Why does nobody talk about the nail-filled nightmare of reclaimed wood?

I agreed to make kitchen cabinets from old barn wood for a friend, who said it looked good but forgot the nails. I spent a week with a metal finder and pliers taking out metal bits. Every time I thought I was done, my planer would hit a nail and screech. I used up two planer blades and three saw blades before cutting the wood right. Putting it together was easy, but the wood had dried in a odd way, so there were gaps. I had to fill and sand for days. In the end, the cabinets looked nice, but I told my friend next time we use new wood. The whole job took twice as long as I planned.

3 comments

3 Comments

john_garcia4d ago

Something I never see mentioned is the chemical soak old barn wood has. That wood's been holding onto decades of dirt, maybe even pesticides or lead paint dust. When you plane it, you're kicking all that into the air, and no mask filters everything. Had a buddy who got real sick after a big reclaim job, turned out it was from the stuff in the wood, not just the nails.

mitchell.jesse8h ago

Man, john_garcia just gave me flashbacks to my own dumb move. I sanded down some old fence posts in my garage with just a bandana over my face like a cartoon bandit. Spent the next two days with a headache that felt like a tiny construction crew was living in my sinuses. You really don't know what's soaked into that wood over the years. It's a good reminder that the cool rustic look isn't worth a lungful of who-knows-what.

skylerbell3d ago

My first reclaimed project was an old chicken coop and I swear I coughed up sawdust for a week. John_garcia is totally right, you can't just trust a basic dust mask with that mystery wood soup. I felt so dumb for not using a proper respirator.