Telephone Pole Timbers

pennview · Post by **pennview** » Fri Mar 09, 2012 9:28 am

I'd agree that it's either fir or cedar. You likely can tell the difference in the smell when sawing or planing. Cedar can be irritating, so if it is cedar, make sure you're wearing a decent dust mask.

Regardless of the type, that is some very nice looking wood. You'd be hard pressed to find any today with such tight grain. And, it's clear to boot. And free.

wannabewoodworker · Post by **wannabewoodworker** » Fri Mar 09, 2012 10:59 am

Nice score JP that is going to make some nice projects for sure. Workbench was my first thought when I saw the first pics!

judaspre1982 · Post by **judaspre1982** » Sat Mar 10, 2012 7:13 pm

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cincinnati · Post by **cincinnati** » Sat Mar 10, 2012 10:12 pm

The new issue of Woodsmith has a work bench your timbers would be good for the legs.

judaspre1982 · Post by **judaspre1982** » Thu Mar 15, 2012 8:57 pm

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sawmill · Post by **sawmill** » Fri Mar 16, 2012 11:34 am

If you can see the poles when they take them out there is a tag on the bottm of the pole that tells the length, type of wood and when it was put in the ground. The cross ties may be a differnt type of wood. A guy I know brouht me a bunch of poles and the oldest was 20 inches across the base and it was cedar when it was set it was 60 foot long. He also brought some that were yellow pine and I sawed them for a roof on his woodshed. None of these were treated and the cedar at the ground level was an inch smaller in dia from the element. The cross ties were also smaller where they were bolted to the pole. My woodshed is made of all cedar and I still have a lot sawed that I make bird feeder out of. The groth rings are so close togather that they are hard to see.

dforeman · Post by **dforeman** » Fri Mar 16, 2012 11:37 am

Also, in this part of the country they used a lot of Locust for telephone/power line poles. So, you may come across some of that wood as well.