Timber Framers Guild Forums General General Forum Questions recycled oak vs. new timber

Hello everyone,

Could someone please tell me how much more difficult it is working with recycled oak, (from an old barn) versus oak from a lumber mill. I assume I would have to use power tools, such as a chain mortiser on the recycled oak, but I might be buying a chain mortiser anyway. What brand of auger bits are able to cut through old oak? Just from my experience driving nails into old timber frame barns, I know oak gets @#$% hard!

Thanks for your help,

Steve

I did some smaller mortise and tenon joints a couple months ago on some 6 year seasoned dry white oak and it wasn't bad at all to work. Do you have any pieces you can experiment on now to determine this?

My first question would be if the local jurisdiction required a stamp on the old timber. If so I'd want to have him walk through the existing before I made an offer.