The Simple Life: What kind of wood is this?

I didn’t need to stop but I did anyway.

While walking home from downtown yesterday afternoon I noticed a pile of scrap lumber beside a house just south of the Thames River.

Scrappy scrap it was too. Painted, broken, nail-filled boards thrown out during a reno. All destined for the landfill, no doubt.

But I saw enough of what appeared to be two clean-looking, pine boards to make me slow down, though my work bench and shop are over-crowded with new projects at the moment (the lathe is finally ready to roll) and the annex is already filled to the rafters with lumber.

I looked closer, and because the two I'd spotted were at least 10 inches wide and 30 inches long, I picked them up.


["Straight, dry and well-aged": photo GAH]

One good birdhouse per board, I thought.

I looked at them more closely when I arrived home.

Straight, dry and well-aged. Burn marks, perhaps from wooden matches, on one side. Some other interesting features too. Red pine perhaps. I’ll know better once I run them through the table saw.

I didn’t need to stop but I think the end result will be well worth any easy labour.

***

Red pine? Well-aged spruce? Hemlock? (I can only hope).

So begins an old board's life as a birdhouse. More details later.

.