Any thoughts on whether old-growth red oak barn timbers would make good peg material? I have some short, basically unusable sections of what once was a 12x12 tie beam from a dismantled early 1840's barn. Extremely dense growth rings. As my area of N.E. Ohio wasn't settled until the early 1800's, I'm thinking this was a 1st generation barn built with virgin growth timber. I've already riven and shaped a few dozen pegs from this material, stuff looks beautiful, but I don't want to waste my time if there are structural inadequacies (brittleness?) inherent in this material. Haven't used any in a draw-bored joint either. Thanks in advance for any insight.
Ron Mansour
