and advice,

Dan


The wood floors at my house (pre finished Santose mahogany) had to be replaced, as the crew pulled up the old flooring I had them set aside some choice peaces. Choice being defined as have tight interesting grain and cumming up cleanly. My plain is to rip the planks down to +/- 2" to remove the tung and groove as well as any waist. Then I plan to plain to first plane the unfinished side using a porter cable 13" planer to remove the ridges on the bottom. I will then plain the top side to remove the factory finish. I will then stabilize it. I am doing this mostly for sentimental reasons (my wife and I built the house and will be moving soon) as well as I cant stand to see good wood going to the dump, I under stand this may not be the most economical way to get handle wood. On the plus side it has ben darkened by 8+ years of sun light ,that to my surprise seems to have penetrated threw the planks. Most importantly considering how well it has held up to two little and three dogs it should be some very durable material.
 
I made a couple knives with re-claimed curly maple gym floor. I just split it on my bandsaw, no planing. The wood was unstabilized, but mostly shrank inward leaving the pins slightly proud. I dressed them a bit, and won't touch them again as the wood naturally expands and contracts a bit through the seasons. However it could have shrunk badly and left gaps which would have to be filled with superglue or something.

I think if you stabilize it there would be no problem. I also used unstabilized mahogany on one knife and it needed a tiny superglue to fill a gap btw the handle after about a year.
 
The factory finish may dull the planer knives faster than you expect, silica is used as a "filler" in some clear finishes.
 
Mahoney said:
The factory finish may dull the planer knives faster than you expect, silica is used as a "filler" in some clear finishes.
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Good point,I am balancing ruined knives vs trying to sand threw it. one of the reason I chose the flooring was the finish. As I write this a thought comes to mind, perhaps I will use my KMG to get the finish off the true it up with the planer?
 
Before anything else I would cut them into slightly oversized blocks.
Then with a course 36 grit belt remove the finish and ridges.
Then send in for stabilizing.
Finer sanding and squaring the edges can wait until after the stabilizing.
 
If the floor was decent quality it will have a layer of abrasive (probably aluminum oxide) in the finish. The wood itself probably has a high silica content; nearly all tropical hardwoods do. I think sanding the finish off the face, and rough planing the back, then sanding, would be the way to go.

FWIW, everything I've read about refinishing prefinished hardwoods recommends using a finer grit to for the first cut, say 60 - 80 grit, on floor sanders. I'm not sure how that translates to using a grinder on small pieces, though. :)

JR
 
Can you post up photos? I would love to see what this stuff looks like.
 
Thank you all of you, for your advice. Yet again I benefit from y'alls experience and a void costly mistakes.

Sweet I will be glade to in fact I will try to do a W.I.P. and post it on this thread.
 
just a thought here, but I dont think you absolutely have to get the scales stabilized. I had some good luck with non stabilized walnut flooring
 
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Nebulae said:
just a thought here, but I dont think you absolutely have to get the scales stabilized. I had some good luck with non stabilized walnut flooring
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I think you are correct the reason I want to stabilize it has to for more with the way it finnish, altho some of it has some crazy grain that may be a problem after a few wet dry cycle. I also want to use some for a set of kitchen knives, so that we can take and use a piece of the old house with us.
 
Where are you at in N. GA? I used to live in Towns and Union Counties. So, do youins have any dogwood wood?
 
Phil Dwyer said:
Where are you at in N. GA? I used to live in Towns and Union Counties. So, do youins have any dogwood wood?
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I am between Ball Ground and cumming about 40-50 miles north a Atlanta. Yes I do have some dogwood both spalted and not. I harveste standing dead from the back woods form time to time. How ever I am always looking for more
 
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