Reclaimed Outdoor Table Top Build


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Hi everyone.  I've ran across lots of posts on this forum when searching for woodworking information in the past, but just finally signed up.  Happy to be here.  

 

So I've got a bit of a dilemma.  I purchased some nice vintage 8/4 reclaimed fir grey board in 10" width and various lengths with an outdoor dining table in mind.  It has an awesome patina which is the entire reason my wife loves it. 

 

The lumber yard did a light surface sanding to clean it up, which is why you see some browner areas where more material was removed.   all of the boards have some amount of cupping.  A few have minimal cupping and others it's as much as 1/8". To get these boards flat, I obviously have no choice but to surface plane them, but there goes my grey patina.  Has anyone had success with the vinegar/steel wool method of greying the wood to get that color back?   If left untreated outside, approx how long would it take for these boards to naturally start greying again? 

 

Also, for edge jointing this thick of stock, I'd assume a glue joint is probably the best way to go and that any type of biscuits or spine wouldn't do much to strengthen the joint.  I have a lot of woodworking experience, but I've never worked with reclaimed wood before, so I'm in semi-unfamiliar territory.  This table is still meant to be rustic, so I'm definitely not trying to have it looking "perfect".  Any suggestions or ideas would be great.  Thanks. 

 

Christian

 

 

 

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couple of thoughts:

 

1) don't worry about the gray patina, if you are going to put it outside and leave it unfinished, it will turn gray soon enough.  Just give it a year or two.  It does not take long.

2) When I do projects like this, I edge joint the boards where they will be glued together, but leave the outside edges natural.  That way the reclaimed heritage of the boards will shine.  You don't need anything other than glue, TB3 is probably the best for outside unless you use epoxy.   Breadboard ends or 2 boards screwed to the bottom with just a couple screws each, in elongated holes to allow for movement, going across the grain will also help keep things together.  

 

I know this is totally a taste thing, but if you plane down the boards to show their natural grain, I think you will find something a lot more interesting then the gray patina you see.

 

I made this indoor shelf for my son out of old construction lumber, but I fully planed the faces.... to me the old growth wood grain is more interesting than oxidation :)

 

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Thanks Mike. 

 

Personally I'd like to see what the grain underneath looks like, but my wife loves the cracks and splits as well as the grey coloring.  I think I'll throw the worst piece on the surface planer and see what it looks like after a few light passes. I don't think I have to remove too much material to get some nice flat pieces to work with.  It's just a matter of how much of the character will be planed out. And I like the idea of leaving the outside edge natural as well.

 

This wood is pricey out here in California, so I'd hate to loose all of the "vintageness" that we paid for, but I want a nice table surface. 

 

Thanks for the tip on the TB3.  I think I'll go with that over epoxy.  Nice looking shelf too. 

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This is an issue I've been wondering a lot about lately as well. The group of guys I follow on instagram seem to run the range - just clean the edge, join, and leave the roughness, vs mill the entire board and enjoy the old growth grains. 

One idea which could fall into Eric's "lazy woodworking" is to really just roll with the rustic'ness of it all. Don't even bother joining/edging, etc.. That first pic is what brought this to my mind. I pictured the old picnic table in my grandparent's backyard as a kid. No fancy joinery, just board nailed down to some cross members attached to legs. Typical weathered picnic table. But that's purely stylistic decisions. This guy does a lot of reclaimed stuff that's pretty interesting. May offer some inspiration.

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Well I ended up running them all through the surface planer to get them as flat as possible and jointed the internal edges.  It took away all of that great gray coloring, but I'd rather have a nice clean, flat surface which will begin to gray again naturally.  I'll post up a photo when it's all glued up and back on the legs.  I think it will be a great outdoor table for many years to come.  

 

I will definitely try the vinegar only application and see how it looks.  Thanks for the suggestions. 

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