Chestnut board???

[Don P]

I was working on some white oak window sills today and, well I seem to be all about the stones lately , I was curious what I could see with a slice on the scanner.


 

[SwampDonkey]

Riddled with bore holes could also be ash, a log that laid on the ground for the ambrosia to invade.

But that being said, any nice chestnut from the era before blight would be a national treasure wouldn't it?

[WDH]

Big thick rays and pores clogged with tyloses . 

[Don P]

The other slice I took while showing wood to a buddy in the shop yesterday. We held the slice of white oak up to the light and nothing passed through. This red oak slice (couldn't tell you which RO) looked like a lace curtain with light behind it.



 

[kantuckid]

Riddled with bore holes could also be ash, a log that laid on the ground for the ambrosia to invade.

But that being said, any nice chestnut from the era before blight would be a national treasure wouldn't it?

I have a bunch of that stuff-maybe 1,000bf that runs ~ 6-10" x 12-14'. The colors are VG which I think comes from the hay floor effect and lack of weathering-it's destined to become a loft finish floor in my cabin build.
  Chestnut tends to be either a tan or reddish or pinkish tint, this pre blight wood I've got is a darker brown mostly. My home is  literally full of chestnut furniture and cabinets. My dining table, made from tobacco barn 2x girts is a dark brown which in part comes from the effect of the Waterlox varnish used. Darker than WATCO Danish oil for sure. As you can tell I love the stuff. 

[ShanBarr81]

That is a beautiful board, and I hope you found more of them!

 

 

  I have an 1830 home here in Va and it looks a bit like my flooring. I thought I might post a few pics and see if in fact these floors are chestnut because nobody can seem to help me identify them! Sorry about the end view- there is only a tiny bit showing where my fireplace is… Thanks

[WDH]

The end view pic is a softwood, not a hardwood.  The thicker latewood bands would indicate pine. 

[moodnacreek]

The prize is to find chestnut lumber with no worm damage if only because most of what turns up is wormy most of the time. Timbers should be considered for use or resawing. They say chestnut lasts longer than locust.

[kantuckid]

The prize is to find chestnut lumber with no worm damage if only because most of what turns up is wormy most of the time. Timbers should be considered for use or resawing. They say chestnut lasts longer than locust.

I would argue the opposite as the Chestnut with worm holes is the overall norm for one thing and the other is that the worm holes add some degree of (is this a word? ) antiqueness to the look. Pre-blight wood is mostly gone to wood heaven via insects and weather. In old buildings I've torn down, most being those constructed w/o concern for termites or weather by poor folk, I have seen termites eat it but an oak board next to the Chestnut ones is usually long gone. In the woods now I never see a Chestnut log lying about, whereas about 40+ years ago you'd see a very few here and there, mostly hollow and nearly gone. 
One I found is sort of noteworthy. I drug it from the woods with a rope, cut three largish holes in it's top then sat it on our PT deck on a piece of black plastic and we planted three miniature roses in it. In the last years of it's life as a planter I'd wired it together but it went to tree heaven. 
My dining room table legs are turned from Chestnut drug from the woods by a local guy who "lives off the fat of the land" , probably on disability? He collect driftwood for sale to taxidermists and greenhouses and came on hard times some years ago and called me trying to sell these Chestnut squares he'd had sawed for the wood he'd fetched. I bought it all. It comes from the lingering Chestnuts that sprung up from roots of blighted trees for many years in the north to south original Chestnut areas of the eastern USA. I see very few in recent years but they were once common. I personally have never seen one bear nuts but I've read that rare ones did. 
One of my (I was an admin there) HS biology teachers, a younger gal left teaching to work FT on the American Chestnut project. Her Dad was at that time, the superintendent of the Daniel Boone NF in nearby Winchester, KY. 

[moodnacreek]

Sounds like I have to go for a hike to check on an unfinished cabin on the mountain [but not in tick season]. I found this in the '60s and it was started before I was born [1949]. The first course of logs on the dirt, are chestnut.             I sell wormy soft maple for a good price but that does not mean I like any wood with worm holes. To me it is unprofessional.  I have for years had customers reject any board with worm damage. For me it is not cute to have to keep handling boards many will not buy. It is enough work to do the good stuff. To each his own.  Also I have found chestnuts from small root suckers in the fall trying to replant themselves

[kantuckid]

Wormy Chestnut "got wormy" while still standing and from the blight, not from laying around on the ground as you mention.

One person's cute is another's not so cute huh?
Root suckers from blight-stricken chestnuts are very common-or, at least they were. 

[moodnacreek]

Wormy Chestnut "got wormy" while still standing and from the blight, not from laying around on the ground as you mention.

One person's cute is another's not so cute huh?
Root suckers from blight-stricken chestnuts are very common-or, at least they were.

Yeah, I know. I have cut standing dead chestnut and sawed it on my sawmill years ago.  Those cabin logs ; I am trying to figure out how long the have or have not lasted. And i was talking about finding the burrs that fell from root sucker saplings.