Barnwood Plank Table Project.

rasman57 · July 17, 2015, 11:35:53 PM

I have been collecting some old barn wood to use in conjunction with the Red and White Oak harvested from my property that Sawyer Brown sawed for me going on a couple years ago. It is going to be used in a future cabin project and I thought the old barn wood would also make for a nice farm style plank table or a sturdy cabin dining table.

I salvaged some wonderful 120-150 year old Pine and Douglas Fir barn wood from an Illinois barn that was well built in the late 1800's that had fallen on hard times. These rough cut old planks and posts had great character once the years of dirt was carefully cleaned away. Little bit of sanding and careful application of Minwax Poly over the thirsty wood gave the wood new life and really highlights the years of patina and the rough sawn blade marks.

I really do not have any experience with building furniture type tables but decided to try with only a circular saw, radial arm saw, cordless drill, orbital 5 inch sander, screws glue, level and square. Oh and I bought one of those handy little Kreg Jig thingys to let me angle fasten into the vintage timber.

Once the six footer was done I had enough pieces left over to make a matching four footer.

They turned out level and square which was the tricky part of the project as the old barn wood had 100 plus years of being right where it wanted to be.

My wife thought I should offer the smaller one on the local Crg List and a nice fella decided he wanted BOTH of them when he saw them together. He is building one of those BIG nice fancy homes and made me decide I had a new need to go salvaging again for OUR table...again. I learned a lot and enjoyed the process so a do over is coming up and the nice fella helped out with my "overhead".

I put my foot down though when he started asking about my old old 59 Chevy Apache. It was all cleaned up for the local 4th July Parade. Some of my Red Oak is showing off! A year it took to restore old Blue and has kept me company in the shop for years. I can salvage more barn wood and bring it back to life a bit quicker and way more economical. Sorry I did not take any pictures of the table building. I really was just sort of fooling around when I decided to see what the old barn beams and posts would look like if I put some effort into them. ??? Enjoy..... Ralph

breederman · July 18, 2015, 06:00:12 AM

I like the tables alot . Nice job !

thecfarm · July 18, 2015, 06:22:55 AM

Those look nice. On the "do over" maybe I can tag along with some pictures. ;D

WDH · July 18, 2015, 07:19:19 AM

Those tables look great. Love the patina.

Andy White · July 18, 2015, 07:57:43 AM

rasman57,
Man those tables look great! Love the saw marks, and the aged scars of old wood. That truck is another classic. I LOVE IT TOO!!!! Great post ! 8) 8) 8) Andy